ABSTRACT
Purpose: An estimated 13 million Australians live with one or more chronic eye conditions, with prevalence increasing. Eye care services today and in the future rely on effective workforces, in which nurses play a pivotal role. Despite nurse involvement in eye care, there is no information describing their engagement, deployment, training, and opinion. This paper offers the first review of nurse engagement in eye care in Australia. Methods: We conducted an e-survey on Australian nurse engagement in eye care. Quantitative questions were analysed by descriptive, chi-square and bivariate correlation coefficients with assumed power of 0.80, and significance of p=0.05. Grounded theory, sentiment and saturation analysis extracted key themes, meaning and opinion from the qualitative questions. Results: There were n=238 Australian nurse participants. Results indicated they were satisfied with their role, engaged in a wide range of healthcare and eye care setting and organisations, and adapted to their employer. Task-shifting "to" and "from" nurses was not universally supported but recognised by participants as necessary. Of concern, the results suggested that 68.6% of our participants would exit eye care over the next ten years, with insufficient entry pathways into the field for graduate and early-career nurses. Conclusion: For Australia to meet and sustain eye care services for its population, steps must be taken to improve exposure and entry to the field for students, graduates, and early-career nurses. Strategies to train and prepare nurses for task-shifting are urgently required and the eye care nursing sector must professionalise to achieve positive change.
