Newly-trained nurse Vanessa is fed up after less than a year in the New South Wales state health system.
She regularly cares for six patients during a shift and sometimes as many as eight, despite union calls for nurse-to-patient ratios of no more than one to four on general wards.
“I’ve only just started this year and I’m just exhausted already,” she told AAP.
“If I knew this before I started my degree maybe I wouldn’t be nursing today.”
Thousands like Vanessa walked off the job on Wednesday along with midwives, calling for mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and an end to wage caps….