Staff shortages in rural hospitals: Lessons from the past

Across Australia and elsewhere, there are critical shortages of hospital staff, particularly nurses. While the Covid pandemic has exacerbated staffing issues, the problem is long-standing, especially in rural areas. Hence it may be instructive to examine staffing practices from earlier times to see if lessons can be learned from them. In this presentation, we explore employment patterns at Mayday Hills Mental Hospital, Beechworth, Victoria, in the thirty years or so before its closure in 1995, using oral history interviews with former staff. Beechworth was an isolated country town, and the hospital was a major employer. Psychiatric hospitals elsewhere struggled to attract staff, but two factors operating at Mayday Hills assisted recruitment. Local people knew the hospital and its routines because generations of families worked there, and government jobs offered security unmatched in the private sector. However, the complex pattern of relationships built up over generations between staff and in the town meant that conformity to unwritten norms was rigidly enforced through pranks, hazing (bastardisation) and trade union activity. This research is part of a wider study into the history of mental health care in Beechworth (www.maydayhills.org.au).