Western Health recognises the need to change to accommodate the workforce issues we are currently experiencing in nursing and midwifery. We have teamed together with Safer Care Victoria, the Department of Health, the ANMF and 2 other health services to lead Victoria in changing the way we roster nurses and midwives. This project aims to address flexibility by creating a set of guidelines that will support more employee centred rostering.
As part of this exciting research project, we have recruited a Project Manager who will lead this research conducted at Western Health. The first stage of this research will be the distribution of two surveys, one for nurses and midwives and one for unit managers of selected wards/units. This will be followed up with co-designed focus group workshops which will target the issues identified from these initial surveys.
A second survey will be undertaken to ascertain if the developed guidelines are suitable and acceptable and follow up surveys at 6 and 12 months following the introduction of the guidelines. This will determine how well the guidelines are working for nurses, midwives and health services.
The project will be 8 months in duration and will provide valuable information for the research steering committee to draft and implement a set of rostering guidelines for nurses and midwives in Victoria.
We will keep you updated on the progress of this exciting project throughout 2023.