We all know the COVID pandemic left the nursing workforce exhausted and depleted.
The virus persists as a clinical challenge of course but so do the consequences on nurses’ health and wellbeing. This clearly motivates us in our campaign for ratios and safer staffing.
But there are also already-existing conditions in our PHS award that help create a workplace environment that is conducive to safe patient care and better work/life balance for nurses and midwives. The right to 12-hour shifts is such a condition and one we need to defend.
Nurses in the Cardiothoracic ICU at Westmead Hospital and in the Paediatrics Unit at Blacktown Hospital were recently confronted by a management attempt to remove 12-hour shifts from their units. This led to a disciplined local campaign by members to defend their award right. Nurses at both hospitals made an overwhelming case for the retention of 12-hour shifts with a systematic analysis proving their effectiveness and with commendable cooperation and unity that led to the LHD changing their position. The actions of NSWNMA members at Westmead and Blacktown, standing together to enforce their Award entitlements, demonstrates the collective power of our union, and the importance of knowing your award entitlements.
Nurses defend their work/ life balance Nurses at the Cardiothoracic ICU at Westmead Hospital have won the right to continue working 12-hour shifts after management tried to return to a roster pattern of shorter but more frequent shifts. Many nurses in the ICU unit have been working three consecutive days of 12-hour shifts, followed by four days off.
The roster was introduced at the end of 2022 at the request of staff who felt burnt out two years into the pandemic, says Carl John Martin, an RN in the unit and a NSWNMA member. “Staff were fatigued,” Martin says. “We were so hit with COVID we were exhausted but we were not able to get leave. The trial of 12-hour shifts helped us get back that work life balance.”
“The longer shifts have also improved continuity of patient care,” says Martin. “Over 12 hours, we are able to build a relationship and rapport with patients and families.” “It also helped in terms of people being on the floor,” he says. “Team leaders now have more time to focus on patient safety and patient care, because the end of each shift requires documentation, so there is just less of that now.” Nurses at both hospitals made an overwhelming case for the retention of 12-hour shifts with a systematic analysis proving their effectiveness and with commendable cooperation and unity that led to the LHD changing their position. Martin says the four days off to rest and recover had had “a big impact for nurses’ lifestyle and exhaustion levels”.
The move to working a 12-hour shift pattern was voluntary. Nurses who try the roster and find that it doesn’t work for them can go back to an 8-hour roster.
Nurses working a 12-hour shift roster also do one 8-hour shift a month to make up the hours they would have worked on their previous roster. Nurses choosing the longer shift pattern need to demonstrate a level of seniority and competency with complex care patients. Roster change without consultation “We had a heads up that management were going to take away the 12-hour shifts because of their concerns about fatigue,” Martin says. The change was put forward without consultation, which was a breach of the award.
We all know the COVID pandemic left the nursing workforce exhausted and depleted. The virus persists as a clinical challenge of course but so do the consequences on nurses’ health and wellbeing. This clearly motivates us in our campaign for ratios and safer staffing. But there are also already-existing conditions in our PHS award that help create a workplace environment that is conducive to safe patient care and better work/life balance for nurses and midwives. The right to 12-hour shifts is such a condition and one we need to defend.
Nurses in the Cardiothoracic ICU at Westmead Hospital and in the Paediatrics Unit at Blacktown Hospital were recently confronted by a management attempt to remove 12-hour shifts from their units. This led to a disciplined local campaign by members to defend their award right. Nurses at both hospitals made an overwhelming case for the retention of 12-hour shifts with a systematic analysis proving their effectiveness and with commendable cooperation and unity that led to the LHD changing their position. The actions of NSWNMA members at Westmead and Blacktown, standing together to enforce their Award entitlements, demonstrates the collective power of our union, and the importance of knowing your award entitlements.
The Public Health System Nurses’ and Midwives’ (state) Award requires consultation before any decisions, and a minimum of three months’ notice of changes. Branch members organised to save the longer shift pattern, which more than half of the staff had taken up without a negative impact on their work.
Members used SurveyMonkey to gather data to show the roster was working. They discussed organising strategies on a WhatsApp group and in Teams meetings. And they co-ordinated with NSWNMA members from the Blacktown birthing unit who had also been told by management they would lose their right to 12-hour shifts. “We definitely had unity among members so that we could fight for what we think is right for our area,” Martin says.
Nurses in the unit put documentation they had collected to management to show that the 12-hour shifts were working for patients and was also having a positive impact on nurses’ work life balance. Management conceded they could not provide evidence as to why 12-hour shifts may no longer be appropriate. “Our organiser did an amazing job in supporting the staff. She was always there giving us updates and she was always open to talking. That was really important,” says Martin.
The success comes on top of members at the birthing unit at Westmead who also organised to retain 12-hour shifts after management failed to conduct a review of the roster arrangement before opting to implement a change to 8-hour shifts. The Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) of NSW, reinstated 12-hour shifts in the Westmead birthing unit from 21 January 2024. The Commission also ordered meaningful consultation with all Westmead birthing unit staff to occur.