A healthcare crisis looms over Australia in the next 10 years since a new survey released on Tuesday warned that half of nurses in the country plan to quit their jobs in that period.

The nurses cited excessive workload, unclear career path, low compensation and nonflexible working hours as the reason behind their plan to leave the profession.

They survey of 200 nurses made in February found that 51 per cent of the respondents plan to quit within the next 10 years and another 17 per cent within five years.

At least 67 per cent of them would quit due to retirement, but the remaining 33 per cent plan to leave the profession while still within employable age because of the reasons cited above.

Peter Hartel, general manager of Kronos Australia which commissioned the survey, warned that prolonged dissatisfaction with their workload would lead the nurses to lower productivity and low retention rate. Among the reasons behind their complaint over their lower productivity cited by the nurses were too much workload, reported by 56 per cent, and lack of technology or inability to use the technology, mentioned by 20 per cent of the respondents.

The Kronos study was released after the April release of the federal government's Health Workforce 2025 report which forecast a nurse shortage of 109,000 or 27 per cent of the total nursing workforce needed by Australia at that time.

As it is, Australia is experiencing a nurse shortage and has to fill the gap by hiring international nurses. In the 2011-12 financial year, sponsorship of nurse visa applications rose 21 per cent to 6,700 from the previous year.

Australia has about 370,000 nurses and midwives and 36 per cent of them are aged 50 and above. Mr Harte pushed for more flexible working hours for nurses because the demand for more healthcare services is expected to go up in the coming years and the country's population ages.

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