THERE is an ongoing struggle for nurses to deliver the highest level of care possible to patients.
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The current staffing model – known as the nursing-hours-per-patient-day model – is not suitable.
This is the feedback I’ve received not only from nurses I’ve met with in the Orange region, but it’s also supported by data from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association.
Yet, this is still the model under which our hospitals still operate.
Last month I reminded the government once again that this model is just not working
A minimum of one nurse to four patients is what our health care professionals require, with a higher ratio in acute wards. Higher ratios save lives.
Many nurses I’ve spoken with are simply burning out – they cannot afford to take breaks and are working extraordinary hours. Many are fearful of making mistakes in their exhausted state.
- Member for Orange Philip Donato
Furthermore, the wellbeing of our nurses needs to be taken into consideration. Many nurses I’ve spoken with are simply burning out – they cannot afford to take breaks and are working extraordinary hours to keep up with the demands of their workplace and to cover shifts.
Many are fearful of making mistakes in their exhausted state.
Ratios were introduced in Victoria under the Safe Patient Care Act, and in Queensland, there have been a number of improvements to ratios.
According to the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union, "hospitals with higher numbers of nursing hours per patient have lower prevalence of nursing care left undone”.
We need New South Wales to follow suit.
I have urged the Liberal-National government to pay attention: we must ensure nurses have the legislative framework so they can continue to perform their jobs, and so that patients can receive the best level of care they need and deserve.
Equally as important as nursing ratios is caring for our most vulnerable people: the elderly and infirm in our state's nursing homes.
I am lobbying the government to reinstate a requirement enshrined in New South Wales legislation from at least 1972 to 2014, which required at least one registered nurse to be on shift at all times in nursing homes.
We must not neglect those who need our protection most.
REMEMBERING THE SACRIFICE OF POLICE OFFICERS
SATURDAY, September 29 was National Police Remembrance Day, with many services held nationally and internationally on Friday.
National Police Remembrance Day is a day dedicated to honouring the men and women of the Police Force who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their communities.
As a former member of the NSW Police Force, I feel a strong sense of gratitude towards the brave men and women who go to work every day and put on their uniforms not knowing if they will come home to their families at the end of their shifts.
I attended a service here in Orange to pay my respects and honour the men and women who served and are no longer with us.
Police officers put their lives on the line every day; they do it to protect all of us and make our communities safer, better places to live.
At every Remembrance Day ceremony I attend, I think about the police officers I worked with who are no longer with us
I thank them for their service to our community and my sincere condolences go to their families.
Member for Orange Philip Donato
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