A leading think tank says Australian hospitals must make better use of their nurses' skills if they are to rein in spiralling costs.
The Grattan Institute's Smarter Spending: Getting better care for every hospital dollar report says governments are burning through $1.2 billion a year on avoidable hospital costs that do nothing to improve care.
The report notes the evidence that spending on nurse staffing hours leads to better outcomes for people.
"The Grattan Institute is backing the value of our nursing workforce – not just to patient outcomes but to bottom lines," said Australian College of Nursing Chief Executive Officer, Kathryn Zeitz FACN.
"Too often, we are failing to support our highly skilled nursing workforce to care for patients using all of their skills and expertise in hospitals," said Adjunct Professor Zeitz.
For example, as the report notes, nurse endoscopists can perform simple endoscopies as safely as gastroenterologists – yet their deployment across Australia is extremely limited. It's a similar case for nurse anaesthetists.
"Using our nurses to the top of their skills and expertise is a critical part of safe and efficient healthcare," she said. "But the healthcare system is failing to be strategic about this invaluable resource.
"Nurses – not least nurse practitioners – routinely come up against barriers to working to the top of their scope.
"Rather than seeing nurses as a cost centre to be managed, hospital management should view them as an investment that delivers excellent returns when they are supported to work to the top of their scope of practice.
"With registered nurse prescribing now in effect, there is significant opportunity to realise returns on investment in nursing.
"All parts of the healthcare system must be preparing to invest in RNs to enable them to prescribe within their scope of practice."
ACN has also been calling for the release of the National Nursing Workforce Strategy, prepared by the Federal and Victorian Health Departments.
"This Strategy represents a key roadmap to the best use of our nursing workforce," said Adjunct Professor Zeitz.
"Governments Australia-wide must consider it closely and implement it thoroughly if they want to deliver the highest quality care to Australians, efficiently."
