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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-18 Daily Xml
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International Nurses Day

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon R.B. Martin:

That this council—

1. Recognises that 12 May 2023 is International Nurses Day;

2. Observes that the theme for the 2023 International Nurses Day is 'Our nurses. Our future.'; and

3. Acknowledges that nurses are integral to the healthcare system and commends all nurses and nursing staff for their commitment, dedication and tireless efforts to maintain public health.

(Continued from 4 May 2023.)

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (17:00): I rise today in support of this motion to acknowledge and celebrate all the nurses around the world who have been working tirelessly on the frontlines of health care. According to the Department of Health and Aged Care, there are around 450,000 registered nurses and midwives in Australia. This means that the nursing profession makes up over 50 per cent of our health workforce.

It goes without saying, then, that nurses are the backbone of the healthcare industry. Alongside providing compassionate care and support and comfort to patients and their families, they are also at the forefront of innovation, research and education. International Nurses Day is celebrated every year on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birthday as a homage to the British nurse dubbed the founder of modern nursing.

Whilst we can acknowledge the significance of Nightingale in improving future health and sanitation standards and professionalising nursing roles, it is important to recognise that nurses have come a long way from those primitive times. No longer is the nursing profession centred around metaphysical qualities and women's virtues of endurance, obedience and cleanliness like Nightingale believed.

Now, nurses are a trained, professional workforce. Nursing roles involve tertiary study, qualifications and extensive training. They face an ever-evolving and fast-paced working environment. They are constantly having to adapt in pace with scientific advances which bring new methods and research. It is fitting that this year's theme for International Nurses Day was 'Our nurses. Our future.' This highlights the critical role that nurses play in shaping the future of health care into a more accessible, efficient and equitable system. It also advocates for an improvement to the working conditions in the nursing profession, which is essential in ensuring our nurses can do the best to the best of their ability.

As I have stated before in this chamber, I require dialysis three times a week, a life-saving service for people with renal dysfunction and kidney disease. That is 24 hours a week, in my own time, that I spend dialysing, all of which is attended to and facilitated by nurses. In fact, nurses are critical and essential in many high-risk and important areas, such as radiology, midwifery, mental health, and aged care. Therefore, it is vital for nurses to be engaged as highly trained and skilled professionals.

Inadequate staffing in health care impacts nurses greatly. It leads to inordinate hours of work and high-stress environments. These conditions, where not matched with appropriate remuneration in line with their contributions, undermine nurses' ability to provide quality care and present dangers to patient safety.

As the world continues to face significant health challenges, including an ageing population, chronic diseases, and emerging infectious diseases, nurses' roles in patient health and preventing illness has become increasingly critical. They are the key to healthier communities, responsive societies and thriving nations, so it is important to ensure that nurses are valued and supported and that their work is well resourced.

We must recognise the contributions that nurses make to our society. We must also acknowledge the challenges that they face and work towards supporting them. We must ensure that nurses have access to the resources and the support they need to provide the best possible care to their patients, including adequate personal protective equipment, mental health resources and, of course, fair pay.

Finally, I want to congratulate the nurses and midwives in the South Australian public sector on successfully negotiating a new enterprise bargaining agreement, which will see a well-deserved pay rise and other benefits.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (17:05): I rise to speak in favour of this motion. I want to thank the Hon. Mr Martin for putting this forward. It is a worthy matter for this chamber to discuss and a good opportunity for us to reflect on the huge contribution that nurses make to our state.

Every year on 12 May the world comes together to celebrate the nursing profession on International Nurses Day. The nursing profession has had a long and tumultuous past few years, with the onset of COVID-19 and all the challenges that has posed for our health sector. International Nurses Day is a time to reflect and to celebrate the breadth of skill and contributions that nurses make to their communities.

Nurses play an essential role in society. They play a central role in delivering health care. Nurses advocate for health promotion and educate patients and the public on the prevention of illness and injury. They provide care, they assist in cure, they participate in rehabilitation and they provide support. No other healthcare professional has had such a broad and far-reaching role. But nurses do much more than just care for individuals, they have always been at the forefront of change in health care and in public health.

Nurses innovate. Florence Nightingale, who the Hon. Iren Pnevmatikos talked about earlier, is regarded as the founder of modern nursing and remembered as The Lady with the Lamp. Yet, she also collected data to prove that the main cause, by far, of fatalities in the Crimean War was not enemy fire but infections attributed to improper sanitation. She was a pioneering statistician and possibly the first person in history to use graphs and charts to persuade politicians to act.

Nurses provide ongoing assessment of people's health. Their round-the-clock presence, observation skills and vigilance allow doctors to make better diagnoses and propose better treatments. Many lives have been saved because an attentive nurse picked up on an early warning sign of an upcoming crisis such as a cardiac arrest or respiratory failure.

The theme for this year's International Nurses Day is A Voice to Lead: Our Nurses. Our Future. Set by the International Council of Nurses, the 2023 theme addresses the global health challenges exacerbated by the shortage of nurses. Nurses are crucial in all parts of health care, whether it be acute, preventative, primary or community care.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia faced critical nursing shortages, caused in part by the shrinking supply of nursing school graduates and a significant decline in the number of nurses who have been able to migrate from other countries. I note the government has announced some initiatives in that regard in recent days and we certainly welcome that.

We need to increase nurse staffing to patient ratios and skill mixes to ensure that patient safety, better health outcomes, higher recruitment retention, continued professional development and adequate training of staff are all being provided for. InDaily reported last year that nearly 75 per cent of nurses work unpaid overtime and 25 per cent work double shifts.

Our health system is at risk of further nursing shortages due to the longer term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2022, the South Australian Greens called for a one-off $3,000 thank you payment to healthcare workers in recognition of their heavy lifting during the pandemic. According to the McKinsey 2021 Future of Work in Nursing Survey, one-fifth of Australia's registered nurses say they intend to leave their current role in the next 12 months—one-fifth. Forty-one per cent of these nurses say they are planning to move countries or to leave direct care roles altogether. By 2025, anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 nursing positions could be left unfilled in Australia and that poses significant challenges for our health system.

Surveyed nurses cited a desire to seek higher pay as the number one reason driving them to leave the profession; however, having a positive work environment, caring teammates, a safe space and a sense of purpose is important to nurses wanting to remain in the profession. Mitigating the risk of severe nursing shortages requires a comprehensive all-of-government approach. We need to redesign the training pipeline to attract greater numbers of potential nurses to Australia and to the sector. Retention is the most powerful lever we have to address the short-term supply gap; however, merely offering competitive compensation is not enough.

To excite and better engage nurses, stakeholders need to work together to pilot practices to increase nurses' autonomy, to recognise them more effectively and to build goodwill. To attract nursing staff, employers, the health industry and governments need to foster better ways of working for nurses. Employers need to consider the composition and capabilities of care teams to better utilise existing skill sets and qualifications.

We need to learn from the lessons of the pandemic and translate these into actions for the future that ensure nurses are protected, respected and valued. I certainly want to use this opportunity to put on public record my thanks on behalf of the Greens for the great work that nurses have done and continue to do to keep our state safe and healthy. I commend the motion.

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:11): I rise to speak on behalf of SA-Best on this motion celebrating International Nurses Day. I echo the sentiments of other honourable members and, of course, thank the Hon. Mr Martin for putting it forward as well. I begin by extending our sincerest thanks to all our hardworking nurses and midwives who have dedicated their working lives and often more to the care of others. You are the backbone of our healthcare system, often the first and last face a patient will see in their most challenging times.

Today, I intend to speak about one very special nurse and midwife, an exceptional woman by all accounts and, although I did not know her personally, I am reliably informed that Deb Rossi was an amazing midwife who dedicated many years of service to the South Australian multiple birth community. The community was devastated at her recent unexpected passing. I know her family is watching these contributions and I hope these words will give you some comfort as you remember Deb.

Multiple Birth South Australia, a volunteer group that has been providing practical support to multiple birth families for 50 years, has penned the following tribute to Deb, and I quote:

Deb Rossi was a midwife at the Women's and Children's Hospital with 11 years as the Multiple Birth Coordinator.

The Multiple Birth Coordinator role is to support and educate families expecting twins, triplets and more and, until recently, also to organise the Home Help Service for these families.

The free service is unique to South Australia that reaches across the state to provide an extra set of hands for families with young multiples, giving crucial support to these vulnerable families in those early days.

Multiple births only make up 1.4% of all births in South Australia. However, they are high risk pregnancies and about 65% of twins and almost all triplets, quadruplets and more are born prematurely and so are often in need of extra medical support.

Deb Rossi was the caring face of that support for so many families at the Women's and Children's Hospital during an often challenging time in their lives.

She supported them in a practical sense with her medical knowledge but also in a personal and emotional sense, with her caring nature and sharing her experiences of having twins.

She visited expectant mothers on bed rest, gave one-on-one antenatal classes to regional families who would be in the city for the day, she went to great lengths to check up on families who had long NICU stays and often gathered donated baby items to support families who couldn't afford them.

She taught so many parents about becoming a multiple birth parent and helped them feel more comfortable with the crazy idea of being a parent to two or more babies at once.

She retired last year to go on many adventures with her husband and was able to have a trip to Brazil earlier this year.

Unfortunately she passed away last month, the day before her 30th wedding anniversary.

She was on a cycling adventure with her husband when she collapsed and was unable to be revived.

The multiple birth community will always remember her caring, compassionate nature and her laugh which made you laugh too.

Thank you Deb for your commitment to multiple birth families and doing everything you could to make their lives better.

Some of Deb's patients have also made touching contributions. From Tahna:

I will always remember her advice and support in transferring my antenatal care when I moved interstate late in my pregnancy.

Her care and commitment to improving the lives of multiple birth families was enduring, and her influence in the healthcare system will have a legacy.

From Nicola:

I was a second time mum when pregnant with my twins, but I was quite nervous about managing the breastfeeding side of things.

I met her when I was about 20 weeks and I immediately felt comfort in her presence.

She was a great help.

My twins are now 8.

From Rajani:

We associated with Deb very closely during our difficult pregnancy with the twins and she was beyond words, warm and wonderful.

In fact, she used to check in on me post delivery and even helped me out with supply issues with an impromptu one on one.

She was so giving and caring.

May we be more like her.

May she rest in peace!

Deb you made a beautiful difference to our lives and I hope you knew that!

Abby has shared this personal memory:

I was lucky enough to be looked out for by her with my twins when they were in SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) and she always made time to make me feel less alone in what was a hard and scary time.

She made a difference.

Shared anecdotes about her kids and family, talked the talk and walked the walk.

Multi-mum Claire said:

I'll never forget her beautiful presence.

When we were in hospital with the twins she came in on her day off to deliver little goodie bags to all the multi-families staying that day.

She even wrote beautiful inspiring cards to go with it.

We learnt so much from her about being multi-parents.

I just can't imagine what all her loved ones are feeling right now, and hopefully it brings them some comfort to know just how much she is loved and respected for all her years of supporting multiple birth families.

She left a truly impacting legacy which we will continue to honour.

Another mum named Claire said Deb was the first person to make her believe breastfeeding twins was possible, and noted the kindness she showed when her partner was stuck overseas for many months due to COVID border closures. And, finally, this from Sammy:

Dearest Deb,

Heaven has gained a true Angel.

You became part of our family back in 2016 when we found out we were expecting triplets and you had my back from day one of speaking with you.

Thank you for always being in our corner and holding me up on some of my darkest days while I was 500kms away from my family and children and also while celebrating with me when we got to take the triplets all home.

I know I speak for a lot of families and women when I say you'll always hold a special place in our hearts.

You were kind, caring, passionate and inspiring and I know you're up there holding those values true.

May you rest in peace.

Deb was just one nurse who touched so many lives in her line of work so deeply. I have met, and I am sure we have all met through our work and also our personal circumstances, many nurses who have done just that. Their commitment to their patients is immeasurable.

More personally, as a mum raising a young child, as a daughter with a terminally ill mother, and as a sister with a seriously ill brother, I have relied on that caring and calming guidance and advice in a time of need. I am forever indebted to all of our nurses and, more recently, to Emily and Chris. Emily from Ashford ICU, who I would like to give a special mention to for her care of my dad, and not just that but for also carrying our family through what was an impossible time, and I know we are not the first or the last family. I remember a very special moment very recently when I met Emily in person by chance. I took my son to Lenswood Pick Your Own Apples and, as it turns out, Emily and her husband are the owners of that amazing place.

It was only through a very chance meeting with her about apples that we very quickly realised that—in fact, it was her comforting voice that was so familiar—she was indeed the nurse who had cared for my dad for some six or eight weeks in that hospital. The fact that we had Emily in one hospital and her partner, Chris, at the Royal Adelaide Hospital at the same time, caring for my late brother, is not lost on any of our family. Some things might seem a coincidence but this was just overwhelming for all of us.

We thank both Emily and Chris sincerely, and I wish you all the very best at one of our favourite places, Lenswood Pick Your Own Apples. If ever anyone wants somewhere to go and have a good day out, please head up and support Emily and Chris. What they said of their new venture was this:

When you come to our orchard you're supporting us—2 ICU nurses that needed to watch something grow for a change and took the risk to buy a farm with no farming experience. Then we decided to turn it into a tourism operation so that we could share our newfound passion with everyone. This is our second season and we've been blown away with how many wonderful people we've met picking and enjoying our apples.

Chris and Emily do everything themselves, they do all the farming themselves and they run their business themselves, but they also rely a lot on the helpful hand of their family and friends.

As with Deb, there are countless grateful families like mine, and I am sure many in this place as well, who have no doubt been helped through tremendously difficult times, through the births of their children and through the passing of their loved ones. So to Emily and Chris and all the very many nurses and midwives out there, thank you from the bottom of my heart and I wish you a happy International Nurses Day. To Deb's family, once again, I hope our words today provide you with some comfort. We thank Deb for her years of dedicated service. May we be more like her and may her memory be eternal.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (17:22): I rise to support the honourable member's motion on behalf of the Liberal opposition. We thank the honourable member for bringing this motion, and we extend our sincere thanks to South Australia's 33,000-plus nurses and midwives around the state.

Few roles in the community are as impactful to the lives of everyday South Australians than that of a nurse. The diversity of the positions available in the field of nursing extends to the breadth of our health system, with specialities ranging from paediatrics to aged care, and catering to every life stage in between. We all know a nurse, and many of us love a nurse, whether that be a spouse, a family member or a close friend. I certainly fall into this category and will take a moment to acknowledge my wife, who I am so proud of and grateful for. She has been a registered nurse and midwife in Mount Gambier for over 12 years.

Along with celebrating International Nurses Day on 12 May, International Day of the Midwife is celebrated on 5 May. There is not a time, when walking down Commercial Street in Mount Gambier or in the supermarket, that people do not stop and say hello to Elle and thank her for her kindness and passion as a midwife. Midwives like Elle deliver the next generation of South Australians every single day.

For many nurses like Elle, it is their true calling, it is their passion to care for fellow human beings in their time of need. It is often a thankless, gruelling job, physically and mentally laborious, requiring skilful multitasking and adhering to demanding time pressures. Most of us can only imagine the immensity of the pressure our nursing and wider health workforce has faced during the three years of COVID. It might be easy to think that is all behind us and that a sense of normality has returned to our health system. This would of course be mistaken, as the hangover from the pandemic lives on and a minimal, if any, reduction in workload and time pressures that peaked in recent times.

This year's International Nurses Day theme is 'Our nurses. Our future.' This reflects on this most challenging period for our nurses and healthcare staff. The International Council of Nurses explains that this theme 'urges us to learn the lessons of the pandemic and translate them into actions for the future to ensure nurses are protected, respected and valued'. Many lessons will need to be learned as we find ourselves on the other side of the pandemic, and not all lessons we will agree upon, however I am sure no disagreement can be found with the statement that our nurses must always be protected, respected and valued.

The idea of International Nurses Day can be traced back 70 years to when Dorothy Sutherland of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare proposed the concept to President Eisenhower. In 1954, this was taken up in the form of National Nurses Week, which was celebrated on the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's mission to the frontlines of Crimea. When Florence Nightingale arrived, she was met with appalling conditions in the hospital, with soldiers dying at an alarming rate due to unsanitary conditions, a lack of medical supplies and poor medical care.

She set to work overhauling the hospital's sanitation procedures, initiating basic hygiene practices and improving the soldiers' diet to ensure that they received the best possible medical care. She was a pioneer and a revolutionary in the field of nursing, utilising statistical data in health care to successfully advocate for reforms in nursing education and hospital design. We now celebrate International Nurses Day annually in honour of Florence Nightingale on the anniversary of her birth on 12 May.

Our modern-day nurses have more tools, technology and training than was afforded to Nightingale in the 1800s, but what remains unchanged is the compassion and tireless, round-the-clock commitment that lives on in our nurses and wider SA Health workforce. Nurses make up one of the largest cohorts of that health workforce and work all hours of the day and night to make a real difference in the care and individual experiences of patients, their families and carers.

I would like to end with a huge, heartfelt thanks to our regional nurses and midwives. For them, the job pressures can be even more acute due to their isolation from the big city and the relative reduction in services and support that can be expected from being near a major hospital. Our six regional local health networks cover an incredible 99.8 per cent of our state and almost one million square kilometres. The positive and lasting impacts of our nurses in the regions make a real difference to their local communities and the 20 per cent of us who live outside the Greater Adelaide metropolitan area.

Thank you to every South Australian nurse and midwife for your unwavering dedication and the care that you provide us day in and day out. You are all angels in blue scrubs. Happy International Nurses Day. I commend the motion to the chamber.

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (17:28): I would like to thank for their contributions the Hon. Ms Pnevmatikos and the Hon. Mr Simms and give a particular thanks to the Hon. Connie Bonaros and the Hon. Ben Hood for their personal stories and contributions in their speeches. I think it goes to show that the profession of nursing touches all of us at many stages throughout our lives at both the good moments and also the troubled moments. The nurses are always there to comfort us and provide support. It is a very noble profession and it does form the backbone, as it was said, of our health community.

We are very fortunate that the skills that nurses bring also are transferable to other areas of our state. I really got to learn that when I met the member for Hurtle Vale from the other place, the Hon. Nat Cook, when I was able to run her campaign to become a member of parliament. She is a very high-quality person with so many skills. I talked to her about her experiences. Paraphrasing her, she said to me, 'Nurses do an amazing job, but they also can make an amazing contribution later in life because of the skills they learned through nursing.'

They work in very stressful environments. They are asked to make snap decisions based on limited information, and they do that really well. They are there to provide comfort to patients, support to patients, but also stern words to patients when they need those stern words. The other thing that I hope she does not mind me saying was that they are also dealing with some pretty big egos of some of the doctors, and that takes a bit of management as well. So she was a perfect candidate to come into politics to help manage some of the perceived egos that could be in the other chamber, of course, but not this humble chamber of servants. Once again, I thank all the contributions by members and I commend the motion.

Motion carried.

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