Nothing left to give

By Melissa Meehan
NURSES can see no light at the end of the tunnel in a dispute that has lasted months.
Sarah (not her real name) has already put in her resignation after months of feeling her job and that of her colleagues was undervalued by the State Government.
It’s a massive step for the single mum, but she feels like she has no choice.
“I used to work at Dandenong Hospital but I am just so disgusted about what is happening,” Sarah said.
“Instead of fixing the system the government is making it about nurses, cutting our ratios and including unqualified assistants in that.
“It is already difficult as it is, throw those changes in plus the increasing complexities of patient illnesses and we are strapped.”
Sarah, who lives in the Cardinia Shire, said no-one in the government understood what nurses actually did and invited them into the ward to see what a normal day was like.
She starts the day shift at 7.30am and doesn’t finish until 3.30pm (mostly later) and is on the run all day.
“We don’t spend all day on the phone,” she said.
“Most days we’re lucky if we’re finished when we’re supposed to, or even to get a toilet break.”
She said nurses not only had to deal with an increasing number of patients coming into the wards but also more acute illnesses.
“People aren’t just coming in with pneumonia, they also have other complications like diabetes and high blood pressure,” she said.
“These things take extra time – so getting rid of the current ratios would make it so much harder, it would be harder to provide the quality of care that is needed.
“There is a lot at stake.”
Sarah said a lack of working equipment also made it harder for nurses already under the pump.
“At the moment there are no pumps available for IV drips – the supplier was affected by the floods in Thailand,” she said.
“So we’ve got nurses actually counting the drips per minute to check that it’s on the right levels – it’s like going back to the dark ages.
“Taking away our ratios will really take us back 20 years.”