"If the nurses are outside, something is wrong on the inside", "stop telling us to cope" and "ratios save lives" were some of the phrases on display amidst a sea of health workers during the state's nurses strike on Tuesday morning.
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Perioperative nurse and Orange Health Service delegate for NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, Grace Langlands says the exhaustion rates of nurses are through the roof, with the systems in place "not enough" for workers any longer.
"At the hospital currently, we're burning out," Mrs Langlands said.
"We're tired, we're overworked, we're understaffed - we're doing the bare minimum to keep our patients safe and that is not enough anymore."
Of the 100 people who rallied in Robertson Park, some expressed a dire need for help regarding the lack of rest periods and self-care, contributing to extreme strains across the areas of physical, mental and psychological well-being.
"We've got health workers crying in corridors and in their cars before walking into work, because they don't know what they're walking into and they can't manage - and that's just not good enough anymore," Mrs Langlands said.
"Generally our shifts are eight to 12-hours ... personally, I've done a shift from 2pm until roughly 7am the next morning and this is also our downfall, because we love our patients, we care for our patients - so much so, that we're happy to run ourselves into the ground.
"We wipe out tears and get back out there on the floor, because we're nurses and we make it work, but this is becoming a joke. We are tired."
We've got nurses crying in corridors and in their cars before walking into work, because they don't know what they're walking into and they can't manage - and that's just not good enough anymore.
- Perioperative nurse, Grace Langlands on nurses breaking down under the current pressures
Another of the harsh realities, Mrs Langlands said, were nurse-to-patient ratios, which have gone unaddressed and led to an overwhelming level of "compromised patient care".
"We need to be a be able to provide the appropriate care and go above and beyond, which is what we got into nursing for - to care for patients holistically," Mrs Langlands explained.
"Not the bare minimum of 'here's your medications, okay, bye, next patient' ticking boxes, that is not nursing.
"Nursing is taking care of patients, taking care of their family - wanting to be able to sit down and have a conversation to make sure they're okay and not just leaving them with those bare basics."
Our educators are unable to educate and our managers are unable to do management, because they're out on on the floor working - the burnout is real and we can't keep going like this.
- Grace Langlands on exhaustion across hospital wards
Mrs Langlands said rest breaks - or the rare opportunity for small periods of leave - are adding to the growing contributions of inadequate patient care, too.
"We're covering sick leave with nothing and that's if we're lucky enough to get it," she said.
"Registered Nurses are being covered by an AIN (Assistants in Nursing) which is great, but that's not the appropriate coverage. We need people with the same skillset that are appropriate for our areas and our wards."
Mrs Langlands also said health workers haven't been able to spend time to further their education, or invest in their families and professional development, which has extended to people fresh to the field now, as well.
"We've got new grads [graduates] who have started this week and we've had to leave them on the floor because we've been running our own stuff, we don't have a choice," she said.
"Our educators are unable to educate and our managers are unable to do management, because they're out on on the floor working - the burnout is real and we can't keep going like this."
With people said to be going without patient-centered attention as they rightfully should, Mrs Langlands hopes workers' advocacy invokes a statewide change across the health system, with a revision of ratios including.
"Patient care is compromised in the fact that beds aren't getting changed every day and COVID has just made us realise how bad it actually is at the moment," she said.
"I do believe the birth rate model hasn't been updated in years and our numbers have skyrocketed. The labour ward ratio should be one-to-one, for example, and maternity could be caring for two to three women at once - with workers struggling to have any guidance on numbers.
"We can't stop to chat and comfort those who need it, we can't comfort the family member of a dying patient, we're not able to have our rest breaks - if the mental strain wasn't there, I wouldn't have the nurses I have behind me today."
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