One of our new forum members Krishna had some interesting thoughts on the changing nursing workforce. So much that we thought it deserved a blog post. We’d be really interested to hear your views so share them below!
She has been nursing for 30 years and says she has noticed a shift in “life values” between the 70’s-80’s trained nurse and the upcoming young grads of today.
“But this isn’t a bad thing,” she says.
“In the 80’s we looked up to Alan Bond and Christopher Skase for ‘how to make a quid’. Well…really…where did that get us? We worked and worked, to pay for the pools, the McMansions, the overseas travel, the gadgets. We commuted for up to two hours a day to work….are we insane?
Then the ‘new breed‘ came. The grads who go part-time after a year or two. The “life-stylers. I take my hat off to them. Sure they want to travel, but they don’t yearn for the stuff we did.
Where does that leave the nursing profession? With not many 3rd-6th year nurses working full-time?
Have a look around your ward. How many are “babies” newly graduated, how many are in the middle group and how many of us “crusties’ are on your staffing profile? Where are the 3rd-6th years??
If we look in to the future of the nursing workforce we have to understand what drives the newly graduated today. It is certainly not the hierarchical response of the past (do as I say.) They have the power to leave. And this will impact on our profession significantly within the next 10 years.
The change is happening. So, for example, when NSW health wants to trial “pattern rostering” like in Hunter New England, why would a young person stay?
What is happening in the private sector? Or, more significantly, in aged care? The vitriol is alive and well with the ‘party’ spin-doctors but let’s see what really unfolds. A “Hung parliament” might actually be a good thing to shake up the two major parties. We’ll “watch this space.”
Bernhard agrees that there are more RNs of less than five years post-grad experience in areas that used to have regular ‘long-term’ nursing staff.
What do you think? What is your staffing profile made up of? What drives the new graduate today?
Image credit: University of Miami.
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This post was proudly brought to you by the NSW Nurses’ Association.
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