Conference presentation
Staff shortages in rural hospitals: Lessons from the past. TASA Conference, Melbourne, 28 November- 2 December.
TASA Conference 2022: Social Challenges, Social Changes (University of Melbourne, Australia , 28/11/2022 - 02/12/2022)
11/2022
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
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Abstract
Across Australia and elsewhere, there are critical shortages of hospital staff, particularly nurses. While the COVID pandemic has exacerbated staffing issues, the problem is long-standing, especially in rural areas. Hence it may be instructive to examine staffing practices from earlier times to see if lessons can be learned from them. In this presentation, we explore employment patterns at Mayday Hills Mental Hospital, Beechworth, Victoria, in the thirty years or so before
its closure in 1995, using oral history interviews with former staff. Beechworth was an isolated country town, and the hospital was a major employer. Psychiatric hospitals elsewhere struggled to attract staff, but two factors operating at Mayday Hills assisted recruitment. Local people knew the hospital and its routines because generations of families worked there, and government jobs offered security unmatched in the private sector. However, the complex pattern of relationships built up over generations between staff and in the town meant that conformity to unwritten norms was rigidly enforced through pranks, hazing (bastardisation) and trade union activity. This research is part of a wider study into the history of mental health care in Beechworth (www.maydayhills.org.au).
Details
- Title
- Staff shortages in rural hospitals: Lessons from the past. TASA Conference, Melbourne, 28 November- 2 December.
- Creators
- Eileen Louise Clark - Charles Sturt UniversityJennifer Munday Dr - Charles Sturt UniversityAlison Watts - Southern Cross University
- Conference
- TASA Conference 2022: Social Challenges, Social Changes (University of Melbourne, Australia , 28/11/2022 - 02/12/2022)
- Identifiers
- 991013077513802368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education; Faculty of Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation