Sorry but this is something very very close to my heart http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-...rder-prompts-remote-nurse-safety-push/8602662 To be honest it should either be copied by all other states or become commonwealth legislation. The days of only one nurse out in a single nurse station are over.
I didn't even know this happened to Gayle Woodford I agree it should be copied by all the states, probably the only reason they haven't done this before is the shortage of nursing staff. When I think how difficult ambulance staff who work in pairs find having to deal with those high on ice, they're literally going to need a bodyguard in some cases. ps was wondering about the ice use in rural Australia and received quite a shock to find out it's double that to metropolitan. It would be a huge mistake to write this incident off as unlikely to happen again. They are going to have to do something to help nurses in rural Australia http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-31/report-into-ice-use-in-rural-australia/7979752
Agreed but even in the health care facilities themselves one staff member and a couple of half trained assistants is not enough. If there is anything major admitted then they struggle to cope. And these places re no longer the sit on your hands and do nothing all day jobs. These single nurse posts now are manned by nurse practitioners who do a lot of primary health care as well as run clinics when Specialists visit the towns. I have a lot of friends and they are hard put to get time off
This is an aritcle from 7 years ago Rural health care: ‘One hell of a crisis’ Some people in country Australia have to wait up to six months for even routine appointments with GPs, if they are lucky enough to be on the books - so many practices now being forced to close their books. https://ama.com.au/ausmed/rural-health-care-‘one-hell-crisis’ Still nothing's been done, until you posted this thread I didn't even know about Gayle Woodford, I think rural Australia is going to need more noise before the government bothers doing anything about this
Maaaate it is worse than that The allocation of staff is completely unequal. Traditionally metropollitan workers - especially medical personnel see rural postings as "holidays" and then they actually work rural.... So Queensland being pretty big - guess how many orthopaedic surgeons work west of the great divide? Answer 0 There are two qualified paediatricians - basically covering most of the northwest of the state The ratio of doctors to patients is ridiculous! Looked at the health care profiles a couple of years back and Royal Brisbane had more medical staff than beds, Mount Isa and Gladstone there were 1 medical staff member to four beds - now I know that this is not telling a full story but as a rough guide it is disturbing and might suggest why places like mount isa have a high chronic disease burden http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...e/news-story/7bce8c6dc029f6c2372817654a252f5f What has not been taken into account by many in the metropolitan centres is that being rural and remote and having broken sleeps because you spend so much time on call is no excuse as far as a Coroners inquest is concerned.
It took a murder for the government to finally do something. It needs to be more than window-dressing and it does need to be national.
Unfortunately D this murder was not the first but I think we have to go bald to the nineties when a nurse was murdered in Central Queensland. Even if we cannot get more nurses per facility we need to add health care workers. Many of our more remote facilities rely on "hospital based ambulance' which really translates to "someone in the community who can help drive the ambulance and be relied on not to pass out when needed"
More necessary laws. Unfortunately it's necessary to have laws because for some organisations the bottom line is above everything, including worker safety.
Mate you dont understand about the Australian culture We are EXTREMELY intolerant of bosses who exploit workers and put thier lives at risk. It still happens but our culture is to ensure that the workers are taken care of - and that means we're more union focussed than the USA
I'm so powerfully sick of Australian politicians passing reactionary laws after events like these. Nurses should be able to work wherever the **** they like. They are adults. They can choose for themselves whether they work alone in remote areas or find another job. Killers like this guy wreak as much havoc through OUR responses to their actions as through the direct consequences of their actions. Events which threaten security always endanger liberty.
So, your husband is a local farmer in our "deadly dry outback" you have children and need to make money - there is a job at the local clinic Is it not an expectation that there should be SOME level of safety? It is not even just these outback communities - Queensland has just enacted severe penalties for attacking health care workers and other government employees http://www.aenj.com.au/article/S1574-6267(10)00402-7/pdf this was out of 91 staff at Illawarra - not even an inner city hospital
With all of the healthcare issues in the US, is there any reasoning behind the shortage of nurses and doctors for rural areas? Are the urban areas as bad?
Lots of reasons but Fatique would be one of the Major issues. We have rural medical posts that it is so difficult to recruit to that they are "manned" by rotating locums on high salaries and can cost the governments between $1.5 and $2 million PER YEAR to keep that position staffed. Silly part is if they simply put 2 medical officers in those positions instead of one they would actually cut the costs. Not so with nurses though. We get paid less and often in those communities do as much as medical officers without legislative coverage. Violence is a world wide issue when it comes to health care though. You can understand it when the person has had a head injury or has dementia but it is hard to be forgiving when they are abusive due to alcohol and illicit drugs. Our dilemma comes when they are admitted with a head injury and are intoxicated. You have to keep them to ensure they are safe but at the same time it is not safe for you when they become abusive.
Didn't she try the crockery defense you've spoken of? If there had been two of them, you'd have just had two victims.
So the staffing is strictly a money issue, not a shortage of doctors and nurses? It sounds more like security is needed and not medical staff. I cant imagine security for in these rural areas being all that expensive and would definitely make it safer for everyone.