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Report From a National Survey Of Health Service Facilities for the National Review of Nursing Education 2001Centre for Health Services Management Higher Education Division ISBN 0 642 77324 6 (Online version) This work is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study or training purposes subject to the inclusion of the source and no commercial usage or sale. Reproduction for purposes other than those indicated above, require the written permission from the Commonwealth available through AusInfo. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Manager, Legislative Services, AusInfo, GPO Box 1920, Canberra ACT 2601. This research was commissioned by the National Review of Nursing
Education funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training and
the Department of Health and Ageing.
ForewordBackground to the ResearchIn August 1984, the Commonwealth announced its in-principle support for the transfer of registered nurse training from the hospitals into the higher education sector. The transfer was a staged process and was completed nationally by the end of 1993. In 1994, a review of nursing education in Australian universities examined the outcomes of this transition, in particular, the provision of wider professional preparation and increased career choices for nurses. The findings of the review were that the effects of this transfer had been uneven. The review also found that the broader professional preparation of nurses had been one achievement of the transfer, but there were tensions between this type of preparation and the ongoing conditions in institutional employment. In 1996-7 the NSW Nurses' Registration Board commissioned a study to address the expectations that newly graduated nurses have of their competencies and abilities, and the expectations that more experienced nurses have of their new colleagues. One of the recommendations of the report was the suggestion that university programs review their courses to provide a realistic and intense period of clinical placement in the final semester of pre-registration, in order to address some perceived levels of unreadiness or inexperience in new RNs. Further, there were outstanding issues of the status of nursing in the universities and the relationships between the various stakeholders and their divergent expectations. Since that review, issues of the nexus between nursing education and the demands of the labour market have become a focus of concern (National Review of Nursing Education Discussion Paper, 2001). Currently there are general nursing workforce shortages as well as shortages in some specialist clinical areas. Other factors which affect the nursing labour market include the demands of new technologies; clients', patients' and consumers' expectations; status, pay, conditions and changing employment decisions by nurses; and the increasing demand for chronic and disability services as the population ages (Duffield & O'Brien-Pallas in press). The reduced level of interest of school leavers in taking up nursing as a career (Tang, Duffield, Chen, Choucair, Creegan, Mak, and Lesley 1997), the cost of nursing preparation, the changing demands of the labour market in terms of the types of knowledge and skills required, and the timing and distribution of those needs, create a highly complex relationship between the education of nurses and the requirements of the Australian health labour market. Terms of ReferenceConceding that background, the then Commonwealth Department of Training, Education and Youth Affairs (currently 'DEST' the Department of Education, Science and Training) commissioned the Centre for Health Services Management at the University of Technology, Sydney in August 2001, to conduct a national survey of health service facilities to determine their views on issues and aspects related to the
The survey sought to collect health facility data and opinions on practicum issues keyed to both categories of students studying to be registered nurses and enrolled nurses as well as issues associated with postgraduate students. Members of the Project TeamProfessor Christine Duffield, RN, BSCN,(WOnt), DNE(Armidale), MHP, PhD(UNSW), FAICD, FCHSE, FRCNA, Director, Centre for Health Services Management at UTS - Project Director. Email: christine.duffield@uts.edu.au Professor Judith Donoghue, RN, CM, BA(Hons)(Macq), DNE(UNSW), PhD(Syd), INDEN (Aust.member), Professor of Acute Care Nursing at UTS and South East Health. Email: jdonoghue@sesahs.nsw.gov.au Dr Margaret Uyeda, RN,CertAcuteC(NSWCN), CertStomalT(SydH), BAppSc(MedTech)(RMIHE), MEd(CSU), PhD(CCU), MCN(NSW), Project Manager at UTS Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health. Email: uyeda@telstra.com Ms Suzanne Mitten-Lewis, Research Assistant, Acute Care Nursing Professorial Unit, South East Health. Email: MittenLewis@sesahs.nsw.gov.au Ms Jan Forbes, RN, CM, BSc(BioMedSc), MN(UTS), FCN(NSW), MRCNA, Lecturer Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health UTS. Email: jan.forbes@uts.edu.au AcknowledgmentsThe research team wishes to thank those health professionals who assisted with the piloting and refinement of the questionnaire, based at:
Special acknowledgment is given to Visiting Professor Reta Creegan and Adjunct Professor Linda O'Brien-Pallas, Centre for Health Services Management (UTS) and Ms Elizabeth Proude for their assistance in drafting the report; staff in the Nursing Education Review Secretariat who organised national distribution and return of the questionnaires; the hospitals that participated in the survey; and to the health services staff who completed the questionnaires. ContentsAuthors:
Centre for Health Services Management, University of Technology, Sydney, January 2002. |
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