Health Science Report: Analyzing the Nursing Workforce in Australia

This report examines the sustainability of the nursing workforce in Australia, highlighting the critical role nurses play in healthcare. It discusses the challenges of maintaining an adequate nursing workforce due to factors like aging nurses, poor retention rates, and increasing healthcare demands. The report analyzes workforce distribution across different sectors and geographic regions, noting variations in employment, with the acute sector employing the most nurses and regions like New South Wales contributing significantly to the workforce. Data analysis reveals improvements in the number of registered and enrolled nurses, but also indicates a large proportion of older, experienced nurses nearing retirement. The report concludes by offering recommendations for retaining nurses, building workforce capacity through leadership, and ensuring ongoing dialogue between stakeholders to address the evolving needs of the Australian healthcare system. This assignment is available on Desklib, where students can find a variety of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments.

Running head: HEALTH SCIENCE
Nursing workforce in Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HEALTH SCIENCE
Executive summary
Nursing profession is a highly demanding and exciting job in recent times. The principal role of
nurses involve promoting the health of their clients and preventing the onset and management of
a range of diseases. Thus, nurses help the patients to cope with their illness. Hence, they act as
advocates and health educators for their patients, family members and the community. Several
challenges are faced by Australia in taking efforts to sustain a health workforce. Increasing
retention of healthcare staff will help in meeting the ever increasing demands of delivering
appropriate care services. Poor retention rates, an aging workforce and increasing trends in the
population’s health often make it difficult for the Australian government to sustain the registered
and enrolled nurses. The government has recognized the needs of implementing coordinated
action for reducing the gap between demand of nursing services and the supply of nursing
professionals. The report illustrates variations in healthcare workforce based on geographic
distribution and will also elaborate on the workforce shortage currently faced by the government.
This is followed by a discussion of appropriate recommendations that can be applied in the
current context to meet the shortage. The findings of the report suggest that the nursing
workforce is employed maximum in acute sector and less in mental healthcare sectors.
Furthermore, the report also indicates that a greater proportion of nurses are contributed by the
regions of the Northern Territory. Data analysis help in establishing improvements in the number
of enrolled and registered nurses and also indicate that a greater proportion of the nursing
workforce is comprised of aged and experienced nurses, which might lead to several challenges
in near future, upon their retirement.

2HEALTH SCIENCE
Table of Contents
I. Nursing Workforce in Australian Healthcare system...................................................................3
II. Discussion...............................................................................................................................3
a. Background..........................................................................................................................3
b. Workforce across different sectors......................................................................................4
c. Geographic distribution.......................................................................................................5
d. Health Workforce Data........................................................................................................5
e. Workforce supply.................................................................................................................8
f. Strengths...............................................................................................................................9
g. Weakness.............................................................................................................................9
III. Conclusion and Recommendations......................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

3HEALTH SCIENCE
I. Nursing Workforce in Australian Healthcare system
The nursing profession is a major discipline in the health care sector and is principally
focused on working towards taking care of all individuals, families, or communities, which are
currently in distress. The basic aim of nursing is to maintain and attain delivery of optimal
health care services, thereby increasing the overall wellbeing and quality of life of the service
users. In other words, nurses are most often differentiated on the basis of the approach they take
to care for their patients (Chang et al., 2012). Hence, the nursing workforce is regarded as a
major factor that helps in tackling problems that are continuously faced by the healthcare
systems, The primary condition to establish this workforce includes establishment of optimal
conditions that help the nurses to realize their potential. The report will illustrate the
sustainability of nursing workforce and will further elaborate on its strengths and weakness and
will also identify opportunities for retention of nurses.
II. Discussion
a. Background
Australian nurses are found to work either independently or in collaboration with
members of a multidisciplinary healthcare team that includes mental health facilities, remote and
rural nursing regions, residential aged care facilities and indigenous communities (Health
Workforce Australia, 2014). Australia is found to demonstrate two different levels of regulated
nurses, such as, enrolled nurse and registered nurses (Buchan, O'may & Dussault, 2013). The
role of registered nurses requires them to work at an advanced level that is facilitated by the
attainment of an appropriate post-graduate qualification. This makes them eligible for seeking
endorsement as nurse practitioners.

4HEALTH SCIENCE
Furthermore, enrolled nurses also play an essential role in the Australian healthcare
system and work in a range of settings namely, aged care facilities, rehabilitation centers and
acute hospital wards. Their role requires optimal delivery of care services to all patients and also
makes them responsible for responding to emergency situations (Lowe et al., 2012). The
innovative role that the Australian nursing workforce aims to provide to its clients include
improving access to the internet, providing cost-efficient care services, targeting and recognizing
the at-risk population, and providing outreach care services in all settings (Buchan et al., 2015).
Hence, the primary duty of the workforce is to make its employees work at advanced levels
across a range of clinical settings. In addition, to adoring their roles in the public healthcare
sector, the nurse practitioners are also responsible for providing efficient primary healthcare
services either in the form of generalist or specialist nursing (Thomas, Chaperon & Federation,
2013) .
b. Workforce across different sectors
According to statistical reports of 2015, maximum percentage of enrolled and registered
nurses are found employed in the acute sector that provides care to people suffering from a range
of conditions such as, metabolic disorders, infections, and degenerative conditions. This was
followed by high proportions in aged care, medical and surgical units, succeeded by peri-
operative and mental health sectors. Lowest proportion of the nursing workforce was found in
community nursing, rehabilitiation and paediatric units (Health Workforce Australia, 2014).
Thus, variations in the nursing workforce are also governed by complexities of the different care
sectors.

5HEALTH SCIENCE
c. Geographic distribution
According to the government reports published in 2012, more than a quarter of the
registered nurses worked in New South Wales (29%), and another quarter in Victoria (26%).
Further data reveals a considerably low percentage of registered nurses working in Queensland
(20%). Similar results were obtained in 2015 data for New South Wales (29.51%), Victoria
(26.02%), and Queensland (19.95%). Thus, comparison of the aforementioned data indicates that
geographic distribution plays a significant role in determining the nursing workforce with the
maximum contributions from New South Wales and minimum from Queensland. Differences
were observed with regards to the distribution of enrolled nurses in 2015, with 21.95% in New
South Wales (23% in 2012) and 33.17% in Victoria (33.79% in 2012). Thus, regions of South
Australia significantly contribute to more nursing workforce than other territories and states.
Higher proportions of male workforce are contributed by Northern territory (Health Workforce
Australia, 2014).
d. Health Workforce Data
The national board in combination with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation
Agency (AHPRA) is the sole regulatory agency that governs the registration of 14 health
professionals. Data from the annual registration process contains exhaustive information on the
employment and demographic information for all healthcare professionals (Health Workforce
Australia, 2014). The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) led to the
establishment of AHPRA in 2010. The nursing roles have seen great improvements in the past
decades and the roles have become increasingly diverse and complex (Halcomb et al., 2014). A
summary of the workforce characteristics of registered nurses, enrolled n nurses and all
employed nurses are given below:

6HEALTH SCIENCE
Workforce
characteristics
2009 2012 2015
Headcount 225,040 238,520 253,010
FTE nurses 198,924 212,659 225,344
FTE per 100,000
population
905.9 936.4 947.6
Male proportion 9.8 10.4 11.0
Average age (years) 44.2 44.3 44.5
Proportion aged 50+
(%)
- 37.7 23.65
Table 1A- Workforce characteristics of employed Registered Nurses
Source- (Health Workforce Australia, 2014)
Workforce
characteristics
2009 2012 2015
Headcount 51,711 51,624 55,383
FTE nurses 43,614 42,467 46,753
FTE per 100,000
population
198.2 187.0 196.6
Male proportion 8.9 9.2 9.9
Average age (years) 44.9 46.0 45.5
Proportion aged 55+ - 45.5 28.77

7HEALTH SCIENCE
(%)
Table 1B- Workforce characteristics of employed Enrolled Nurses
Source- (Health Workforce Australia, 2014)
Workforce
characteristics
2009 2012 2015
Headcount 276,751 290,144 331,015
FTE nurses 242,521 255,174 307,104
FTE per 100,000
population
1,104 1,123 1,077
Male proportion 9.6 10.2 10.7
Average age (years) 44.3 44.6 44.4
Proportion aged 55+
(%)
36.3 39.1 39.0
Table 1C- Workforce characteristics of all employed nurses (including Midwives)
Source- (Health Workforce Australia, 2014)
Thus, an analysis of the workforce data suggests that a significant improvement has been
observed in the number of employed registered and enrolled nurses, recruited by the Australian
workforce (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). The aforementioned data suggests
that women made up more than 89.3% of the nursing workforce in Australia. Similar results
were also observed in its previous year (2014). Furthermore, the average age of the employees
was found to be 44.4 years, which in turn indicates that the nursing workforce is made up of
experienced members having years of sound clinical expertise. The tables also indicate that the

8HEALTH SCIENCE
proportion of registered and enrolled nurses aged higher than 50 years have considerably reduced
since 2012, thereby signifying efforts taken up by the government to recruit more nursing
professionals.
e. Workforce supply
The major aspect regarding workforce supply refers to the average age group that indicates
the imminent retirement of all older nurses and workforce that in turn will create subsequent
impacts on the strength of workforce (Health.gov.au, 2018). Moreover, it will result in an
increase in ageing workforce in future as well. Recent researchers suggest that countries such as,
Australia have been successful in maintaining an almost similar ratio of nursing professionals
(Shacklock & Brunetto, 2012). Recent reports suggests that the fact that Australia avoided
recession and continued to recruit more employees in the nursing and midwifery workforce from
other countries significantly added to the numbers. There are a plethora of factors that help in
maintaining a well-supported nursing workforce that is critical to delivery of safe and competent
care services.
 Workforce planning and education- Regular and on-going dialogue between the
stakeholders involved in nursing workforce planning, the professional associations and
the education planners are responsible to making each sector well informed for preparing
the workforce according to the needs of the target population (Crettenden et al., 2014).
 Education investment- The Australian government spends significant amount of money
in training and providing education for all healthcare personnel who enter the nursing
workforce (Health Workforce Australia, 2012).
 Clinical placement- This acts as an essential component of education that is imperative
for the nursing programs.

9HEALTH SCIENCE
f. Strengths
The major strengths of the Australian nursing workforce are given below:
a) It offers steady employment to a huge number of people and is also responsible for
increasing education of most healthcare members.
b) Registered nurses are found to get better compensation than most other nursing staff
c) There is a growing body of evidence that suggests the positive contributions made by
nursing care practitioners on the overall health and wellbeing of all individuals
d) An increase in the number of Registered Nurses will be sufficient to replace the huge
rates of retirement of experienced nurse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,
2018).
e) Huge nursing workforce and the existing healthcare policies are imperative in influencing
strong public perceptions regarding the profession.
g. Weakness
a) New registered nurses are often unprepared for providing value based care that is able to
meet the needs and preferences of the clients
b) The new enrolled nursing workforce fails to ensure delivery of optimal care services in an
cost-effective manner (Chang et al., 2012).
c) Uneven growth of nursing workforce is observed across several parts of Australia
d) Registered and enrolled nurses are more likely to face problems due to shortages of
physicians, retirement of the aged workforce, implementation of new health legislation
and policies and aging baby boom generations.

10HEALTH SCIENCE
III. Conclusion and Recommendations
Thus, it can be concluded that nurses form one of the major components of the Australian
healthcare workforce and are responsible for providing care to all people, across their entire
lifespan. One major aspect of the Australian nursing workforce can be related to imminent
retirement of older nurses who from a major proportion of the entire workforce. Thus, efforts are
taken by the government to retain the nursing workforce, which in turn is facilitated by
recruitment of more registered and enrolled nurses. Major recommendations for the Australian
nursing workforce identified in the sustainability report involve bringing about efficient
leadership for building workforce capacity that will facilitate the nursing managers to lead
innovation in their workplace. Increased efforts for improving career preparation during the early
years and providing necessary support at the workplace are major changes that have been
identified by the Australian Health Workforce. There is also a need to enable innovations in the
workplace related to staff arrangements and optimization of nursing roles. These
recommendations will also prove effective in increasing retention of registered and enrolled
nurses in 2018 due to the fact that these recommendations will help in improving provisions for
implementation of evidence-based nursing that would facilitate decision making skills. Upon
implementation in current scenario, the nurses would receive encouragement to innovate upon
their roles and duties. These innovations would also make the registered and enrolled nurses
aware of their importance in the organisations, thereby facilitating efficient delivery of care
services and resource allocation. Acquisition of management and leadership skills would also
motivate them towards career progression.

11HEALTH SCIENCE

12HEALTH SCIENCE
References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018). Workforce Reports - Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare. Retrieved 4 April 2018, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-
statistics/health-welfare-services/workforce/reports
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.
Buchan, J., Twigg, D., Dussault, G., Duffield, C., & Stone, P. W. (2015). Policies to sustain the
nursing workforce: an international perspective. International nursing review, 62(2), 162-
170.
Chang, A. M., Gardner, G. E., Duffield, C., & Ramis, M. A. (2012). Advanced practice nursing
role development: factor analysis of a modified role delineation tool. Journal of advanced
nursing, 68(6), 1369-1379.
Crettenden, I. F., McCarty, M. V., Fenech, B. J., Heywood, T., Taitz, M. C., & Tudman, S.
(2014). How evidence-based workforce planning in Australia is informing policy
development in the retention and distribution of the health workforce. Human resources
for health, 12(1), 7.
Halcomb, E. J., Salamonson, Y., Davidson, P. M., Kaur, R., & Young, S. A. (2014). The
evolution of nursing in Australian general practice: a comparative analysis of workforce
surveys ten years on. BMC family practice, 15(1), 52.

13HEALTH SCIENCE
Health Workforce Australia. (2012). Health Workforce 2025 Doctors, Nurses and
Midwives. Retrieved from
https://submissions.education.gov.au/forms/archive/2015_16_sol/documents/
Attachments/Australian%20Nursing%20and%20Midwifery%20Accreditation
%20Council%20(ANMAC).pdf.
Health Workforce Australia. (2014). AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE HEALTH WORKFORCE – Nurses
Detailed Report (August 2014). Retrieved from
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/34AA7E6FDB8C16AAC
A257D9500112F25/$File/AFHW%20-%20Nurses%20detailed%20report.pdf.
Health Workforce Australia. (2014). Nursing Workforce Sustainability: Improving Nurse
Retention and Productivity (August 2014). Retrieved from
https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/29418BA17E67ABC0C
A257D9B00757D08/$File/Nursing%20Workforce%20Sustainability%20-%20Improving
%20Nurse%20Retention%20and%20Productivity%20report.pdf.
Health.gov.au. (2018). Department of Health | Health Workforce Data. Retrieved 4 April 2018,
from
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/health_workforce_data
Lowe, G., Plummer, V., O’Brien, A. P., & Boyd, L. (2012). Time to clarify–the value of
advanced practice nursing roles in health care. Journal of advanced nursing, 68(3), 677-
685.

14HEALTH SCIENCE
Shacklock, K., & Brunetto, Y. (2012). The intention to continue nursing: work variables
affecting three nurse generations in Australia. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68(1), 36-
46.
Thomas, I., Chaperon, Y., & Federation, A. N. (2013). Submission to the health workforce
Australia consultation paper on nursing workforce retention and productivity. Australian
Nursing Federation. Retrieved from:
http://anf.org.au/documents/submissions/ANF_submission_HWA_Retention_Productivit
y_May_2013.pdf