Community Health staff just as burn out
Let’s just say that community health nurses face the same situation with being understaffed. Some services have been redeployed to assist with care of patients at home leaving chronic care services only running on one staff member not the two. Palliative care is always under the pump and not having a casual pool like in the hospitals we struggle to fill the shifts with adequately trained staff. GP surgeries, aged care packages and NDIS expect us to pick up for them when they don’t have the staff and escalate that we are not helping when we are struggling.
As the NUM I am constantly working clinical and supporting the staff to my best ability, work long days and no extra pay for this to ensure patients are cared for and also services and my job is maintained. Community Health also doesn’t have the administrative support like acute facilities and clinical staff complete the admin tasks on top of clinical roles!
Staff are burning out and as the manager I have had enough of being over looked in community health as we play just as much a vital role for patients keeping them out of hospital or early discharge to help free up beds.