Nearly half of Queensland’s public nurses and midwives have said they’re considering quitting within the next 12 months, according to a new poll.
The poll of 20,000 public healthcare workers by the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union is part of a new campaign to put pressure on the state government ahead of the budget.
Among the embattled nurses is Christine Cocks, who has spent more than 50 years as a nurse but now says she’s on the verge of leaving the industry.
“Twenty years ago I would go home, on my way home I’d be thinking what did I not manage to get done today.
“Now it is so much worse.”
“When we hear some of the repercussions of people dying because they’ve been ramped for too long, it is devastating.”
She said she doesn’t feel listened to and feels undervalued.
In the poll, 46 per cent of nurses and midwives said they were considering quitting the job in the next 12 months.
QNMU secretary Sarah Beaman said nurses and midwives were “stressed and tired, and they are burnt out”.
The QNMU said nurses were fed up with difficult conditions caused by low staffing levels.
A new campaign will launch tomorrow, calling on all sides of Queensland politics to commit to recruiting 11,800 additional nurses and midwives over the next four years.
The QNMU submitted to the government a document containing more than 40 recommendations.
They include free nursing and midwifery studies, paid placements for students, and a commitment to minimum safe staffing levels.
“We are working with a range of stakeholders, including the QNMU on how we can best recruit, retain, and support health staff”, the health minister said in a statement.
