While I don't work in the WA hospital system, I do work in the Victorian one.
Some of the care I have seen provided by colleagues is appalling. I also am really worried about hospitals hiring staff with woeful English communication skills - spoken and written.
For every fantastic nurse I look up to, there is a nurse that scares me - ones I know will end up leading to death and injury because of their poor attitude. I have seen an (Australian) nurse even giving out cigarettes to patients, and then proceeded to smoke cigarettes on the ward... nope, fire alarms don't seem to go off when patients smoke in their bathrooms... and bathroom doors/fans don't stop smoke entering the ward's communal hallways. Also had an incident where a nurse used the patient's toilet in the middle of showering their patient. No shower curtain or anything between the patient in the shower chair and the nurse on the toilet. In what kind of world do people think this behaviour is acceptable?!
It is incredibly difficult for management to get rid of unsafe staff. This goes for doctors too (consultants, not registrars). I have seen management desperately trying to "move on" unsafe consultants and unsafe nurses, with no luck. I have seen unsafe staff play the race card in response to concerns about their ability to practice safely and competently. I have been shocked to see unions support unsafe behaviour. It is competent nurses that then have to pick up the slack/correct the errors of their colleagues.
Nursing is seen as a lucrative profession for those coming to Australia from developed countries. If you are an exceptional nurse and can communicate with your patients, I have no problem with this. But if you can't understand the patient when they are trying to tell you about the type of pain they are experiencing... or you don't understand what the medication you're giving patients actually does... then you should not be working in the Australian hospital system. I swear some people must be cheating on their IELTS exams when they apply for registration.
I think many people in their 60s and 70s today are going to get a rude shock when they inevitably end up in public hospitals or aged care. It seems to be worse the further away your local hospital is from the city centre.
I just worked alongside a nurse (foreign born) who told me she was working her 9th night shift in a row. Night shifts are 10 hours long (excluding breaks). She said she was due back for her 10th shift later that night. That is 100 paid working hours in 10 days. She gets away with it because she doesn't do all the shifts at the one hospital - she bounces between services. If anything negligent happens on her shift, her insurance won't cover her. And her subpar performance (who wouldn't be tired after that many night shifts in a row?) means her colleagues need to do half her work for her. Its a very stressful environment to work in, particularly when many of your colleagues are only there to clock on and take home a pay check.
