AN120387 – Nursing Homes, &C., Nurses' (State) Award
(i) Nurses shall not be required to perform as a matter of routine duties: washing, sweeping, polishing and/or dusting of floors, walls, windows, corridors, annexes, bathrooms or verandas, except in an emergency.
(ii) Nothing in subclause (i) of this clause shall preclude the employment of nurses in the washing of beds, bedspreads, mattresses, bedside tables or the like, following the discharge of a patient suffering a notifiable infectious disease.
(iii) Nothing in subclause (i) of this clause shall preclude any nurse from being required to perform all or any of the specified duties, at any time when domestic staff is not available to perform them; provided that the employer has made all reasonable efforts to obtain domestic staff.
(iv) Subject to subclause (i) of this clause, an employer may direct a nurse to carry out such duties as are within the limits of the nurse's skill, competence and training. Such duties may include work which is incidental or peripheral to the nurse's main tasks, provided that such duties are not designed to promote deskilling.
Any employer may direct a nurse to carry out duties and use such equipment as may be required, provided that the nurse has been properly trained or has otherwise acquired the necessary skills in the use of such equipment. Any such direction issued by the employer shall be consistent with the employer's responsibility to provide a safe and healthy working environment for nurses and the employer's duty of care to residents.
(v) Assistants in Nursing may be employed under this award to perform mixed functions, provided that:
(a) The primary duties performed by the Assistant in Nursing, being the delivery of direct care to residents, occupy no less than the majority of the hours for which they are employed in any 28 day cycle.
(b) The Assistant in Nursing shall be paid at the appropriate rate for an Assistant in Nursing for all work performed for their employer in that classification.
(c) An Assistant in Nursing shall not be required to perform mixed functions where the employer does not provide adequate staff to ensure that the level of the quality of the service that would have otherwise been provided if the Assistant in Nursing did not perform mixed functions, is in fact provided.
(d) Subject to paragraph (a) of this subclause, an Assistant in Nursing may perform duties associated with a resident's well being and comfort, including functions of a laundry, kitchen or other personal support nature.
