Anyone who knows me knows that I am overly familiar with Victoria's health system. I have seen it from pretty much every angle possible both public and private. What I have to say about this may anger some of my nursing friends, but I think they need to think beyond their own ward a little bit.
Victoria has a pretty chronic shortage of nurses. This is a fact. Our big hospitals send people on recruiting drives interstate and overseas. Nurses are worked pretty hard - to the point where most are actually part-timers rather full time staff. They have to rotate on and off night shifts as well. So there can be no disputing a pay rise for at least cost of living (which is more than has been offered).
Where it comes unstuck is the rigid adherence to existing nurse:patient ratios and demarcations between job classifications. There are barely enough nurses at the moment to fill available positions. The government wants to be able to bring in lower skilled (and paid) nurses aides (or similar). Thus would enable them to open more beds and perhaps save money on a per patient basis. Nurses see this as a devaluation of their skills and work. To some extent maybe it is.
But, and this is a big but, when cost cutting measures occur in hospitals - fewer cleaners, clerks, porters or maybe social workers - nurses are the ones who get lumped with the extra work. The doctors' union is too strong to allow any of this "unskilled, non-clinical" work to land on their shoulders, so nurses bear the burden. This nurse's aide concept should allow the nurses to relieve themselves of some of this burden. A skilled division 1 nurse is not needed to change sheets, clean up vomit, feed a demented old man or deliver a bed pan in most cases. This can be done by anyone. If you argue against this then I'll run for parliament campaigning to bring in child licensing for prospective parents. Trade these jobs away nurses. Let someone else do it whilst you do dressings, plan discharges, administer medications and check wounds. Trade the ratio to one division one nurse to six patients provided there is a nurse's aide for every eight patients. This should give you more staff overall on each ward plus free up division one nurses to hopefully open some more beds across the entire system.
Nurses, it's time to change the mindset of the negotiations. Think about what you can get out of what the government wants rather than what they might be trying to take from you to get it. My last point is about productivity gains. There is no way that nurses can get more indirect and non-direct care positions in this bargaining period. You added heaps in the previous one and it is too big a drain on budgets and direct care personnel to do it again. Nurses in offices don't add much to patient care.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
I think the writing is on the wall for Mehm
As a Melbourne Victory fan, I've noticed a few newspaper articles this week beginning to speculate on the future of manager Mehmet Durakovic. I have to agree. Durakovic's major problems are that the team tactics seemed to have changed twice already this season and that the glittering array of attacking talent has not in any way gelled.
On paper Melbourne Victory looks the team to beat in the A-League. On the field it would seem that Broxham, Leijer, Vargas and Covic are having to do too much to keep the goals out, whilst the 'talent' struggles to string together more than three passes most of the time. Wonder why Fabio and Kemp didn't get forward on the weekend against Perth? Well we never had the ball long enough for them to run that far! Except when we were playing lots of predictable balls across the back. So we reverted to Merrick's counter-attacking game plan. Incredible given that we were playing against 10 men for almost an hour!
It helps only the opposition that Kewell, Thompson, Rojas and Hernandez basically refuse to defend. That's why we've seen Pondeljak return to the line-up in recent weeks as he runs both ways. That only leaves the back four plus Broxham and Celeski/Brebner to defend. I'm staggered we haven't coughed up more goals. In a league that has emulated the AFL with the forward pressure, this malaise is going to hurt the Victory and soon.
So we have to start looking at the manager/coach. Surely the slow ball movement and defensive laziness have to be blamed on this group. Mehm even mentioned that they weren't fit enough to go the distance after the Perth debacle. Well Mehmet, that's all on you! If they're not fit seven games into a 27 game season, what hope do we have? We were pretty lucky against Brisbane as it is public knowledge that they have been doing heavy training loads to build extra stamina for a good crack at the Asian Champion's League next year. It would seem that Melbourne's training consists of looking at pictures of Kewell's new house!
My point is this. Durakovic has until about Christmas (maybe not that long) to start winning matches or his New Year's resolution will be to find a job without using seek.com. Both workrate and combination are lacking from the Victory's play. Deficiencies in those areas fall as much on management as on players after a six month off season. Lastly if Durakovic gets the sack, why should Kevin Muscat get to stay, let alone be the next manager as so many seem to think?
On paper Melbourne Victory looks the team to beat in the A-League. On the field it would seem that Broxham, Leijer, Vargas and Covic are having to do too much to keep the goals out, whilst the 'talent' struggles to string together more than three passes most of the time. Wonder why Fabio and Kemp didn't get forward on the weekend against Perth? Well we never had the ball long enough for them to run that far! Except when we were playing lots of predictable balls across the back. So we reverted to Merrick's counter-attacking game plan. Incredible given that we were playing against 10 men for almost an hour!
It helps only the opposition that Kewell, Thompson, Rojas and Hernandez basically refuse to defend. That's why we've seen Pondeljak return to the line-up in recent weeks as he runs both ways. That only leaves the back four plus Broxham and Celeski/Brebner to defend. I'm staggered we haven't coughed up more goals. In a league that has emulated the AFL with the forward pressure, this malaise is going to hurt the Victory and soon.
So we have to start looking at the manager/coach. Surely the slow ball movement and defensive laziness have to be blamed on this group. Mehm even mentioned that they weren't fit enough to go the distance after the Perth debacle. Well Mehmet, that's all on you! If they're not fit seven games into a 27 game season, what hope do we have? We were pretty lucky against Brisbane as it is public knowledge that they have been doing heavy training loads to build extra stamina for a good crack at the Asian Champion's League next year. It would seem that Melbourne's training consists of looking at pictures of Kewell's new house!
My point is this. Durakovic has until about Christmas (maybe not that long) to start winning matches or his New Year's resolution will be to find a job without using seek.com. Both workrate and combination are lacking from the Victory's play. Deficiencies in those areas fall as much on management as on players after a six month off season. Lastly if Durakovic gets the sack, why should Kevin Muscat get to stay, let alone be the next manager as so many seem to think?
Friday, 11 November 2011
The short, short version.
Gay Marriage
I used to be against this with a pretty low overall care factor. You know I was happy with equal tax status and de facto unions and what not, but I thought "marriage is for a boy and a girl - no buts!" Recently my care factor has reduced to zero thanks to things I've seen in the paper. Things like Kim Kardashian's pay-per-view marriage that only lasted for 7 episodes and mail-order 17 year old brides coming into Australia has just broken my resistance. If there are so many complete rubbish marriages between boys and girls, then why stop gay people getting hitched. In my experience they seem to be better at choosing "life-partners" anyway. So this conservative has given in. You want it - you can have it.
Carbon Dioxide Tax
This bit of bastardry is now law. Upsetting but its done, much like speed limits, I'll just have to wear more clamps on my personal liberties. Forget what Tony Abbott says about repealing it. No government will ever give up that much revenue. Nor will taxpayers give up the income tax cuts that came with it. The biggest shame is that it is really a social welfare policy and a means of imposing central control on the economy rather than an environmental policy. If it were an environmental policy they probably would've just need to tweak existing environmental protection laws rather than pass 19 bills that created three massive bureaucracies and radically changed the tax and welfare system. They'll be fiddling with this, just like the superannuation laws - endlessly.
Speed Limits
I'm over speed limits. Fifty here, forty at some times of the day, sixty at others, now eighty. It is crap! I don't give a fuck about the road toll in Victoria. If some drunk teenager wants to get in a car with a dozen of his mates and wrap the car around a pole - they deserve to die. That level of collective stupidity gives us problems like Tasmania (the state is broke and about half of them are government employees) or people who waste all their money at the pokies. I would like to be able to drive around and look at the road and other cars rather than my ugly speedometer. All those places that are marked as 40kmh piss me off. During the day you can't go much over 40kmh anyway as the road is so congested, so the limit is just to catch you and take your money should the road clear up for a minute. It's not safer, it's not environmentally friendly to drive around in second gear and it makes having a car way less economical. Let's go back to the good ol' days where the speed limit was sixty everywhere except on big roads with six lanes that were 80. Let's simplify and get back to watching the road. I'm sick of trading off my liberties to maybe help save the life of some mouth breathing ape who does stupid things with their car.
I used to be against this with a pretty low overall care factor. You know I was happy with equal tax status and de facto unions and what not, but I thought "marriage is for a boy and a girl - no buts!" Recently my care factor has reduced to zero thanks to things I've seen in the paper. Things like Kim Kardashian's pay-per-view marriage that only lasted for 7 episodes and mail-order 17 year old brides coming into Australia has just broken my resistance. If there are so many complete rubbish marriages between boys and girls, then why stop gay people getting hitched. In my experience they seem to be better at choosing "life-partners" anyway. So this conservative has given in. You want it - you can have it.
Carbon Dioxide Tax
This bit of bastardry is now law. Upsetting but its done, much like speed limits, I'll just have to wear more clamps on my personal liberties. Forget what Tony Abbott says about repealing it. No government will ever give up that much revenue. Nor will taxpayers give up the income tax cuts that came with it. The biggest shame is that it is really a social welfare policy and a means of imposing central control on the economy rather than an environmental policy. If it were an environmental policy they probably would've just need to tweak existing environmental protection laws rather than pass 19 bills that created three massive bureaucracies and radically changed the tax and welfare system. They'll be fiddling with this, just like the superannuation laws - endlessly.
Speed Limits
I'm over speed limits. Fifty here, forty at some times of the day, sixty at others, now eighty. It is crap! I don't give a fuck about the road toll in Victoria. If some drunk teenager wants to get in a car with a dozen of his mates and wrap the car around a pole - they deserve to die. That level of collective stupidity gives us problems like Tasmania (the state is broke and about half of them are government employees) or people who waste all their money at the pokies. I would like to be able to drive around and look at the road and other cars rather than my ugly speedometer. All those places that are marked as 40kmh piss me off. During the day you can't go much over 40kmh anyway as the road is so congested, so the limit is just to catch you and take your money should the road clear up for a minute. It's not safer, it's not environmentally friendly to drive around in second gear and it makes having a car way less economical. Let's go back to the good ol' days where the speed limit was sixty everywhere except on big roads with six lanes that were 80. Let's simplify and get back to watching the road. I'm sick of trading off my liberties to maybe help save the life of some mouth breathing ape who does stupid things with their car.
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