CQ Nurse.

When Australian nursing agency CQ Nurse began to expand its niche recruitment agency, specialising in rural and remote areas, the effects of a growing skills shortage soon saw rural hospitals, clinics and health services placing greater demand on the company to place work-ready nurses, and at a much faster pace.

For CQ Nurse, streamlining its paper based Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) training system became a business priority and led the company to look for a centralised online induction program that could assist with the health and safety training of its nurses. After having implemented WorkPro’s online OHS induction program for 12 months, they are seeing a host of benefits for clients, candidates and the business.

CQ Nurse Education Coordinator, Katrina Caban, said that as a specialist recruitment agency working with over 800 registered nurses who are placed across Australia, keeping track of candidates completing OHS training has been very difficult in the past.

Ms Caban explained that when she joined the company in 2007, inducting nurses in remote areas via mail, or trying to complete the induction over the phone, was always a very time consuming process. As the company continued to grow, Ms Caban soon realised that traditional paper based systems were no longer keeping up with the demand for nurses that were fully trained and ready to be placed in a role.

“In the past, the process could take up to a couple of weeks, as we generally had candidates filling in forms and sending them back via fax. If the forms weren’t filled out correctly or candidates forgot, I needed to call and chase them up. To keep up with the demand for nurses, it’s essential that our employees are work ready,” Ms Caban said.

“WorkPro was an obvious choice as not only does it cut the time spent on OHS training in half, it is accredited by the Recruitment Consulting Services Association (RCSA); is in accordance with Australian OHS legislation; in line with the high professional standards of CQ Nurse; and provides candidates with tailored nursing modules, including: infection control, hazardous substances, manual handling and emergency management procedures.”

“One of the main reasons we chose to adopt WorkPro is because of its portability which has shed a new light on the ease of completing inductions for remote area nurses and for those travelling from different areas. All candidates need is a broadband connection and a computer or laptop. For example, two nurses travelled from Sydney to Richmond, Queensland, and completed the OHS induction training on a laptop in the car.”

“Situations such as these prove to us that WorkPro is an ideal option,” she said. “Another nurse informed me that she completed two training modules while waiting for a flight connecting from Brisbane to the remote area where she was to commence work. The ease and accessibility in which nurses can conduct the training, makes it more possible for them to undertake training,” Ms Caban added.

CQ Nurse makes OHS training mandatory for every nurse on their books, which not only ensures everyone is aware of the issues relating to workplace safety, but employees’ assessment results are stored in a centralised database for future tracking and proof of training.

According to Ms Caban, WorkPro has helped the company to set a benchmark for employers who know the staff they’re hiring have had quality training that meets industry standards. After seeing results, CQ Nurse is now looking to work closely with WorkPro to assist in adding further modules to the system.

“It’s not only the OHS training that is reliable and efficient, the staff at WorkPro are always interested in knowing how the system can be improved and designed to suit our needs. We are now in discussions regarding the addition of different modules and I’m confident WorkPro will meet our requirements,” Ms Caban concluded.