Ethical issues in the recruitment and retention of graduate nurses: a national concern

Australia like other countries is facing a crisis in the recruitment and retention of nurses. Adding to this crisis is the insufficient supply of new graduate nurses to meet current and future workforce demands. Unless changes are implemented that will bring likely demand and supply into balance, it is predicted that by the year 2010 (just seven years away) there will be a shortage of 40,000 nurses in Australia. Significantly, the current shortage of nurses is resulting in hospitals, regions, states and countries competing fiercely with each other to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of nurses to meet their workforce needs. In some instances this situation has given rise to graduate nurse recruitment strategies that are highly questionable from an ethical perspective. In this paper attention is given to showing why the strategies used are unethical and how they might be addressed such as by adopting a national code for the ethical recruitment of nurses.