About one in eight staff in Canberra's public health system have indicated they intend to leave in the next two years.
Mental health nurses and midwives have also had the highest number of resignations in nursing, with a workforce plan for nursing and midwifery at Canberra Health Services identifying the cohorts as areas of key priority over the coming years.
The workforce plan, released last week, showed that the turnover rate for nursing and midwifery had increased over the past year, with COVID-19 burnout expected to increase the retirement rate of the workforce.
Concerns have been raised about senior and experienced staff leaving the territory's public hospitals, particularly in the intensive care unit after there were 25 resignations over the Omicron peak.
A document, released under freedom of information, showed results from a staff culture survey in November. There were 3852 staff surveyed, about 50 per cent of the total workforce, and 13 per cent of respondents said they intended to leave Canberra Health Services in the next two years.
There were only 39 per cent of staff who believed their workload was fair and equitable and only 37 per cent believed their achievements were recognised.
The workforce plan for nursing and midwifery at Canberra Health Services from 2022 to 2023 showed the top three reasons for leaving Canberra Health Services for nurses were new employment opportunities, a change in personal circumstances and retirement.
The highest "separation rate" was within the mental health, justice health and alcohol and drugs services at more than 19 per cent.
The plan also identified issues with a skills mix, which is an issue that was recently highlighted by Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith.
"In recent years, CHS has struggled to attract appropriate skill mix of staffing in specific areas of need," the plan said.
"Signifcant skills deficits are known within midwifery, neonatal intensive care, niche specialties, mental health nursing and educators to the workforce."
Canberra Health Services has developed a two-year plan to attempt to improve these issues, it includes the implementation of nurse-to-patient ratios, a new framework, rostering reviews and targeted recruitment.
The documents on the results of the workplace survey were released to opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley. She said this should be a wake-up call to the government that the system was "bleeding staff".
"Why on earth do so many people want to leave, a nurse studies for years and years ... it's not something you study for years and want to leave quickly you assume you are going to be a nurse for a long time," she said.
"So why are so many happy to say in a survey that within the next two years that I'll be leaving and what on earth is the Minister doing about it."
While there were low results for employee satisfaction, Canberra Health Services chief executive Dave Peffer told staff in an email when the survey results had been received that bullying and harassment had dropped by 18 per cent. He also put staff on notice and subsequently some senior staff have been let go.
