How are we dealing with COVID-19?

NPAQ encourages all our members, at all times, to keep your knowledge around COVID 19 up to date.

You may not be able to rely on your employer to be across any changes to policy and research. If you believe you are working in an unsafe environment you should notify your manager immediately. You will also need to complete an incident form and notify NPAQ ASAP.    

We continue to live, and for healthcare professionals (HCW) work, in a very challenging environment. Our nursing colleagues in Victoria and NSW have certainly gone above and beyond. Even though we have all heard stories about what is going on down south, it is obvious that the "lived experience" for nurses has been life-changing. NPAQ is also well aware of the challenges faced by our members here in QLD. It is incomprehensible, that ten months after the first alerts were raised, nurses are still having to fight to work in a safe environment. 

The COVID case numbers are falling, along with community transmission, and as HCWs come out from under this disaster, questions are now beginning to be asked about the nation's preparedness and response. Healthcare workers are demanding answers, and the tone is shifting.

The President of The AMA in Western Australia raises compelling issues faced by healthcare workers in The Australian on 16 October 2020.

"Despite the explosion in the number of infected healthcare workers, the federal chief advisers on infection control failed to upgrade their guidelines to recommend the use of respirator masks in all situations when dealing with suspected or confirmed coronavirus cases"  Learn more here.

Prior to this, the ABC asked Australian health care workers worried about COVID19 to get in touch.  Over the past six weeks, they received nearly 200 responses from nurses, doctors, aged care workers, allied health professionals, radiographers — the list goes on.

Here's a snapshot of some of the comments:

"It was scary. I've never said that about work before."

"It was horrific. Students should not have been there."

"If infection control was taken seriously, we wouldn't be in this position."

"The general feeling is a sense of guilt that we contracted it."

"Exhaustion beyond what is normal."

"There is more confusion. There is more pain."

Read the full story here

NPAQ encourages all our members, at all times, to keep your knowledge around COVID 19 up to date. You may not be able to rely on your employer to be across any changes to policy and research. If you believe you are working in an unsafe environment you should notify your manager immediately. You will also need to complete an incident form and notify NPAQ ASAP.