Aging & Social Change: Tenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Australia’s nursing workforce comprises representation of people from CALD, Aboriginal, LGBTQI backgrounds as well as people living with disability. We explore the experience of discrimination in Victorian public hospital nurses. Using the 2018 Victorian Public Sector Commission People Matter’s Survey, we conducted a secondary analysis of nurses (n=18963) who completed the core health survey and the diversity and inclusion module. Nurses were divided into generational groupings: Generation Z (<24), Y (25-34), X (35-54) and Baby Boomers (55+). Descriptive and statistical analysis were deployed. Of 18,963 respondents, 85% were female (n= 16, 118), 24.3% were CALD (n=4,608), 5.3% were same-sex attracted (n=1005), 0.6% were Aboriginal (n=114), and 1.8% had a disability (n=341). Overall, 6.7% reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace in the areas of : opportunities for promotion (2%) and training (1.6%), access to leave (1.3%) employment security (1.1%) and pay conditions (1.0%). 2.8% of Generation Z and 7.2% of Baby Boomers cited discrimination for Ageism. Nurses in minority subgroups experienced more discrimination. The large numbers of ‘prefer not to say’ nurses experienced poorer satisfaction and engagement at work. CALD nurses reported being more satisfied and engaged in their jobs. Self-reported discrimination was low, however there were a high proportion of participants who selected ‘prefer not to say.’ Possible reason for this include fear of discrimination and subsequent non-disclosure. Higher levels of job satisfaction and engagement in CALD nurses may reflect the experience of better working conditions than in their countries of origin.