Analysis of Nursing Workforce Planning and Sustainability in Australia

This report examines the challenges and issues surrounding nursing workforce planning in Australia, focusing on factors contributing to the reduction in the nursing workforce, such as burnout, aging workforce, and retention problems. It analyzes the Australian Health Department's recommendations and the Nursing Workforce Sustainability Report (2014), evaluating their effectiveness in addressing these issues. The report also includes a detailed profile of the nursing workforce, an environmental scan of the current scenario, and an assessment of the geographical distribution of nurses. Additional suggestions, like occupational therapy and remuneration improvements, are proposed to enhance employee retention and minimize workforce reduction, ultimately aiming to balance the pressures of the occupation with the growing needs of Australia's aging population. Desklib provides access to this report and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: NURSING WORKFORCE PLANNING
Nursing Workforce Planning
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Australian Health department has been facing a drastic reduction in the nursing
workforce for the past decade. The causative factors of such a reduction are found to be burnouts
in workforce, the increasing age of the workforce, low retentive quality of the profession and rate
of productivity. The report aims to address all the factors that lead to decrease in nursing
workforce of Australia and discuss the causative issues facilitating the condition in Australia and
its territories. At the end of the report, the recommendations given by the Health and Welfare
Authorities of Australia are critically analysed.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION:.......................................................................................................................3
2 DISCUSSION...............................................................................................................................3
2.1 THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ISSUE.................................................................3
2.1.1 NURSING WORKFORCE PROFILE...........................................................................4
2.2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN OF THE AUSTRALIAN NURSING WORKFORCE...........7
2.3 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE NURSING WORKFORCE.......................8
3 ANALYSIS OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS PROVIDED BY NURSING WORKFORCE
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT (2014)..........................................................................................10
4 CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................12

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1 INTRODUCTION:
The present Australian government are confronting an emergency in the nursing
workforce area along with the rest of the world are confronting troubles for retaining their
healthcare giving workforce (Buchan, O'may & Dussault, 2013). The main causative reason for
this is the aging population among the healthcare workers, typically the nursing workforce as
well as the patient population and the constant increases of clinical equipments in the healthcare
setting (Mason, 2013). This has made many healthcare givers succumb to professional
exhaustion and termination from their jobs. The shortage of healthcare and nursing workforce is
very evident in the Australian health department, which lead to the implementation of the various
retentive techniques in the healthcare settings. The primary aim of the report is to formulate the
updated nursing workforce profile of the healthcare givers in Australia from the collective
statistical data provided by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) website. Analyse
the current scenario in the Australian health department in the supply of the workforce. Predict
the future of the current workforce by scanning the environment. Assessing the geographical
distribution of the workforce and critical appraisal of the recommendation by the Nursing
Workforce Sustainability Report published in 2014.
2 DISCUSSION
2.1 THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ISSUE
The life expectancy of the general population has increased with the advancement of medicine.
The Australian government is facing similar issues with the reduction of nursing workforce, due
to the same problem as well as failure to treat so much of the elderly population as of late. The

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clinical treatment in the current scenario is now focused on the variation of chronic diseases that
requires more technical support, skilled expertise, mental and physical provided by the
healthcare nursing workforce (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). The
professional pressure aided with loss of priority is making the nursing workforce to terminate
their jobs, depression and professional exhaustion. According to a report provided by the
Australian health department, it is expected that by 2040, there will be a 68% increases in health
related expenditure for the most of it will be provided to the elderly population of 65 years and
older (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017).
2.1.1 NURSING WORKFORCE PROFILE
Workforce nature 2015 2012 2009
Count of heads 360,008 238,520 225,040
FTE nurses 331,015 212,659 198,924
FTE population per
1000,000
1138.2 936.4 905.9
No. of male nurses 10.5 10.4 9.8
Average age group in
years
44.2 44.3 44.2
Elderly group 55+ (%) - 37.7 -
Table 1: Workforce characteristics of employed registered nurses as well as midwives
Source: (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015)

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Workforce nature 2015 2012 2009
Count of heads 51070 51,624 51,711
FTE nurses 48932 42,467 43,614
FTE population per
1000,000
- 187.0 198.2
No. of Male Nurses 10.5 9.2 8.9
Average age group in
years
44.2 46.0 44.9
Elderly group 55+ (%) - 45.5 -
Table 2: Workforce characteristics of employed enrolled nurses as well as midwives
Source: (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015)
Workforce nature 2015 2012 2009
Headcount 360,104 290,144 276,751
FTE nurses 305,000 255,174 242,521

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FTE population per
1000,000
1,135 1,123.6 1,104.1
No of males 10.7 10.2 9.6
Average age group in
years
44.4 44.6 44.3
Elderly group 55+ (%) 39.0 39.1 36.3
Table 3: workforce characteristics of all employed nurses
Source: (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015)
The above table is prepared from the Nursing Workforce Sustainability Report (HWA p.
8-9, 2015) by collecting data from the AIHW website (Home - Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, 2018). The statistical data it is observed that out of 360,008 enrolled as professional
caregivers but only 331,015 managed to professionally adopt in those healthcare facilities later.
The aggregate of nursing caregivers was around 50 years on an average and mostly consisted of
women caregivers than their male counterparts. Reviewing the alteration of the adjustment in the
numbers, it can be concluded that since the year 2011, there has been an increase of 11% of the
quantity of registered nurses and the present number is around 300,524. However, the amount of
enrolled nurses and registered midwives has reduced to 0.3% and 21.2% respectively.
Subsequently, it is noteworthy issue to worry that the expanding demand for the health services
in Australia requires a gigantic medicinal service expertise so as to meet the demand can be
satisfied with quality nursing services.

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2.2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN OF THE AUSTRALIAN NURSING WORKFORCE
This section will discuss the current scenario of the Australian nursing workforce by
conducting an environment scan and analysing the statistical data from Australia’s Future Health
Workforce – Nurses Detailed report published in 2014. Comparing the state of Australian
nursing standards with other international performances provides perspective into the current
condition of the issue. In 2011 there were 10.1 nurses per 1,000 populations in Australia. This
rate was higher than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
average.
Fig 1: Nurse density per 1,000 population (headcount) OECD countries 2011

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Source: (OECD Health Data, 2013)
The AIHW in 2012 published their finding on the nursing workforce for the first time,
where the statistical data from 2007 to 2012 was provided, showing an unexpected amplification
of the quantity of nursing professionals. Nevertheless, the publication also contemplated that this
figure of the nursing workforce will diminish very quickly due to the fact that supply demand for
nursing and health care workforce is very high along with the increases of professional
dissatisfaction among the care givers nurses (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017).
Fig 2: Total registered, Registered Nurses and enrolled nurses, 2009 to 2012
Sources: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Nursing and Midwifery Labour
Force Survey 2009 and NHWDS: nurses and midwives 2011 and 2012
2.3 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE NURSING WORKFORCE
The geographical distribution of nursing work force is predicated on state and territorial
distribution, regional distribution. The tables below show various environmental distributions in
the different regions and territories.

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Fig 3: Employed nurses and midwives: Indigenous proportion, states and territories, 2015
Source: (Nursing and Midwifery Workforce, 2015)
A total of 3,187 nurses and midwives employment was seen in Australia as of 2015, from
the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander territory inhabitants. The statistic equals to 1.1% of the
total employed nurses and midwives who confirmed their Indigenous status. The Northern
Territory (NT) consisted of 2.4% and Tasmania 2.2% had the highest proportion of nurses and
midwives who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, while Victoria (Vic) had the
lowest 0.5%.
Fig 4: Percentage of employed registered and enrolled nurses by sector, 2012

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Source: (Australia’s Future Health Workforce: Nurses, 2014)
The fig 4 describes the percentage of RNs and ENs employed different service sectors.
The highest percentages of RNs 46 % and ENs 38 % work in the acute sector. The second
highest percentage of RNs 22 % worked in other nursing, while for ENs, the second highest
percentage worked in aged care.
3 ANALYSIS OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS PROVIDED BY NURSING
WORKFORCE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT (2014)
In 2014 the Commonwealth and all State and Territory Health Ministers approved the
publication of the report provided by Australian health department which provided a set of
guidelines that would help addressing the ongoing issue of reduction of employees in the
Australian healthcare facilities. The report addressed the following recommendations:
1.Leadership qualities
 nurse managers who can lead improvement
 Improvement of the evidence-base research
 Encouragement for innovation
2. Retention support for career
 Improvement of educational plan for nurses
 Monitoring employer expectations and nursing result
 Increasing nursing employment
 Balancing nurse workforce
3. Productivity by innovation

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 Staff recruitment based on geographical location
 Optimisation of nursing roles
 Address barriers for innovation
All these points are quite valid even today but other recommendations can also be made like
occupational therapy to minimize professional burnouts. Many researches have shown that
occupational therapy sessions in the healthcare industry are very helpful for employee retention
(Ruotsalainen et al., 2014). Improvement of remuneration and other beneficial policies for the
nursing workforce can help solving the reduction of employees in healthcare facilities (Scott et
al., 2015).
4 CONCLUSION
The report discussed above analyses the risk associated with nursing workforce and how the
healthcare industry will balance the pressure of the occupation with respect to the growing age of
the Australian population as seen in both the healthcare workforce and the general population.
The Australian department of health has published recommendation which can be helpful if
followed correctly. The additional suggestions include remuneration enhancement and
occupational therapy for the staff members to minimize reduction of the workforce.

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REFERENCES:
Australia’s Future Health Workforce: Nurses. (2014). Health.gov.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018,
fromhttp://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/
34AA7E6FDB8C16AACA257D9500112F25/$File/AFHW%20-%20Nurses%20detailed
%20report.pdf
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2017). Nursing and midwifery workforce 2015, How
many nurses and midwives are there? - Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/workforce/nursing-and-midwifery-workforce-2015/
contents/how-many-nurses-and-midwives-are-there
Buchan, J., O'may, F., & Dussault, G. (2013). Nursing workforce policy and the economic crisis:
a global overview. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45(3), 298-307.
Mason, J. (2013). Review of Australian government health workforce programs.
Nursing and midwifery labour force 2009. (2011). Aihw.gov.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/3287fac3-860d-4dfd-a630-be7a223e116d/
13280.pdf.aspx?inline=true
Nursing and Midwifery Workforce, 2015 Who are nurses and midwives?. (2016). www.aihw.gov.au.
Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/workforce/nursing-and-
midwifery-workforce-2015/contents/who-are-nurses-and-midwives

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Nursing and midwifery workforce. (2011). Aihw.gov.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/5385cfde-8057-4c36-9d10-
af766181b6b2/14351.pdf.aspx
Nursing Workforce Sustainability, Improving Nurse Retention. (2014). Health.gov.au. Retrieved 5
April 2018, from
https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/29418BA17E67ABC0CA2
57D9B00757D08/$File/Nursing%20Workforce%20Sustainability%20-%20Improving
%20Nurse%20Retention%20and%20Productivity%20report.pdf
OECD (2013), Health at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/health_glance-2013-en
Ruotsalainen, J. H., Verbeek, J. H., Mariné, A., & Serra, C. (2014). Preventing occupational
stress in healthcare workers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 12(4).
Scott, I. A., Hilmer, S. N., Reeve, E., Potter, K., Le Couteur, D., Rigby, D., ...& Jansen, J.
(2015). Reducing inappropriate polypharmacy: the process of deprescribing. JAMA
internal medicine, 175(5), 827-834.

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