You Don't Fill a Bath With the Plug Out

Queensland has lost nearly 11,000 nurses in five years. New figures show the exodus is getting worse, not better.

New data obtained under Right to Information shows Queensland hospitals lost 2,422 nurses in 2024/25, the worst 12-month loss in four years. In the first six months of this financial year alone, 1,674 nurses had already left, putting this year on track to be worse again. Over the past five years, the total sits at 10,824.

The Crisafulli government has committed to 46,000 additional health workers by 2032. At the current rate, it is going backwards before it has even started.

WHY NURSES ARE LEAVING

It isn't the workload. Nurses have always known the job is demanding. What's pushing people out is being told, shift after shift, to deliver care they know is unsafe, unsafe ratios, unsafe workloads, unsafe environments and then being told there's no problem.

A survey of the workforce found 15.6 per cent of ward shifts weren't meeting minimum staffing requirements. On wards without legislated ratios, that jumps to 58 per cent. WorkCover claims for psychological injury are up almost 50 per cent in three years, from 159 in 2021/22 to 234 in 2024/25.

One Gladstone emergency nurse, with more than 40 years' experience, said she left because she wouldn't let the health service "compromise my integrity and my registration." A Bundaberg nurse put it more plainly: "People are leaving, others are dropping hours just to cope. Sick leave is high because people are burnt out."

NPAA'S POSITION

NPAA president Kara Thomas says the numbers speak for themselves.

"Nurses are not leaving because the work is hard. They always knew it was hard. They are leaving because they are asked, shift after shift, to deliver care they know is unsafe, and then told there is no problem."

"Queensland Health says it needs another 21,000 nurses by 2032. It has lost nearly 11,000 in five years. You do not fill a bath with the plug out."

On the rise in psychological injury claims, Kara says it's "what happens when you ask people to work above ratio, without breaks, in wards where assault is treated as part of the job."

Queensland Health says it has grown its workforce by more than 10,000 staff in under two years, over 7,000 of them nurses, midwives, doctors and allied health workers, and that its attrition rate has fallen from 6.54 per cent to 5.42 per cent over the same period. NPAA's view: growing the intake means little while the exits keep climbing.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

"The government has a mountain to climb, the Minister's words, and it is losing the people who already know how to climb it," Kara says. "Every nurse who leaves takes years of training and judgement with them."

This is the same reason NPAA exists. When a shift is unsafe, when a workload complaint gets ignored, or when raising a concern puts a target on your back, NPAA can raise it on your behalf. That covers everything from unsafe staffing and ratio breaches through to bullying, grievance claims and disputes with management.

If unsafe staffing or workload is affecting your ward, tell us. Email hotline@redunion.com.au or call 1300 263 374. Anything you tell us can be raised without naming you.

Read the full report: Queensland nurses quitting in droves over fears unsafe staffing puts patients at risk, The Courier Mail, 13 September 2026.