Latest news with #AustralianNursingandMidwiferyFederation
The Sun
10 hours ago
- Health
- The Sun
Dire cost of longer hours for nurses
NURSES are the backbone of healthcare worldwide and Malaysia is no exception. They serve on the frontlines in hospitals, clinics and community care settings, often working long hours to ensure patients receive timely and compassionate care. Their importance was highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic when Malaysian nurses risked their health to care for thousands of patients. Despite their indispensable role, the government is considering increasing nurses' weekly work hours to 45 hours. This policy aims to address workforce shortages and meet rising healthcare demands but has met with widespread concern. While the intent is commendable, increasing work hours without increasing support risks harming nurses' welfare, patient safety and healthcare quality. Nurses' work hours in other countries Globally, healthcare systems that prioritise strong protections for nurses typically maintain workweeks between 36 and 40 hours – striking a crucial balance between service demands and staff well-being. 0 The United Kingdom: Nurses work around 37.5 hours weekly, with regulations limiting overtime and mandating rest breaks to prevent fatigue. The Royal College of Nursing advocates for safe working hours to uphold care quality. 0 Australia: Nurses typically work 38 hours per week, with industrial awards ensuring fair shifts and rest. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation warns that long shifts can compromise patients' safety as well as nurses. 0 Singapore: Nurses generally have a 40-hour work week, with carefully managed shifts designed to minimise fatigue. 0 The United States: Despite the prevalence of 12-hour shifts, total weekly hours generally remain between 36 and 40. The American Nurses Association highlights that exceeding these hours increases errors and dissatisfaction. In comparison, Malaysia's proposed 45-hour work week exceeds these standards, raising valid concerns. Real cost and implications Burnout among nurses has been recognised by the World Health Organisation as an occupational phenomenon linked to chronic workplace stress. It manifests as emotional exhaustion, cynicism and reduced personal accomplishment. For nurses, this translates to diminished empathy, increased absenteeism and lower quality of care. Research confirms that extended shifts and work weeks correlate with higher burnout. A study across 12 countries found that nurses working over 12-hour shifts reported significantly higher burnout levels and poorer care quality. Another study showed nurses working more than 40 hours per week faced increased risks of depression and anxiety. Prolonged work hours can also endanger nurses physically. Fatigue impairs cognitive function, increasing the chance of errors and accidents. Nurses working longer shifts experience higher rates of musculoskeletal injuries and needle-stick incidents. Additionally, it causes chronic sleep deprivation, a frequent outcome associated with cardiovascular disease, obesity and a weakened immune system. Multifaceted problem Malaysia is grappling with a severe nursing shortage, with over 12,000 vacancies in public healthcare reported by the Health Ministry. This shortage forces existing nurses to work longer hours and manage heavier patient loads. Simply increasing work hours without hiring more staff only shifts the burden onto nurses, accelerating burnout and turnover. Research shows poor working conditions and excessive workloads are key reasons nurses quit. Turnover is costly, including recruitment and training expenses. It also disrupts patient care continuity and weakens institutional knowledge. Patients' safety at risk Patient safety is closely tied to nurses' working hours and staffing levels. Nurses working beyond 12-hour shifts are twice as likely to make errors. Each additional hour over 40 per week increases the risk of adverse events. Fatigue impairs decision-making, vigilance and reaction times critical to safe care. Low nurse-to-patient ratios increase mortality, complications and hospital stay lengths. Increasing work hours without improving staffing ratios dilutes nurses' ability to provide quality care. Professional development Over 90% of nurses in Malaysia are women, many of whom juggle demanding professional roles with unpaid caregiving at home. This 'double burden' is only intensified by extended work hours. This imbalance increases stress and work-family conflict, especially among younger nurses and mothers, contributing to higher attrition rates. Longer work hours also reduce time for continuing professional development (CPD), which is highly required for all nurses. CPD is essential for maintaining clinical skills and improving patient outcomes. Without adequate time for learning, nurses face professional stagnation, which risks the quality of healthcare delivery. Ethical and legal considerations Malaysia upholds international labour standards that emphasise fair working conditions, reasonable work hours and the protection of workers' rights. Implementing a 45-hour work week for nurses could contradict these principles, potentially breaching ethical obligations and legal commitments. Such a policy not only risks compromising nurses' well-being but also undermines their professional dignity, equity and the broader values of social justice in the healthcare workforce. Alternatives solutions To improve healthcare sustainably, Malaysia should: 0 Maintain a 40-hour work week in line with international norms. 0 Enhance recruitment and retention by improving pay, benefits and working conditions. 0 Adopt flexible shift scheduling to reduce fatigue and burnout. 0 Provide comprehensive mental health support and burnout prevention programmes. 0 Ensure nurses have protected time for CPD and career development. Supporting healthcare quality Nurses are the lifeblood of Malaysia's healthcare system. Extending their work week to 45 hours will threaten their health, patient safety and the overall quality of care. Rather than imposing longer hours, Malaysia should invest in sustainable workforce solutions that respect nurses' welfare and dignity. Only by doing so can we build a resilient healthcare system capable of delivering safe, compassionate care to all Malaysians.
The Australian
01-05-2025
- Health
- The Australian
Coalition slams union nuclear ‘scare campaign dressed up as safety advocacy'
You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. The Coalition have decried an 11th-hour 'scare campaign dressed up as safety advocacy' after a group of health-focused unions claimed first responders would have to possibly react to disasters like that seen at 'Chernobyl and Fukushima'. Six organisations representing more than 350,000 emergency workers, including the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and the United Firefighters Union of Australia, called on the Coalition to abandon its flagship nuclear policy due to 'health concerns', expressing 'grave concerns' around the capability to respond to possible disasters. 'Australia's emergency services do not have the support or resources to respond to nuclear disasters,' the letter reads, pointing to the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters as 'international precedents' of the threats facing first responders. 'Unlike other nations with established nuclear industries, Australia lacks the necessary infrastructure, resources, and expertise to manage incidents involving nuclear reactors or radioactive waste transportation and storage.' But Senator James Paterson, the Coalition's campaign spokesman, called the open letter a 'desperate union scare campaign dressed up as safety advocacy'. 'Every major industrialised nation with nuclear energy has built the training, safeguards and emergency protocols to support it – Australia can too,' he said. 'The unions can't say they support AUKUS nuclear submarines but oppose the exact same safety protocols when it comes to civilian nuclear power – it's the same technology, managed under the same international standards. 'If the unions are truly concerned about worker safety, they should be supporting reliable baseload energy. Their members – nurses, firefighters, paramedics – can't do their jobs in the dark when the grid fails.' Peter Dutton on Wednesday in Scoresby, Victoria. Picture: Adam Head The former commissioner of Fire and Rescue New South Wales, Greg Mullins, said the Coalition's nuclear policy would require firefighters and first responders 'to deal with situations for which they have no training, equipment or experience, and like in Chernobyl, possibly lose their lives'. 'The Coalition's nuclear scheme gives rise to far more questions than answers,' he said. In emergency scenarios, the acceptable radiation exposure limit for responders is up to 500 times higher than civilian safety limits and can lead to increased cancer risks. The open letter said that emergency services were 'already stretched due to escalating climate-fuelled disasters' and that introducing nuclear power would add 'another layer of complexity and risk', saying that the threat was more acute for communities and workers living around the proposed reactors. 'In light of these concerns, we call on the Coalition to abandon plans for nuclear energy in Australia, and prioritise safer energy solutions that do not endanger workers or communities, like solar and wind backed up by storage,' the letter said. Nuclear has dominated political debate since the Coalition's mid-2024 announcement that it would build seven government-owned nuclear reactors co-located alongside retiring coal-fired generators by 2050, with the first two smaller generators in operation by 2035. Last week, Nationals leader David Littleproud accused Anthony Albanese of telling a 'blatant lie' by claiming the nuclear policy would cost $600bn, well above the $330bn forecast in the Coalition's modelling, undertaken by Frontier Economics. Anti-nuclear campaigners disrupt a Coalition campaign event in the NSW division of Gilmore on Tuesday. Picture: Adam Head It comes as the former head of Australia's charity watchdog on Wednesday slammed the Smart Energy Council for donating to Labor and attacking other sources of energy, like nuclear, for what he called 'selfish motives'. The unions' letter follows antinuclear campaigners disrupting and forcing Peter Dutton to cancel a campaign event in NSW marginal Gilmore on Tuesday and Jim Chalmers claiming that Mr Dutton would construct a nuclear power plant in his marginal Qld seat of Dickson, despite the Coalition's plan containing no such proposal. Labor's opposition to nuclear, and the unions' 'scare campaign', is in sharp comparison to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who pledged to 'build baby build' in February as he announced plans to make it easier to construct mini nuclear power stations in England and Wales. At November's United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Cop29, 31 countries agreed to try to triple their use of nuclear power by 2050, including the United Kingdom, France and Japan. Alexi Demetriadi NSW Political Correspondent Alexi Demetriadi is The Australian's NSW Political Correspondent, covering state and federal politics, with a focus on social cohesion, anti-Semitism, extremism, and communities. @ADemetriadi Alexi Demetriadi
The Guardian
28-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Albanese government will ban non-compete clauses. What are they and what industries will be affected?
The federal government has proposed a ban on non-compete clauses for most employees, including hairdressers, construction workers and childcare centre staff, in a reform designed to free up people to seek better jobs. The proposal has triggered widespread criticism from business groups over claims it is heavy-handed, and will cripple their enterprises. But is the criticism valid? Non-compete agreements are contracts that prohibit an employee from competing against that company for a certain timeframe and in a specified geographic location after they leave. While they are routinely used to prevent high-level employees or executives from using confidential information or relationships to harm their former employee, the clauses now regularly appear in contracts of workers on modest incomes who do not possess trade secrets. Here are three examples of how non-compete clauses have been used to threaten workers: A nurse employed by a community aged care provider in a regional area was required to sign a contract prohibiting her from working post-employment in an area of up to 250km from her current workplace, according to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. A chef was told by a former employer he would need to repay $45,000 in incentive payments after he started working for another restaurant, according to the Employment Rights Legal Service. A hairdresser, on a sponsored visa with an annual base salary of less than $41,000, was subject to legal proceedings after switching employers. Her former employer sought to recoup $27,000. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Seri Feldman-Gubbay, a senior solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre, says it's concerning how often she sees such clauses. 'I advise low-income employees, so these are people that, generally speaking, don't hold confidential business information or trade secrets,' says Feldman-Gubbay. 'The clauses can be an underhanded way to try to force someone into remaining in employment, as opposed to, I don't know, giving someone a pay rise.' Government figures suggest more than three million Australian workers are covered by such contracts. While the clauses are used in all industries, they are most common in what the government refers to as 'knowledge and relationship-focused' sectors including finance, real estate, professional services and healthcare. These clauses are also increasingly broad in scope. One clause, seen by Guardian Australia, in a contract for a part-time role in the private education sector in Sydney says the employee must not engage in any role in competition with the employer 'within any geographic area in or around Australia' for two years after they leave. While such a clause is almost certainly unenforceable, an employee subject to it may adhere out of fear. 'The reality is most people comply with what's in their contract; they don't want to deal with the risk of someone taking them to court even if it's not enforceable,' says Feldman-Gubbay. 'In a lot of cases it will be fair to say you can't solicit our clients, but that's different from saying you can't work in the role you are qualified to perform to earn an income.' The reforms are scheduled to take effect from 2027, with the ban on non-compete clauses applying to workers earning less than the high‑income threshold, currently $175,000. The government is also seeking to prevent employers from using 'no‑poach' agreements to block staff from being hired by competitors. Feldman-Gubbay says the reforms would empower workers. 'Anyone who earns less than the high-income threshold will know, point blank, it's not enforceable, and so the threat won't hold any weight,' she says. Business groups have tended to take a dim view of the proposed reforms. Cynthia Elachi, special counsel at Clayton Utz, says the reforms should give workers greater bargaining power to negotiate higher wages and more favourable conditions of employment generally. 'This would, for the most part, promote competition,' says Elachi. She says employers will need to ensure their employment agreements include adequate protections of confidential information as they will no longer be able to rely on non-compete restraints if the ban is imposed. Non-compete clauses can have a 'chilling' effect on the mobility of workers, according to university researchers, which is a particular problem for workers who would benefit from a higher-paying job in an economy marked by fast-rising living costs. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry called the government measure 'heavy-handed' while the Business Council of Australia told the ABC it would favour 'education rather than regulation' to improve contracts. The Australian Hairdressing Council told the SMH the reforms could be 'crippling' to salons. Guardian Australia contacted several industry groups, including the Australian Hairdressing Council and Australian Retailers Association, for comment. The government has said it will consult further with industry before introducing the legislation.
