We hope that 2009 has been a great year for all our participants and their loved ones and that 2010 brings much joy and prosperity. We also wish you a peaceful and safe festive season.

From the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort team

e-cohort wind up for 2009

Well it's been a pretty big year for us on the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort study Our participants now number nearly 7,500!!! We published 4 new articles and there are more to come in 2010. We closed off Survey 2 in September and are now busy working on Survey 3 which we hope to post online in March/April 2010. As usual, we will send an email in advance. While we cannot accept any new registrations, we encourage you all to continue completing your annual survey. Most of all we want to thank you again for your support of this important research.

We currently have 2 PhD students and an Honors student working with e-cohort data. Late this year, one of our PhD students, Ms Anna Dawson, submitted her thesis - read more below.

Anna Dawson PhD candidate - Research area: Back Pain in Nurses

Anna Dawson has a background in clinical physiotherapy, has postgraduate qualifications in project management and international health, and is currently a PhD candidate and research officer working on the Nurses and Midwives e-Cohort Study. Anna’s doctoral research incorporates a sequential mixed method design that includes systematic review, epidemiological and qualitative studies related to understanding back pain in nurses. The goal of her research is to develop an intervention to prevent back pain in nurses.

Drawing upon data from the baseline survey of the NMeS, one of Anna’s doctoral studies examines the factors associated with taking sick leave due to low back pain in nurses and midwives. Anna and her collaborators found that pain characteristics, pain-related psychological features, occupational and demographic factors are related to work absenteeism in individuals with low back pain. As a research officer on the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort study ,Anna is currently working on an analysis of factors related to work absenteeism due to neck pain. Anna is very grateful to e-cohort participants for volunteering their time to provide important data. Any e-cohort participant who wishes to contact Anna to discuss her research can do so via email

What can we do about the global shortage of nurses & midwives?? - we'd like your comments and view on this issue.....

That there is a critical global shortage of health care professionals is now widely accepted.  On one hand the world’s population continues to grow and in many countries is ageing. Also, consumer expectations of health care continue to grow. Disease epidemics also contribute to this burgeoning problem. On the other hand many health professionals are approaching retirement or reducing their hours yet there is no ready supply of new health care workers to replace them. As a global problem, this cannot be resolved by simply “importing” and “exporting” qualified personnel from country to country. In fact, it is argued by some that to entice health professionals from poorer countries constitutes an ethical breach.

As a predominately female and ageing workforce, a natural attrition from the Australian nursing and midwifery professions is inevitable. However, there is a disturbing rate of attrition among younger professionals from the workforce (see figure 1 below). According to the 2006 Census, most people whose highest qualification was in a health field are either employed in a health occupation or are aged 55 and over and are likely to have retired. Of employed persons, 86% of people with medical qualifications as their highest qualification were working as medical practitioners, 85% of people with dentistry qualifications were working as dental practitioners, but only 70% of people with nursing qualifications were working as nurses.This equates to 79,194 Australians with nursing qualifications working in occupations other than nursing! The worst affected areas are acute hospitals and rural settings.

Figure 1 indicates persons not in the medical or nursing workforce by qualification, age and sex in 2006. It can be seen that the main group not in the labour force was female nurses.

FIGURE 1: Selected fields of health qualification by age and sexof persons not in the labour force in 2006

Source: ABS 2006 Census of Population and Housing

Australian Bureau of Statistics “4819.0 Selected health occupations: Australia, 2006” June 2008

Available from http://www.abs.gov.au (accessed July 2008)

Recently the Australian Federal government launched an initiative to entice RN’s back to workforce (BNBW) but according to a recent statement by the RCNA (Nursing Review, November 2009) this has had a less than 7% take-up.

So please, email Lindy with your ideas - Why are nurses & midwives leaving the profession?? What can be done to retain clinical staff? Why are students leaving nursing courses? - please, we value your input and urge you to share your opinion and experiences with us - all communications are strictly confidential.