Hi! I just wanted to share my experiences and story. I address this to the NSW Government.

I was a NUM in a small rural ED that has always been under-resourced and understaffed, but we always managed to remain efficient, and often had better outcomes for our patients than the larger hospitals in our LHD. Our GM once said to me (with a media team in tow), that in terms of acuity and KPIs were only second to our largest tertiary hospital.
From the beginning of the pandemic, we had very little guidance from our senior managers, based in a larger regional hospital, gave us very little guidance on how to prepare for the expected disease trajectory. I had to work 2-4hrs overtime for about a three-week period to develop some basic processes and organise the ED to accommodate COVID patients. I did this because I didn’t want to put anyone in our team at risk. We helped each other and I welcomed suggestions from all staff. We received no extra resources or funding for COVID preparation, but our larger hospital did. We were not supported by our senior managers with non-clinical time to arrange all this. As a NUM, I was not supported by my line manager or senior management to take care of my usual management tasks, let alone trying to prepare for COVID. I ended up in a very unpleasant situation that meant I was on the floor every morning with a patient load on my shift, whilst also trying to complete management tasks and prepare for COVID. Management were aware I wasn’t coping, and it all came to a head when I was becoming, not only mentally, but physically unwell. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and ended up on worker’s compensation because of this. I was not able to go back to my position as NUM at the completion of my worker’s compensation claim, because of senior managers refusing to allow me to apply for the casual pool or to successfully apply for other jobs within our LHD. I am now working in a medical practice which suits me well, but I still carry the emotional scars from manager intimidation, apathy and ignorance. I have found the senior management of these hospitals to be callous, intimidating and unapproachable. They continually take, and never give, except when they give staff more tasks to complete on top of their already unmanageable workloads. Nurses  deserve better. I have been away from the ED environment for over 12mths now so I simply cannot imagine what the stress levels are like now. My friends and colleagues are hurting. They are torn between caring for their patients, keeping their patients and their colleagues safe, fighting for better conditions, safe and appropriate staffing, adequate resources and decent wages.
I am most dissatisfied in the management team, who appear to have little sympathy and take no responsibility for the well-being of their staff.

We need action now and need this situation remedied before this already incredibly difficult situation becomes untenable and unable to be fixed. Please. Please try to think about what our jobs have become and how we are increasingly unable to care for our patients safely. Think of it like this: if one of those patients was your grandparent, parent, child or friend, would you want exhausted, compassion-fatigued, frightened and stressed staff taking care of them as best they could, without the tools, support or assistance required to look after them safely? I think not…