The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and the State Opposition warn that without such incentives, SA risks losing even more nurses across the border.

The Victorian Government yesterday announced a major package to recruit more nurses to the health system, including paying uni course fees for 10,000 nursing and midwifery students plus scholarships for thousands more who complete postgraduate studies in areas of need including intensive care, cancer care and paediatrics.

“If you’re in Year 12 and you’ve been thinking about studying nursing or midwifery, go for it – we’ve got your HECS fees covered,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.

ANMF SA branch secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the Malinauskas Government now needed to seriously consider following suit, particularly in areas of high skills and geographic need.

“Given the projected shortfall of nurses and midwives in Australia, we believe all the measures that the Victorian Government have committed to must be included as part of those workforce planning discussions in SA,” Dabars told InDaily.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the South Australian Government had no plans to introduce free courses for nurses and midwives but would “keep an eye on” it.

“I think we should be open-minded to that but as things currently stand we are not contemplating the Victorian measure but it’s an idea we will keep an eye on,” he told ABC Radio this morning.

Malinauskas said he had recently announced, in conjunction with the University of South Australia, a scholarship program for nurses “in certain positions who are pursuing particular specialities”.

“So I think there are roles for governments to do what they can in terms of boosting workforce capacity in the health sector,” he said.

“We have got a skills shortage across the nation at the moment…”

The Premier said he wasn’t worried about SA students being poached to study interstate by free courses because the program was capped.

“Ultimately there will be South Australians who want to learn and study in South Australia and we don’t have any reasons to suspect just at the moment that we are going to see every nurse place in the state dry up because of an influx of people going to Victoria,” he said.

“And we have got the great virtue in South Australia of being a relatively low cost jurisdiction to live, work and play so that… will be a consideration of any young student.”

Opposition health spokesperson Ashton Hurn said she was “pretty concerned to hear Peter Malinauskas be so dismissive of this idea”.

“We know that attracting frontline workers is becoming increasingly a nationally competitive situation and we’ve got to be doing everything that we possibly can to attract and retain our workforce and we’ve got huge concerns that they’ll just be heading across the border to Victoria,” Hurn said.

She urged Malinauskas to consider replicating not just Victoria’s move to offer free uni courses, but also a recent incentive by the New South Wales government to provide $3000 “thank you” payments to frontline healthcare workers in recognition of their hard work during the pandemic.

“We believe that failing to act could be diabolical for the workforce here in South Australia, especially when other states are being so proactive when it comes to providing incentives,” Hurn said.

As well as providing free undergraduate university courses for 10,000 nursing and midwifery students, the Victorian package also includes scholarships of up to $16,500 to cover course costs for all new domestic students enrolling in professional-entry nursing or midwifery courses in 2023 and 2024.

Students will receive $9000 while they study and the remaining $7500 if they work in Victorian public health services for two years.

Dabars said the SA nurses’ union had also been advocating for the full employment of all graduating nurses and midwives into a graduate program by the State Government as well as the continuing employment of those who are completing that program this year.

“We have been calling on this for months and have been reassured that an announcement will be made imminently,” she said.

“We certainly hope it is given the shortage of nurses and midwives is at a critical point locally, nationally and internationally.

“Indeed, Victoria is on the cusp of launching a national and international campaign to attract all the nurses and midwives they can employ, including our local SA nurses and midwives.”

Dabars said with the exception of last year, only half of the approximately 1200 graduating cohort gained graduate employment in SA.

“Because of the shortfall of nurses and midwives, these nurses and midwives often subsequently gain employment, but without the rigour and support of a proper graduate program,” she said.

“This compromises both the graduate and the system which becomes more fragile by failure to support junior staff.

“We urgently need to not only employ and retain all the nurses and midwives into a graduate program and those completing that program, but we also desperately need to reward and recognise those staff already working in the system so they can support the more junior staff.”

Dabars said the union was seeking a “retention allowance” for nurses in its current enterprise bargaining negotiations.

“We are currently awaiting a response to our claims and we expect this to be provided within the next number of weeks,” she said.

Health Minister Chris Picton said the Government was “rebuilding” the health system and easing pressure on frontline staff by employing hundreds more health workers, including 300 extra nurses.

“Scholarships are also now on offer through a new $6.9 million nursing and midwifery training program being rolled out to fast-track nurses’ skills and help meet growing demand in key areas,” he said.

“We are finalising our recruitment processes for next year and recognise the clear need to increase the number of nurses – including boosting the intake of graduate nurses – while undertaking proper workforce planning.

“This includes our push to legislate nurse-to-patient ratios to provide quality care.”

Picton said he expected to have an update shortly.