A pregnant Melbourne nurse says she faces termination for requesting medical advice on her booster as hospitals struggle to fill staff shortages.
A senior Melbourne nurse has spoken out about her desperate bid to keep her career in the face of health bureaucracy gone mad.Sarah, not her real name, complied with the original vaccine mandates and was double-vaccinated to keep her job.She said she weighed up her options at the time and went along with the mandates because she is passionate about her work.Now pregnant and having already experienced side effects from initial vaccine doses, she faces termination unless she receives her booster dose despite still waiting on expert medical advice about her situation.
Sarah said she was issued a notice informing her of disciplinary action, potentially resulting in termination of her employment, if she was not boosted by a non-negotiable deadline.She says that while our hospitals have never been busier, nurses ready, willing and able to work have been frozen out of positions as bureaucrats look to push through international visas for overseas nurses to tackle labour shortages.Sarah says she knows of other nurses who are frustrated after being forced out of their profession due to their vaccination status, while international nurses, often lacking the experience, are flown in to plug the gap.
Last month Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced 1000 nursing and midwifery students to be paid $28 per hour would be deployed across almost 30 hospitals in a bid to boost staffing numbers.
