New research into the nursing workforce shows that 15 per cent of nurses are retiring every five years and more and more work only part-time. One in every two enrolled nurses are dropping out of the job. At the same time one-third of students are not finishing their nursing courses. The reasons for the attrition are harsh working environments and long working hours.

The nursing workforce in Australia is also ageing. In 2005, the average age for registered nurses was 45.0 years and for enrolled nurses it was 45.5 years. The proportion of nurses aged 45 years or over increased to 55.3% of the nursing workforce, with 19.1% over the age of 55 years.

These figures have implications for nursing education and for workforce planning as over 50% of nurses will be contemplating retirement within the next 15-20 years and it is likely they will be those with the most experience and with specialist qualifications or expertise.

There has been an increase in the number of people completing undergraduate nursing courses each year between 2002 and 2007.However, while the figures are improving this increase is not considered sufficient to meet the demand for nurses now or in the future.

The national nursing workforce shortage is estimated to be around 19,000 and using the same formula of 30% of the population in rural and remote locations then this would extrapolate to an estimated 5400 nurses and 600 midwives required to meet demand in these remote locations.