Canberra Health Services (CHS) has rolled out an app so staff can access mental health and wellbeing resources – but their union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) – ACT Branch, says the app will not solve problems with bullying, overwork, and retaining staff.  

The Mayo Clinic Well-Being Index app, according to the makers, is an online self-assessment tool that measures six dimensions of distress and wellbeing, and is used by more than 800 healthcare organisations around the world.

ACT health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said it “provides an opportunity for staff to check in and measure their own wellbeing, and helps leadership teams to identify areas across Canberra Health Services that may require more support”.

The Mayo Clinic says the app anonymously measures wellbeing in less than one minute, provides immediate resources to users, reports to ‘wellness leaders’, and tracks individual and organisational progress.

“Staff can complete a simple wellbeing assessment, and then access immediate resources relevant to how they are feeling at that point in time,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

“Information is anonymously shared with Canberra Health Services, who can track how staff are feeling over a longer period. This information will help Canberra Health Services to implement more initiatives and programs that help with staff burnout and promote wellbeing.”

The app will be rolled out in stages, Ms Stephen-Smith said: several cohorts – including graduate nursing staff, who “require more support and guidance as they begin their health careers” – will receive the first 500 licences. Another 500 licences will be rolled out by the end of the year.

CHS will evaluate the app’s usage and effectiveness, then offer it to all staff members.

The ANMF is sceptical.

“Why does CHS need an app to hear how staff are feeling?” branch secretary Matthew Daniel queried. “They have told them time and time again.

“Several damning reports into ACT Health workplace culture over the past few years, ongoing concerns about bullying and workplace violence, and the decision by the majority of nurses and midwives not to participate in CHS’ recent workplace culture survey also provide clear signals to the government.”

Two independent reviews into workplace culture within the ACT public health system (2019 and 2021) revealed inappropriate behaviours and bullying and harassment in the workplace, as well as inefficient procedures and processes, inadequate training, and poor leadership and management. Almost 13 per cent planned to leave within two years; and many would not recommend CHS as a good place to work.

The Canberra Health Services workplace culture ‘pulse’ survey (February) was not statistically valid, as the Canberra Times reported; only 35 per cent of staff responded (nearly 3,000 responses received out of 8,000 staff), less than the 40 per cent required.

Canberra Health Services, however, considers the organisational response rate of 35% representative for an organisation as large as theirs. BPA Analytics conducted a response rate validation test, which assesses whether a greater response rate would make the results more positive or negative. The level of positivity of CHS respondents remained relatively consistent over the census period, a CHS spokesperson said. “BPAA advised this flat trend line indicates a greater response rate would not have had a significant impact on the overall results,” a CHS spokesperson said. “For this reason, we can have confidence in the pulse survey results.”

“Further, in a recent ANMF ACT survey of members, nurses and midwives state that the culture at CHS is the worst it’s ever been,” Mr Daniel continued.

Last year, an ANMF petition last year stated that the pandemic worsened workplace issues for nurses and midwives: lack of proper workforce planning; chronic staff shortages, skill-mix issues, and excessive overtime; burnout, stress, fatigue, and poor psychosocial wellbeing; and worsening workplace culture, including poor morale. They called for a recovery plan for nurses and midwives, focused on their health and wellbeing, which includes better workforce planning, workplace safety, wellbeing initiatives, and workplace culture.

• Public health services: Workplace culture improving, but bullying still a problem (12 November 2021)
• Health system is bleeding staff, Canberra Liberals claim (18 May 2022)
• ACT nurses and midwives call for recovery plan (30 July 2022)

In response, the ACT government set up an $8.5 million Health Workforce Wellbeing and Recovery Fund to help workers recover from what Ms Stephen-Smith called “an incredibly difficult few years”. It would finance activities and initiatives, proposed by the workers themselves, across ACT public health services.

However, the ANMF ACT had reservations about the Fund. When it was announced, Mr Daniel said the government had not consulted the union; he was not sure how the Fund would work, or how it would integrate with workforce planning; and it put the burden of coming up with their own initiatives onto already overworked individuals and individual workplaces.

• $8.75 million wellbeing fund for ACT public health workers (5 October 2022)
• Wellbeing initiatives to support ACT’s health workforce (6 December 2022)

The app is the first initiative funded by this initiative, Ms Stephen-Smith stated. A restorative wellness space and a peer support program will be operational next month, with more to follow.

“These initiatives are evidence-based, co-designed and chosen by Canberra Health Services staff,” the minister said.

“It has been really exciting to see the teams using this Health Workforce Wellbeing and Recovery Fund, feeling empowered to come together to implement the initiatives that are best for their workplaces to support wellness and recovery.”

But the ANMF ACT does not believe these ‘feel-good’ measures will solve problems with staff numbers. While the ACT government committed to recruit 400 more healthcare workers this parliamentary term (100 more in 2022–23), Mr Daniel says more nurses are leaving the system than entering it.

• ANMF cautious about ACT government’s healthcare recruitment plans (29 July 2022)
• Is ACT falling behind on nurse-to-patient ratios? (26 August 2022)

“Right now, the government must focus on the retention of nurses and midwives, to stem the flow of, in particular, experienced nurses and midwives leaving the public health system,” Mr Daniel said.

“They can do this by ensuring nurse/midwife-to-patient ratios are met and improved, offer significantly higher salaries, pay retention bonuses like other jurisdictions, provide better work-life balance support, and agree to the ANMF’s recommendation for a nursing and midwifery recovery plan.

“If the government is serious about addressing nurses and midwives’ wellbeing, and retaining experienced nurses and midwives, it needs to take a number of critical steps immediately; none of which include introducing an app that tells them what they already know.”