Private Sector
The Mater and St Vincent’s inspires
I attended the 78th Annual Conference of the NSWNMA and it was so inspiring. Meeting so many other nurses and midwives, with their own experiences and perceptions of their working environments, makes you reflect on your own.
Nurses and midwives have been fighting so hard for ratios to be introduced into the public hospital system. Change is on the horizon; it’s exciting and it’s about time!
But with all this reform, many nurses in the private sector are left with one key question: What about us?
While at Annual Conference, I attended a breakout session with NSWNMA delegates from the Mater and St Vincent’s Private. They shared powerful insights into their own campaign of winning ratios at St Vincent’s Health Australia (SVHA).
Members spoke about what a ratios campaign looks like on the ground at a private hospital, the tactics involved, how to motivate members to get active, and what it takes to push through different forms of industrial action.
What a joy it was to hear how these members fostered a sense of solidarity and community across both sites, in the face of fierce opposition from SVHA management. How these members banded together to move in the right direction is inspiring.
The SVHA campaign really gives nurses and midwives in other private healthcare settings a huge glimmer of hope. Now is the time for us to take these learnings and spread this fight across other private workplaces.
Mary Corr, midwife