Page 799 - ACCCN's Critical Care Nursing

776 A P P E N D I X B A U S T R A L I A N C O L L E G E O F C R I T I C A L C A R E N U R S E S ( A C C C N ) P O S I T I O N S TAT E M E N T S

additional ACCESS nurses as described in 4 and cleaning purposes except on very few occa-
above.) To ensure at least 50% of ICU nursing sions when the nature of such work is specialised
staff are qualified (optimally 75%), ACCCN rec- and requires educated or professional knowledge
ommends that nursing staff without postgraduate and skill.
qualifications should receive financial assistance 10. Senior nursing staff (e.g. CNS) should work
and study leave to complete a recognised critical towards becoming an Australian Credentialled
care nursing course and that such support is fac- Critical Care Nurse for which they must be remu-
tored into the unit budget each year. nerated to a significantly higher level than that of
8. Resources are allocated to support nursing time the base grade award.
and costs associated with quality assurance activi-
ties, nursing and multidisciplinary research and REFERENCES
conference attendance.
9. Intensive Care Units are provided with adequate 1. Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. Guidelines for Intensive Care Units.
Sydney: Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, 1997.
administrative staff, ward assistants, manual han- 2. Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. Minimum Standards for Intensive Care
dling assistance/equipment, cleaning and other Units. IC-1. Melbourne, 2003.
support staff to ensure that such tasks are not the 3. Australian Institute of Health & Welfare. Nursing Labour Force Series, Canberra,
Australia, 1998.
responsibility of nursing personnel. ACCCN 4. Williams G, Clarke T. A consensus driven method to measure the required
believes that the value and cost of ICU nurses number of intensive care nurses in Australia. Australian Critical Care, 2001;
does not support their time being used for clerical 14(3): 106–115.