~2019~

A historic pay rise, a focus on aged care, advocacy over occupational violence and aggression, a Mental Health Royal Commission, climate activism and the introduction of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act… 2019 was all this and more for ANMF (Vic Branch).

OAt our annual Delegates Conference in June, two members who worked to secure changes to reduce occupational violence and aggression risks at their workplaces - Alyce Dickson of University Hospital, Geelong, and David Scicluna of Bendigo Health - were named joint HSR of the Year.

Anna Kenny of Gippsland Southern Health was named Job Rep of the Year for her role in pursuing better workplace conditions for her colleagues and encouraging them to voice their concerns.

ANMF (Vic Branch) achieved its biggest surge in Job Rep growth since 2010 and ended 2019 with the highest ever number of Job Reps.

After extensive consultation over 14 months, a new three-level classification structure for nurse unit managers and midwife unit managers was introduced, with the new classifications applying from 1 April 2019.

Following our advocacy and campaigning by the Mildura community, the Andrews Government announced in August that it would bring Mildura Base Hospital back into public hands in September 2020.

After maternal and child health nurses and immunisation nurses took unprecedented protected industrial action on 3 October with a stop-work barbecue outside the Maribyrnong City Council Town Hall, the Maribyrnong City Council agreed to the ANMF’s wages claims for the nurses’ enterprise agreement.

From 1 March 2019 the 50 per cent rule was abolished on:

• all shifts in Level 1 and 2 hospital medical and surgical wards, coronary care, high dependency units, post anaesthetic recovery rooms
• Level 1 emergency departments, night shifts in high care residential aged care, Level 2 emergency departments, and Level 3 and 4 hospital medical and surgical wards, coronary care, high dependency units and post anaesthetic recovery rooms
• The Level 1 hospital emergency department night duty formula was also abolished.

The Act will mean an additional 611 nurses and midwives in the Victorian public health system over five years.

Health professionals gathered at the ANMF (Vic Branch) Carson Conference Centre in May for a three-day conference to guide them in implementing the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act which became operational in June 2019. The conference included a workshop for nurses and allied health professionals.

Sadly, Jen Barnes, a nurse who had brain cancer and advocated for Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws, died in January 2019 just six months before the landmark laws would come into operation.

On 15 July 2019, Kerry Robertson, from Bendigo, was the first Victorian to use the Act to have an assisted death, which her daughters, Jacqui and Nicole, described as ‘beautiful and peaceful’.

Concerned that the ‘continuity of midwifery carer’ model had been omitted from the Federal Government’s draft maternity services framework, ANMF (Vic Branch) wrote to the federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. We argued that continuity of midwifery care was supported by international evidence, leading to better outcomes for women, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and women in rural areas.

ANMF (Vic Branch) made a 157-page submission to the Mental Health Royal Commission which included 70 recommendations, case studies from members and identified 10 priority areas. Our submission called for increased funding for mental health services; a better, more integrated suite of patient support services and immediate investment in acute inpatient beds.

ANMF told the royal commission that chronic underfunding of the mental health sector had stretched the system to the limit, resulting in acute patients being churned from hospital beds, despite needing longer continuing care.

Investing in nurse-led programs and models of care, that focus on the consumer and long-term recovery, will have strong impact, be cost-effective and efficient, the Branch submission said. We also recommended further investment in scholarships for registered and enrolled nurses to engage in postgraduate mental health and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) education.

The Mental Health Royal Commission's interim report's recommendations echoed our calls for immediate funding for additional acute in-patient beds and postgraduate scholarships for mental health education.

Federal ANMF Secretary Annie Butler appeared before the royal commission in February, answering questions about our national campaign for mandated minimum staffing levels and skills mix and the systemic problems of the aged care sector.

ANMF (Vic Branch) Assistant Secretary Paul Gilbert gave evidence at the aged care royal commission’s workforce hearing in October, telling the commission that understaffing is the number one issue of concern for ANMF members working in private nursing homes, federal government funding to boost aged care staff wages had never made its way into pay packets and calling for personal care workers to be AHPRA-regulated.

After hearing evidence from residents, family members, unions, regulators, academics and management, on 31 October the aged care royal commission published its interim report, simply titled Neglect. The three-volume report described the aged care system as ‘cruel and harmful’ and said it must be changed. The report said most nurses, care workers and allied health practitioners were ‘doing their best in extremely trying circumstances’.

In October 2019 ANMF (Vic Branch) staff took to the road visiting more than 500 private aged care facilities, hearing members’ concerns related to staffing/workload, unpaid overtime, access to personal leave entitlements and pay. The visits coincided with the aged care royal commission’s hearings in Melbourne in October inquiring into workforce issues, diversity and younger people in aged care. About 70 ANMF members signed up as Job Reps during the visits, an encouraging sign as we prepare to ramp up our campaign for action on private aged care staffing and workloads.

Throughout the year, ANMF’s national campaign for mandated staffing levels in aged care continued. Candidates in the May federal election were asked to pledge their support for mandated staffing and ANMF (Vic Branch) called on members to vote for those who would protect residents. In September 2019, the Australian Medical Association and the ANMF joined forces to call on the Federal Government to take urgent and immediate action on improving aged care by providing mandatory minimum staff-to-resident ratios, including ensuring sufficient skilled nurses.

In its 2019–20 budget the government delivered almost half of its promised $50 million over four years for a Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Development Fund. The fund expands the registered nurse and midwife graduate program, and provides postgraduate scholarships, places in the postgraduate midwifery employment program and refresher programs for nurses and midwives who are registered but not practicing, to support them in returning to the workforce. The fund also established a graduate program for enrolled nurses for the first time.

The 2019–20 budget delivered on an election promise of $64.4 million to public hospitals and health services over four years to employ extra nurses and midwives.

The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services released guidelines for its new emergency department mental health and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) hubs, which will be established at Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Frankston Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, Geelong’s University Hospital, St Vincent’s Hospital and Royal Melbourne Hospital.

ANMF called for clearer recycling information, a container deposit scheme and expanding food and garden organics collections – including in hospitals – in our submission to the Victorian Recycling and Waste Management Inquiry.

ANMF (Vic Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick spoke against the Federal Government’s anti-union Ensuring Integrity Bill at a Senate education and employment committee inquiry hearing, telling Senators that nurses and midwives would have fallen foul of the law if it had been applied during our 2011–12 public sector general EBA campaign.

Among a wealth of information and strategies on health and wellbeing, nurses, midwives and personal care workers heard tips for dealing with anxiety from journalist Sarah Wilson at our Wellness Conference and a panel of ANMF member sustainability activists shared their workplace wins and challenges at the sixth ANMF (Vic Branch) Health & Environmental Sustainability Conference.

At the 2019 Australian Nursing and Midwifery Conference, more than 1380 nurses and midwives heard actor and co-founder of the Love Your Sister foundation, Samuel Johnson, praise his late sister Connie’s acumen in fundraising for cancer research and the nurses who cared for her. Nurses and midwives also benefited from clinical information presented at the ANMC, including how to recognise when people may have been affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.

ANMF (Vic Branch) hosted free, Andrews Government-funded alcohol and other drugs (AOD) seminars in Traralgon and Melbourne, as nurses and midwives were urged to take advantage of increasing demand for their skills in the AOD sector.

We also presented our first ‘Wellbeing and work’ seminar for nurse unit managers and midwife unit managers, where they learned conflict management techniques, mindfulness and how to have conversations with staff members who appear to be struggling with their mental health.

We advocated on behalf of members working at Latrobe Regional Hospital, making recommendations to improve the hospital’s workplace culture and address staff shortages.

At the 2019 Psychological Hazards in Healthcare Conference, nurses, midwives and personal care workers heard there were clear links between healthcare workers’ physical and psychological safety, and burnout, bullying and the emotional demands of their work.

ANMF (Vic Branch) member, nursing ethics academic, Dr Megan Jane Johnstone was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO).