As a boost to the health system in Victoria, the state parliament has recently passed a law to boost the nurse-to-patient and midwife-to-patient ratio. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, as part of keeping his promise of employing more nurses and midwives, announced last month that the new law will give employment opportunities to 600 nurses and midwives in various departments.
The law was passed after amendments made to the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015. With this, the number of nurses and midwives on a variety of shifts will be rounded up.
As an initial move stroke units, palliative care wards, cancer wards, hematology units, special care nurseries and post natal wards will receive additional staff.
In addition to this, the government also plans to make further improvement to the system by employing 500 more nurses and midwives taking the total number from 600 to 1100.
“We are going to make more improvements to these ratios in this term of government within the next few years. So that will mean even more nurses and midwives and another 500 nurses. So in total it will bring the workforce to 1100 nurses and midwives," Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told SBS Malayalam.
According to the Minister, it is an important reform that can give more benefits to the staff who are taking much effort in looking after the vulnerable as they can share the workload with extra staff being employed.
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Apart from this, the Minister has also announced that a $50 million grant that will be provided to upgrade the skills of nurses and midwives.
“We will provide a $50 million Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Development Fund which will pay for things like scholarships and post graduate opportunities so people can upgrade their qualifications.”
“So for example, if someone is an enrolled nurse, they may have the opportunity to upgrade their qualifications to become a registered nurse. So it’s again providing more opportunity for us to support our workforce so that people get the support they need from the highly qualified nurses and midwives,” says the Minister.
The Minister also told that the free Diploma in Nursing TAFE course which began since January this year was gaining a significant response.
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"The other important thing to mention is some of your listeners who were thinking about a career in nursing, this is a great time to be considering nursing as a potential career..," the Minister adds.
However, the Minister also said that these opportunities will not be available for overseas nurses.
Meanwhile, in New South Wales, NSW Nurse and Midwives Association members have handed over a petition to Campbelltown MP Greg Warren urging the state government to support local nurses by improving the staff to patient ratio.
