Closer monitoring of high-risk patients is one of many benefits expected to flow from the introduction of ratios in EDs.

Ratios will give us more hands on deck, which will take a lot of pressure off the nursing staff,” said  Liverpool  Hospital  ED nurse Mila Calderon.

“Having more staff will benefit patient safety, with closer monitoring of high-risk patients, delirium patients etcetera,” she added.

Mila, who is an NSWNMA delegate for the hospital, said current staffing in acute areas is six patients between two RNs in the daytime and four patients to one RN at night.

“We see a lot more patients than the bed numbers, due to the rapid turnover of patients in ED,” she said.

“The current staffing levels can put huge pressure on nurses depending on how unwell the patients are.

“Sometimes, care is delayed or missed for a while because it gets so busy.

It’s not often that we are able to pull a nurse from a different area to come and help.

“We rarely have a float nurse to give us a hand and when we do, they tend to float between triage and the resus area.”

Mila said, “The NUMs are not always able to stop what they’re doing and give us a hand.

“There are times when we can’t step out for a break during daytime, because it would mean leaving your partner on their own with six patients.

“We sometimes miss breaks at night, too. But since we’re 1:4 overnight, when a nurse goes on break, the neighbouring nurse has to overlook two lots of patients until the other RN comes back from their break.

“Sometimes we only get one break instead of the two we are supposed to have in the 8.5 hours we are on duty.

“You feel that you are drowning with so many things left to do.”

Mila said ED nurses know they would not be getting ratios without the NSWNMA.

“It is obvious to everyone that we finally got ratios thanks to the union.”

She said nurses have been talking about the introduction of ratios and are keen to see how they are going to work.

“Some people are very excited and positive about it, while others are doubting how it is going to work out in certain areas, such as the waiting area and sub-acute, where patients are being looked after by nurses but are not allocated a bed.”

Ratios needed to retain seniors and mentor juniors

President of the NSWNMA’s Royal North Shore Hospital Branch, Corrine Adams, joined General Secretary Shaye Candish and Health Minister Ryan Park at a media conference to announce recruitment for the ratios rollout had begun.

Corrine said safe staffing reforms would help attract and retain nurses and midwives well into the future.

“The staffing ratios won’t only be for our community and for patient safety, but also to help retain our staff and especially to support our novice staff members,” she said.

“We have to ensure we actually support our staff with our senior staff members and at this time, we can see that nursing staff are leaving in droves.

“We want to retain those senior staff members to support our novice staff members to ensure they have a rich career in nursing and midwifery.

Corrine added, “I’ve been a nurse for about 18 years and every year it is harder – especially when

COVID-19 came around. To ensure solidarity and mateship within our crew, it is important that we have staff ratios.”