Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

Stakeholders also contend there is a need for a better constructed skills path and careeropportunities in key professions such as nursing and the trades. The Review is conscious ofthe interest shown by unions is this issue but is nevertheless disposed to recommend it beconsidered by the proposed Chief Minister’s Department in its whole of service workforceplanning.Case study: ACT HealthACT Health operates a Graduate Nurse Program to assist graduate nurses consolidate theirprofessional practice as outlined in the ANMC National Competency Standards for theRegistered Nurse (2006) and provide safe, quality nursing care to patients and clients of ACTHealthProfessional Nursing literature describes the first year of nursing practice as challenging andstressful for graduates. Many graduates experience fear of failure, fear of total responsibilityand fear of making mistakes that is compounded by a lack of confidence, high expectations ofself, unrealistic expectations by clinical staff and the need to adapt quickly to a new role.The ACT Health Graduate Nurse Program (GNP) is a 12-month structured program designedto provide clinical and professional support, feedback and guidance during the transition fromstudent to Registered Nurse. The GNP aims to focus on every facet of the graduateexperience, providing a high level of support for orientation, rostering, feedback, reflectionand competency assessment, and socialisation into the workforce.As a key recruitment and retention initiative for ACT Health, the GNP has evolved andexpanded each year since inception in 1988. The graduates are supported by experiencedClinical Development Nurses (CDNs) who are rostered 365 days a year and are available tograduate nurses on an on call basis. In 2009, evaluation of the CDN role was extremelypositive with 64% of the graduates rating the support as ‘excellent’ and the remaining 36%rating it as ‘very good’.“I chose the GNP because of the FULL support provided by the grad CDN.”“The support from my CDNs during the graduate year was outstanding, bothprofessionally and personally”When first established, the program facilitated strict rotations of one surgical, medical andspecialty placement for each graduate. This is no longer standard practice as graduateplacement requests have changed, as have models of health care delivery within theorganisation. In 2005, national and local workforce forecasts identified critical shortages inmany areas and in response to this the GNP was modified to enable interested graduates to beplaced in specialty streams during their first year. The GNP is structured to facilitate clinicalplacements in a wide variety of acute and non acute clinical areas including surgical andmedical nursing; aged care and rehabilitation units; cancer services; mental health; alcohol anddrug services; community nursing; critical care; paediatrics and neonatal care. Currentspecialty streams offered are Peri Operative, Cancer, Mental Health, Ambulatory Care,Critical Care and Cardiology. This initiative has been popular and extremely successful forboth the graduates and the organisation.Capability, Capacity and Effectiveness: 267