The characteristics, work patterns and post-registration
qualifications of nurses in Victoria are examined in the latest
report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW).
Nursing labour force, Victoria, 2003, was commissioned
and funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services (DHS) to
help tackle the State's nursing workforce shortfalls.
Glenice Taylor, Head of AIHW's Labour Force and Rural Health
Unit, said that despite an increase of around 5,340 (7.6%) employed
nurses in Victoria between 1995 and 2003, the supply of nurses per
100,000 population remained steady.
'While the average weekly hours worked by nurses was the same in
both years, the population of Victoria grew by 8.9%, which soaked
up the increase in numbers.'
The report documented increases in the proportions of nurses
working part-time (from 60.4% in 1995 to 68.4% in 1999) and in
those working 45 hours or more (from 8.0% to 9.1%).
'These changes more or less cancelled each other out,' Ms Taylor
said.
Of the 75,852 nurses registered in Victoria in 2003, 68,687 were
employed in nursing in Victoria. There were over 3,500 nurses not
employed in nursing and not looking for nursing work.
'More than 40% of these 3,500 nurses were working in jobs other
than nursing. With the right environment conducive to attracting
them back to nursing, this group could be a source of skills to
help alleviate nursing shortages,' Ms Taylor said.
The report also found that nurses employed in the public sector
worked, on average, three hours per week more than their private
sector colleagues (33.2 hours compared with 30 hours).
Nurses employed in mental health facilities and developmental
disability services worked, on average, longer hours than their
colleagues employed in other settings. They were more likely to
work more than 45 hours or more per week, and less likely to work
part-time.
The distribution of nurses' post-registration qualifications
across areas of nursing activity was explored in the report, based
on a schema developed by the DHS and AIHW - the first time such an
analysis has been attempted.
'This is important for workforce planning to gauge skill supply
across the different areas of nursing,' Ms Taylor said.
In 2001, just over half (52.4%) of employed nurses in Victoria
held post-registration qualifications, in many cases, more than
one. In both that year and in 1997, half of those nurses worked in
an area of nursing that directly corresponded with the field of
their qualification.
'Conversely, for most areas of specialty practice there are, in
fact, more nurses with a relevant postgraduate qualification than
are practising in a particular field,' Ms Taylor said.
15 December 2004
Further information: Glenice Taylor, AIHW, tel.
02 6244 1153.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Nursing labour force,
Victoria, 2003, December 2004.