Australian hospitals are experiencing a mass exodus of experienced critical care nurses as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches healthcare workers unlike ever before, prompting medical colleges to warn of a workforce crisis.

Australian College of Nursing chief executive Kylie Ward said roughly 20,000 nurses had given up their registration this year, a number that had shocked her during a global pandemic.

A recent survey by Monash University and Royal Melbourne Hospital of more than 7800 Australian healthcare workers (most of them based in Victoria) found more than 40 per cent had symptoms of PTSD by the final stages of the state’s second wave.

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