27 03 2023
Australian College of Nursing congratulates new NSW Labor Government
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) congratulates the New South Wales Labor Party on its win in the New South Wales state election.
ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward FACN said ACN looks forward to working with Premier Minns and his team on the issues that matter to the nursing profession and the delivery of high-quality health care for all.
"I congratulate Premier Minns on winning the NSW election and look forward to working with his team on his election promise of ensuring minimum staffing levels in NSW hospitals," said Adjunct Professor Ward.
"I welcome the Minns Labor Government's ambitious target of employing an additional 1,200 nurses and midwives in the state over four years.
"It will be crucial that the Minns Government introduces a framework to ensures that there is an adequate workforce with the appropriate skill and skills mix across the new roles to support our profession deliver the care they are trained to give to benefit the health care system long-term.
"We will only be able to achieve improvements in recruitment and retention of the profession if Government work with nurses to fix the issues plaguing the dedicated but exhausted nursing workforce. As the Peak professional organisation for the nursing profession, we welcome the opportunity to work with the government to support the nursing profession in NSW.
"At the ACN Policy Summit just last week I heard first-hand from nurses from across the country who expressed their challenges and solutions to the working conditions and expectations put upon nurses.
"ACN is committed to advocating for workforce solutions that come from people who work in nursing.
"Our profession is facing challenges such as occupational violence, increased workloads, challenges over the outdated funding structure affecting primary health care and pushing consumers to present to hospital, but yet nurses turn up every day and provide high-quality health care to their community.
"Introducing 600 new hospital beds may assist long waitlists across the state, but if you have no nurses to take care of the 600 people laying in those beds then that money, which could be used for workforce improvements, will be wasted.
"This is the moment for the NSW Government to lead the charge and make a real difference in ensuring everyone in the state has access to high quality health care.
"I look forward to meeting with Premier Minns and his team to discuss how we can work together to implement the solutions required to recruit and maintain a healthy nursing workforce and put the focus back where it needs to be which is quality health care for all Australians."
