Skills Shortages
Nurse shortfall to hit 14,000
Tony Moore | April 22, 2008 - 5:07AM
Queensland will be 14,000 nurses short in seven years with Australian nurses being lured overseas by higher wages.
Graduate nurses working in the United States can earn from $A50,000 and in Canada from $A51,790.
The equivalent Queensland Health rate is $46,628. These rates do not include overtime or regional allowances available to Queensland-employed nurses.
A senior consultant working for Queensland Health believes it is time to attract the one million-plus young Australians currently working overseas - in particular, expat nurses.
Avril Henry, who encouraged Australia's armed forces to introduce a "gap year" intake resulting in 2900 inquiries in two weeks, yesterday outlined to an Institute of Chartered Accountants Business Forum in Brisbane the dire position facing Queensland Health.
"For those of you who live in Queensland ... you are going to be a bit freaked out when I tell you that in the next five to seven years you are going to be 14,000 nurses short in Queensland alone," Ms Henry told delegates.
"One of the biggest challenges for Queensland Health is building a new hospital on the Gold Coast, which (has been) the fastest-growing central business district (CBD) for 28 years in a row.
"They need 5000 medical staff in the middle of a skills shortage.
"I think we had better do something about getting that one million back from overseas."
Ms Henry said the skills shortage in Australia was now critical, made worse because Australians were being head-hunted by overseas firms.
"Right now I am working on the workforce plan and the branding for Queensland Health," she explained.
"In Australia right now we are 17,000 nurses short. Do you know where they are? They're overseas - because seven years ago, Canada, the United States and the UK looked across to Australia and went 'Australian nurses are well qualified, they're well trained and they have a good work ethic'.
"They came over (to Australia) and they offered airfares, accommodation and the opportunity to work in big hospitals internationally and get international experience.
"Do you think that looked good to a Gen X or Gen Y?
"Oh, and we'll pay you in US dollars, British pounds or Canadian dollars - before the Australian dollar achieved the heights that it has at present."
Ms Henry said she described the skills shortage in blunt terms as she wanted managers to realise how difficult the recruitment situation in Queensland would be in the near future.
"We have to change the culture, we have to change the way we manage them.
We have to respect nurses more," she said.
"We have to pay them better and we have to give nurses with families greater flexibility."
Queensland Health said they had increased the number of nurses working in Queensland's state hospitals by 4665 since June 2005.
A spokesman for Health Minister Stephen Robertson expressed reservation at the size of the anticipated nurse shortage outlined by Ms Henry, reporting that Queensland Health now employed 26,776 nurses.
The spokesman said international wage comparisons were difficult because of the cost of living variables.
"And we have a number of initiatives underway to tackle the shortages as well."
Ms Henry said she was currently working on a pilot project with a Brisbane hospital to attract new staff. However, she would not identify the hospital.
