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Appendix 3 - Issues raised in submissions responding to ANF questionnaire

The ANF and some State branches circulated a questionnaire based on the Committee’s terms of reference to its members for completion and submission to the Committee. The Committee received 658 submissions from individual nurses in response to this questionnaire.

The questions contained in this questionnaire are listed below, although there was some variation across the States in which questions were used.

Q1. Briefly describe your current work situation, and factors impacting on the working lives of nurses. (Qld, Vic, ACT, Tas)

Q2. What strategies do you think would assist in the recruitment and retention of nurses? (Qld, Vic, ACT, Tas)

Q3. What changes do you think would assist the interface between universities and the health system and better prepare nurses to meet future labour force needs? (Tas)

Q4. What has been successfully introduced recently to improve the recruitment and retention of nurses? (Vic)

Q5. What is still wrong with the system? (Vic)

Q6. What else can be done to address these shortfalls (eg education, scholarships)? (Vic).

The following information provides a listing of the general issues and concerns most commonly expressed by the nurses in response to the questionnaire, together with a profile of the respondents by area of practice, nursing specialty, length of nursing service and years they expect to remain in nursing.

General issues/concerns most commonly expressed in nurse responses	No.	%
Skills recognition/poor pay rates/low morale	559	85.0%
Staffing shortages/high workloads/cost-cutting/stress	531	80.7%
Staff development/access to and support while undertaking continuing education	318	48.3%
Inflexible rosters/leave not family friendly	316	48.0%
Shift work/night duty/recall to duty/double shifts	305	46.4%
Positive response to University training/need for more clinical experience/placements	261	39.7%
Lack of control over clinical practice/non-nursing duties	225	34.2%
Lack of management support	164	24.9%
Staff level of expertise/lack of experienced staff support	149	22.6%
Lack of staff to allow release/replacement for education/study	130	19.8%
Patient abuse/violence/horizontal violence	127	19.3%
Provision of child care services	92	14.0%
Increased casualisation of staff	76	11.6%
Staff movement/inflexibility to move or work in desired areas	32	4.9%
Hospital-based training	28	4.3%
Total number of respondents		658

Frequency of Issues chart

Profile of nurses who responded to the questionnaire

Location of Practice

Hospital/

nursing location

City

Regional

Rural/

Remote

Unstated

Total

Total for each area

362

171

658

Percentage

55.1%

26.0%

13.2%

5.6%

100%

Nursing position

Nursing speciality	Clinical	Community	Aged Care	Educator	Other	Unstated	Total
	472	77	70	10	15	13	658
Percentage	71.8%	11.7%	10.7%	1.5%	2.3%	2.0%	100.0%

Respondents by nursing specialty pie chart

Length of nursing service

Years in nursing

0 to 5

6 to 10

11 to 20

>20

Unstated

Total

Respondents

182

361

658

Years in nursing pie chart

Percentage

5.0%

9.0%

27.7%

54.9%

3.3%

100%

Years expected to remain in nursing

Years expecting to remain in nursing	0 to 5	6 to 10	11 to 20	>20	Unstated	Total
Totals	170	148	149	34	157	658

Years expecting to remain in nursing pie chart

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