Skeletal Attraction: Childcare Provisions and the Recruitment and Retention of Orthopaedic Nurses in New Zealand

Abstract

It is vital to recruit and retain experienced orthopaedic nurses to provide quality and efficient care for orthopaedic patients. New Zealand's ageing population is predicted to have increasing degenerative musculoskeletal changes affecting both mobility and morbidity. In response, the New Zealand government is supporting a 100% increase in the number of elective joint replacements performed across the country from 2004 to 2008. However, like other specialties, orthopaedic nursing is experiencing shortages. In order to improve the recruitment and retention of orthopaedic nurses, as with other nursing specialties, childcare is offered as a strategy for consideration. In 2005, New Zealand parents indicated in an online survey, that in order for them to work, they needed affordable, quality and conveniently located childcare. Nurses have similarly indicated the importance of childcare when considering and managing a balance between their work and home lives. This research explores contextual work and home life balance dialogues in relationship to nursing recruitment and retention issues and New Zealand nursing. Childcare as a recruitment and retention strategy is explored in the context of New Zealand nursing and compared with the childcare strategies employed for nurses by Britain and Australia - New Zealand's major competitors for New Zealand nurses. In light of the international shortage of nurses, childcare is an important recruitment and retention strategy which is currently absent in many of New Zealand's District Health Boards. Recommendations are offered to support the balance between work and home life for nurses and reconcile orthopaedic nurses to the clinical setting in order to provide the quality and efficient care that is needed for New Zealand's ageing society.