Study reveals nursing shortage

Press, 21 May 1981, Page 3

Study reveals nursing shortage

A study by the New Zealand Nurses’ Society of staffing trends and patient statistics has revealed a shortage of nurses.

Budget cuts and controls on health services were the main reason for the shortages, said the society’s national director (Mr D. Wills). Nursing staff numbers in hospital boards had fallen by 56D in a year. At the same time, inpatient admissions, and outpatient and day patient numbers had increased. With the rise in workload, some increase in staff numbers was needed, , but controls had prevented such increases, said Mr Wills.

Changes in nurse education also meant a reduction in nursing staff numbers. The phasing out of the hospital-based nursing schools was well advanced and involved big reductions in hospital student numbers, he said.

For every 10 hospital students reduced, only seven qualified staff were needed to compensate. “But allowing for all the plus and minus factors, we calculate that there are 560 fewer nurses in public hospitals. The implications vary from hospital to hospital, but in the main, finance-induced shortages mean that fewer staff are having to do more work. “The health service needs more nurses at a time when budgetary controls make it difficult for some boards even to employ graduates from their own area, not because they do not need them, but because of economic policies,” said Mr Wills.

The Labour Party’s Shadow Minister of Health (Dr M. E. R. Bassett) described the Government’s plans to limit trainee nurse intakes as premature, the Press Association reported. He said there were not enough nurses engaged in community health programmes. The shortages meant that too many people, — particularly children, were ending up in hospitals when they should have received treatment earlier. Further report, page 7.