Add Category
Health systems across the country are crying out for workers and the ACT is no exception.
Key points:
- Canberra's cost of living is deterring some healthcare students from remaining in the capital
- Higher education policy professor Andrew Norton says healthcare students need financial support during clinical placements
- Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith says the government is contemplating offering students paid positions within ACT health
The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association predicts a national shortage of more than 100,000 nurses and more than 2,700 doctors by 2025.
And there is stiff competition for those workers between states and territories, as well as differing approaches to luring prospective nurses and doctors.
Victoria is subsidising nursing and midwifery degrees, Western Australia is offering to pay $12,000 in university fees for nursing and midwifery graduates who choose to work in regional areas of the state, and Queensland is waving tens of thousands of dollars in tax-free incentives at health professionals to tempt them to sign on.
So what approach is the ACT government considering to attract and retain healthcare workers?
What makes healthcare students come to the capital – and stay?
The conventional wisdom is that people who study health professions in the capital are more likely to join the ACT workforce.
But it's not always the case.
University of Canberra nursing students Isabella Fox and Lara Hewitt moved to the capital from towns in regional New South Wales.
Ms Fox, from Orange, said Canberra's proximity to her hometown made it an obvious choice for study.
"It's not too far away, and I chose nursing because most of my family have been nurses and I want to help people," Ms Fox said.
Ms Hewitt, from Gunnedah, said she was finding it easier to get by in Canberra than her friends who moved to Sydney to study.
"It's kind of city without being too city-ish, country without being too country … I just needed a little bit of a change but with some similarities," Ms Hewitt said.
"It kind of reminds me of home."
Despite those advantages, both students say it isn't cheap.
"You have to budget really carefully," Ms Hewitt said.
"I'm definitely trying to be independent. My parents are happy to support me but I would really like to just do it by myself."
Both students say the cost of living is a factor in why they're likely to return to regional New South Wales to work when they graduate.
And Ms Fox said the cost of studying might deter her peers away from higher education.
"It is quite pricey," Ms Fox said.
"I know if I redo a unit, it costs me more and that makes it quite hard to keep going in the course.
"I know in Victoria they pay for nursing but that's just a [greater] distance from home."
Course fees not the main barrier to study
Australian National University professor of higher education policy Andrew Norton argues it is the financial pressures on healthcare students during their studies – particularly when they need to complete extended unpaid, clinical placements – that have a bigger impact on uptake and completion rates.
"You've got to go and work in a hospital or some other clinical setting – and that actually may be a fair distance from where you actually live," Professor Norton said.
"It means you can't do your normal part-time job.
"Living-expenses support in that phase, I think, is extremely important to be able to complete that essential component of their course.
"Overall course fees are not a major concern when people are choosing courses. Most people do nursing because they want to be nurses.
"I think increasing or decreasing the student contribution isn't going to change that career goal.
"If you can reduce those dropout rates, you get more graduates for a given number of people who started in the course — so that's one way of making the system more efficient without increasing the total number of people who enrol in the first place."
Professor Norton said the new Victorian approach, in which the government will pay up to $9,000 over three years while a nursing or midwifery student is enrolled and then gives graduates an additional $7,500 if they work in the state's public health sector for two years, is a good one.
"You don't actually have to use the money on your HELP debt – you can actually keep the cash, which I think is a good change to the program," he said.
"It is restricted to Victorian residents and some people in some parts of New South Wales and South Australia, and so this does make — for people in those regions — going to a Victorian university more attractive."
Government considering offering paid positions to nursing, midwifery students
The 10-year ACT Health Workforce Strategy, released last month, recommended consideration of flexible working arrangements and innovative career pathways for an industry that has higher separation rates than other sectors.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith acknowledges Canberra isn't the cheapest place for students.
"That can be a deterrent for students," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"We are looking at what we can do support students though that process."
The minister said the government was considering offering paid positions to nursing and midwifery students within the ACT health system.
"Those positions that recognise the skills that particularly later-years students have already established and enabling them to work to the full scope of what they've learned through their university degree — while they're earning money — and getting their foot on the ladder with career progression at an early stage," Ms Stephen-Smith.
Canberra Health Services will be rolling out a national recruitment campaign, which will spruik comparatively good pay compared to some jurisdictions.
It will also be trying to sell the benefits of living in a small city like Canberra.
"Things like that short commute time, getting more time back in your life by being able to live close to where you work," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"Things like free parking, which might not sound like much but when you add it up over a year that's worth quite a lot.
"Also things like professional development, the scholarships that we offer."
Ms Stephen-Smith isn't sold on the Victorian or West Australian approaches.
"The evidence around funding for students to be effectively bonded into a system — to try to keep them in a particular health system — doesn't have a strong evidence base," she said.
"We're trying to work with our universities on what the evidence-based policies are, and doing things like guaranteeing a job for our students at the end of studies.
"If we can do that, that's a real incentive to come and study in the ACT."
The ACT government is expected to announce measures to recruit and retain healthcare workers ahead of this month's ACT budget.
"There are some areas that are under particular pressure," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"We'll address some of those through the budget and we'll address some of those through our ongoing enterprise agreement processes."