A Border nurse says concern for patient safety is the number one reason for mandated ratios and better pay in NSW.
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Border nurse Kate Gibson said the absence of mandated ratios in NSW was "scary and dangerous".
"The reason we want ratios is it comes down to patient safety," she said.
"There is nothing worse than when you walk home at the end of the day and you think I wasn't able to provide the care I wanted to, because I'm stretched too thin."
Ms Gibson, who graduated only last year, described a recent situation where she was solely responsible for the care of five patients.
She said in one ward there were three confused, high-risk fall patients and one non-confused patient, and in a separate ward there was a patient with COVID-19.
"For me to go and attend to my COVID patient in full PPE I had to leave my confused patients and that actually lead to one non-confused patient in that room feeling like he had to look out for them," she said. "He was actually helping them back to bed when they were standing up.
"I mentioned to my manager and a couple of other people in charge that I wasn't happy with that allocation, that I felt it was unsafe and it wasn't in the best interests of my patients, however there is no ratio in NSW so there really isn't anything we could do about it."
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Nurse of 41 years Julie Miller said the level of care required and the number of patients was regularly too high for the nurses allocated at Albury hospital.
"That's somebody's parent, somebody's mother, somebody's father - they put their trust in you to look after their family and you can't do it," she said.
"I know what my level of care is and I get very, very frustrated when I can't give that."
Ms Miller said the hospital tried to support staff, but they were between a rock and a hard place.
"You can't pull staff out of thin air," she said.
Ms Gibson said there needed to be more incentives, like higher pay, to boost nurse numbers and meet the care required of NSW patients.
"It needs to be more attractive to stay in the industry," she said.
"If you can go and get a job at a coffee shop or Woolies and get more money than you can with a degree as a nurse, why would you do it? It's stressful, it's difficult, it's shift work, night work.
"I love being a nurse, but I know straight up I'm in for a pay cut next year and that's devastating."
The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association is calling for a 7 per cent pay rise to keep up with cost of living expenses.
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