More than 10,000 nurses have quit Queensland hospitals in the last five years, new figures show.
More than 10,000 nurses have left their roles in Queensland hospitals in the past five years over growing staffing issues, workplace violence and burnout, with warnings that nurses can no longer bear the brunt of public frustration.
Data obtained by News Ltd under Right to Information shows that 2,422 nurses left Queensland hospitals in 2024-25.
Over the past five years, more than 10,800 nurses have left the state’s hospitals.
The data also shows that psychological claims through WorkCover have increased by almost 50 per cent from 159 in 2021-22 to 234 in 2024-25.
But a Queensland Health spokesperson said the government had grown the health workforce by more than 10,000 staff, many across regional, rural, and remote hospital and health services.
More than 7,000 of those recruits were nurses, midwives, doctors and allied health professionals, the spokesperson told Health Services Daily.
“Queensland Health is enabling nurses to work to their full scope of practice by actively expanding advanced practice roles, nurse-led models of care, and nurse practitioner roles,” they said.
The current Queensland Health Nurses and Midwives Certified Agreement (NMEB12) gives wage increases and measures designed to attract workers and increase retention, role recognition, and long-term sustainability in the public health system, the spokesperson said.
“These strengthened entitlements ensure Queensland Health nurses and midwives receive nation-leading wages and conditions.”
The report comes after preliminary data from a new survey by the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU) found that 84% of respondents had experienced workplace violence in the previous year, and almost one third of those members had experiences three or more types of violence in the workplace.
QNMU secretary Sarah Beaman said the Grow Your Voice survey of more than 8000 members also found 15.6% of shifts in wards covered by legislated ratios were still below the minimum staffing requirement.
In wards and units without legislated ratios, almost 60% of shifts did not meet the same minimum staffing threshold, the survey found.
“For a long time, nurses and midwives, who are highly skilled problem solvers and extremely hard workers, have stepped up to try and absorb any staffing deficits,” Ms Beaman told Health Services Daily.
“They have performed unwanted overtime and double shifts to try and keep Queenslanders safe. They have also borne, quite literally, the brunt of public frustration with the state’s overloaded public health system.
“Despite QNMU-led initiatives, including the hard-won introduction of legislated nurse to patient and midwifery ratios in public hospitals, understaffing and unsafe workloads remain ongoing issues.
“The QNMU has repeatedly called for immediate and uniform workforce planning at both state and federal levels.”
Ms Beaman said that after years of “hanging in there” because they love what they do, more and more public nurses and midwives were leaving or considering leaving their roles because of unsafe staffing, unmanageable workloads or feeling unsupported by management.
“It is important to note there will always have some natural workforce movement such as retirement or relocation,” Ms Beaman said.
“We also need to distinguish between leaving an employer and leaving their professions.
“The big concern is when nurses and midwives who want to keep working feel they can’t due to unsafe conditions.
“This is no time to play politics or blame shift. Effective and sustainable change must be made by the government of the day if Queenslanders are to continue to access free, quality healthcare.”
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Ms Beaman said Queensland Health’s 2025 workforce gap analysis showed demand for nurses and midwives would increase by 50.5% by 2032.
That means an extra 21,331 nursing FTE and 967 midwifery FTE positions would be needed, she said.
“Given the growing need for free, quality care in Queensland, we cannot afford to lose skilled, experienced nurses and midwives for reasons that can and should be addressed.
“People are not walking away because they have stopped caring about nursing or midwifery. They are reaching a point where the job is unsustainable.”
Ms Beaman said the recent Grow Your Voice survey also found that 55% of permanent part-time respondents said they would prefer permanent full-time work, and almost 55% of casual and temporary respondents wanted permanent positions.
“However, converting to permanent employment can be difficult in the current system with almost four in 10 respondents said negotiating conversion to a permanent position was ‘extremely difficult’. A further 37.7% said it was ‘somewhat’ difficult.
“The state government has created unnecessary barriers to recruitment and retention.”
That recruitment was particularly challenging in regional, rural and remote areas, and targeted incentives can make a difference, Ms Beaman said.
However, Ms Beaman said the Crisafulli government had discontinued the Workforce Attraction Incentive Scheme which attracted more than 800 nurses and midwives to regional Queensland.
The Queensland government has vowed to increase the state’s number of health workers by another additional 46,000 by 2032.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said last month that the health workforce had already grown by 10,000 since November 2024 – including almost 3500 nurses and 1400 doctors.
Health minister Tim Nicholls said attrition across Queensland Health had dropped from 6.54% to 5.42% since the Crisafulli government came into power and the government was working hard to reduce the number of nurses leaving the profession.
“I don’t think anyone could raise any quibbles about the amount of time, energy, and effort that’s being put into retaining staff as well as bringing on new staff,” he told Nine newspapers.
This article was updated on 16 September with a response from Queensland Health.