Hundreds of members answered ANMF’s call for volunteer nurses and midwives to staff health services in Corryong and Alpine Shire, giving respite to staff who had worked for days without a break.

ANMF (Vic Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick and Assistant Secretary Pip Carew, and several Branch organisers and professional officers were among those who volunteered.

ANMF (Vic Branch) once again demonstrated the generosity of our members towards their colleagues and the broader community in a time of crisis, donating $25,000 to the Bushfire Disaster Fund and providing targeted financial support to members who had lost homes, property, fencing, or other equipment.

The response from our members reminded us why nurses and midwives are so trusted and respected within the community. Members in Gippsland, Corryong and Alpine Shire, including Walwa Bush Nursing Centre CEO Sandi Grieve and Sam Osborn of Orbost Regional Health, told of working under intense pressure, staying at work to care for patients, nursing home residents and community members, all the while not knowing whether their homes, family members and friends were safe.

The smoke the bushfires generated caused secondary health impacts, both within the regions and in cities. Air quality in Melbourne and Geelong was extremely poor in January, with Ambulance Victoria recording an increase in calls for breathing difficulties.

The bushfires further underscored the terrible impact of climate change on health and how urgently climate change action is needed.

In between the bushfires and the COVID-19 response, ANMF (Vic Branch) ran a symposium on the important issue of physical and chemical restraint in aged care.

The symposium dealt with the practical, human rights, ethical and legal issues associated with the use of restraint.

In the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, our professions have rarely faced such an immense challenge, with the uncertainty surrounding the spread of the coronavirus and its impacts, and the fear and anxiety of providing care during a pandemic.

For International Nurses Day, 12 May, ANMF (Vic Branch) hosted an online candlelight vigil to honour our overseas nurse colleagues who had lost their lives treating and caring for COVID-19 patients.

We were overwhelmed by the number of Australian and New Zealand nurses, midwives, carers, union leaders and politicians who responded to our call, and whose candlelit photos and videos were accompanied by Vika and Linda Bull’s moving rendition of Amazing Grace.

Our stories in On the Record and The Handover marking International Nurses Day and International Midwives Day shone a light on the resilience and determination of Victoria’s nurses and midwives to care for and advocate for their patients in the most demanding circumstances.

We sent members a commemorative pin depicting Florence Nightingale, marking the 200^th anniversary of the birth of the world’s most famous nurse, who opened the first nursing school and used data to drive healthcare reform.

ANMF advocacy led to the Andrews Government providing $600,000 additional funding to the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria (NMHPV), enabling it to expand its service to personal care workers in residential aged care.

With NMHPV we ran the ‘I’m only human’ campaign to remind nurses, midwives and personal care workers that self-care is good practice and there is no shame in reaching out for the free and independent counselling and support NMHPV offers.

ANMF (Vic Branch) negotiated the 2020–24 public sector general enterprise agreement with nearly 2000 members voting in favour of the agreement at a virtual EBA meeting on 16 April.

The agreement includes a further 9 per cent wage increase as part of an 8 year wage deal – with 3 per cent increases in December 2020, 2021 and 2022.

ANMF members had approximately 170 claims covering definitions; leave; allowances; midwifery governance; predictable hours of work; fatigue and overtime; dispute resolution; recruitment and retention initiatives; education and professional development; maximising permanent employment; occupational health and safety; and gender equity.

The public sector general enterprise agreement established benchmark wages and conditions for the mental health and private acute EBAs under negotiation.

On a celebratory note,
2020 marked the
20^th anniversary of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruling that introduced nurse/midwife to patient ratios in Victoria.

Commissioner Wayne Blair handed down his decision which changed forever the working conditions of Victorian nurses and midwives at a private hearing on 31 August 2000.

The landmark decision did not come out of nowhere. Under the leadership of former ANMF (Vic Branch) Secretary Belinda Morieson and Assistant Secretary Hannah Sellars, Victorian nurses and midwives had undertaken the most significant industrial relations campaign since the 1986 50-day strike.