In the next few weeks from February 20, 2012, nurse and midwife members of the New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) will be urging people to sign a petition demanding the additional funding for re-entry courses for nurses and midwives seeking to return to the profession. 

In a campaign called ‘10,000 Reasons to Sign,’ NSWNA hopes to solicit a minimum of 10,000 signatures by latter March 2012 so it can compel the state to a parliamentary debate on the matter. The campaign takes advantage of the state parliamentary rule allowing the offer of a debate for petitions having 10,000 signatures or more.

NSWNA assistant secretary Judith Kiejda described their campaign as a necessity, as she considered how new national rules make re-entry difficult for NSW nurses and midwives if they fail to work in their field a minimum of three months full-time for the last five years or more.  

She said this condition gives the state further difficulty in addressing the nursing and midwife shortage, even as the number of many nurses and midwives who want to return increases. 

She said the nurses and midwives who took time off work now meet tougher standards prior to re-entry, a measure that she recognized has the good aim of improving the safety of patients.

However, Ms. Kiejda said there is only one approved re-entry course for nurses in the state, and it costs a staggering $10,000, with the conduct of the eight-week nurses' course limited to Sydney. No counterpart course for midwives is currently available, she said. 

She said nurses and midwives should be provided access to “a re-entry course closer to home or on-line and at a much reduced cost.”