Recruiting nursing assistants to fill coronavirus gaps must be regulated to ensure adequate training to avoid risks in patient care.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian undergraduate student nurses and health workers here on visas from overseas are being encouraged to work as nursing assistants.
However, not all students will have had the same clinical experience or completed the same content by a given point in their course - meaning that they may not have equivalent knowledge or skills before working as a nursing assistant.
This variation poses significant problems.
If student nurses and current visa holders are to be recruited to assist in the pandemic, we need to ensure that they have all been trained and assessed to the same standard.
Read the full article on UTS News: 'Critical condition'