
Issue No 85		23 February 2001

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News

Hanson's Nursing Plan Bad for Health

Pauline Hanson's One Nation policy of restoring hospital-based training for registered nurses would lead to the dumbing down of the profession, nurses say.

The NSW Nurses Association says the move would undermine quality healthcare and seriously undermine the image of nursing as a worthwhile career for young people.

Secretary, Sandra Moait, says that for better or worse it is clear Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party are going to be a high profile feature of Australian political debate for some time yet and her simplistic notions about nursing and healthcare can no longer go unchallenged.

In the Hospitals section of its current policy document, Pauline Hanson's One Nation states it wants the: "Re-establishment of the training of registered nurses in teaching hospitals." Further Ms Hanson recently received widespread coverage (for example, see Australian of 14 February 2001) for this policy and the following reported comments:

- "One Nation wants to lower the education standard for police and nurses to produce more 'street-wise' police and 'bed-wise' nurses. ...

- 'Why should we have police with solicitors' degrees? We need more street-wise police out there who know what's going on,' Ms Hanson told her supporters in Woodridge.

'- I've heard complaints about nurses with university degrees who don't even know what bedpans are for, let alone where to put them.'"

Moait says One Nation's policy and these comments indicate an appalling understanding of the needs of modern nursing and modern healthcare delivery.

"We don't need so-called 'bed-wise' nurses. We need well-educated professionals who can respond to and handle a diverse range of healthcare settings and the ever changing technology, drugs and processes that now characterise healthcare," she says.

"It is a dangerous and absurd proposition that, as healthcare becomes more complex and the community's expectations continue to rise, nurse training and education should be downgraded.

"Nursing is not about bed-pans, it is about the management of health and living with illness in a variety of settings. It is not just about hospitals. It is about aged care, it is about community healthcare, home-based palliative care and a whole range of other care situations. Hospital-based training cannot prepare a flexible workforce, which can respond to and be effective in all these settings.

"At a time when there is a concerted and much-needed push to recruit more young people into a nursing career, calls for a return to hospital-based training also send the wrong messages. As I have said nursing is a professional career that offers a range of interesting and exciting options. Portraying nursing as being simply about hospitals, hospital beds and bedpans is not only misleading, it potentially undermines this recruitment effort".

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  Issue 85 contents

Interview: Tony Abbott � Workers' Friend?
The new Workplace Relations minister relives his own union background and explains why he�s really just another worker at heart. Honestly.

Politics: The Politics of Petrol
Australia might be burning, but is it a fire that can be brought under control?

Organising: The Battle of Campsie
SDA delegate Maria Kavaratzis recounts how the Campsie Big W has been transformed into a union shop.

History: Scabbing Through the Ages
Neale Towart looks back at how popular culture has treated those workers who have not considered themselves part of the collective.

International: Diary of a Showdown
The Korean Metal Workers Federation recounts a week which culminated in violent attacks on workers outside the Daewoo factory.

Economics: Debt Dumping Campaign Enters New Phase
The millennial deadline might have passed, but Jubilee 2000 is not giving up the fight for debt cancellation for the world�s fifty-two poorest countries.

Health: The Real Drug Wars
As Africa attempts to deal with the HIV crisis, access to the medicines that can relieve victims� suffering is emerging as a major humanitarian issue.

Satire: Liberals Claim Triumph in Queensland
John Howard has claimed the Liberal Party�s decimation in Western Australia and Queensland as a triumphant vindication of his party�s embracing of the national competition policy.

Review: Beyond a White Australia
As we ponder the One Nation renaissance, a new book challenges the current debates around xenophobia and the perceived threat of danger from Asia.

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» New Laws To Protect Carers

» Acoustic Shock Cases Tip of the Iceberg

» Teachers Fed Gives Free Membership to Students

» Miners Union Calls for �Community Dividend�

» Hanson's Nursing Plan Bad for Health

» Refugee Plight Focus of NESB Network

» Unions Pause On New Safety Laws

» Heavy Handed Tactics Leave Speedo Workers Exposed

» Activists Notebook

» Vale: Charlie Fitzgibbon (1922-2001)