A $1 million campaign, created by advertising agency 303, aimed at attracting registered nurses back into the public health system will screen on Perth television screens next month.
The campaign will cover both print and television.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Bob Kucera said the $1 million spend would come out of the $16.4 million the Government was spending on nursing recruitment.
“One of the offers in the campaign will be free registration and refresher courses for registered nurses who have been out of the system for some time,” she said.
“These refresher courses have been running for some time.
“At the moment the courses are pretty full, but more will be opening soon.”
303 director Ray van Kempen, who was overseeing a shoot for one of the nursing campaign advertisements when WA Business News contacted him, said registered nurses who had left the system would be the primary focus of the advertising.
“The ads will reinforce that nurses are valued in the system,” he said.
“A reasonable amount of money has been spent on getting nurses into the system previously.
“The thinking is that it will be easier to get registered nurses back into the system than trying to train-up new ones. The secondary focus of the campaign is the general public and people who are thinking of nursing as a career.”
The advertisements are only a part of the campaign the Government has launched to try and draw nurses back into the system.
Last month Mr Kucera wrote to the 25,000 registered nurses in WA, inviting them to come back to the public system.
This letter caused considerable angst among those in the private health system.
Private hospital chief executives slammed the Government’s letter, branding it a blatant attempt to poach nurses from private hospitals.
The nursing shortage is causing considerable hardship to both the private and the public health system.
