Nine of the nation’s largest nursing and midwifery organisations have formed an Alliance to campaign for significant and meaningful primary health care reform.
The Alliance calls on all governments to enable nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, and allied health professionals to work to their full scope of practice to improve access to quality and affordable health care for all Australians, no matter where they live.
The Alliance of the nine Peaks – the Australian College of Nursing (ACN), the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA), the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP), the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), the Australian College of Midwives (ACM), the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN), the Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia (CRANAplus), and the Council of the Deans of Nursing and Midwifery (CDNM) – will campaign to promote the benefits of nursing and midwifery for all communities.
Securing support for the work of nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives – particularly ensuring they can work to their full scope of practice – is a critically important election issue for the alliance.
The campaign will work with the Federal Government, the Opposition, and all parties and Independents, to ensure significant health care reform in line with the raft of independent reviews under the Strengthening Medicare banner – including the Review of General Practice Incentives, the Review of After Hours Primary Care Programs and Policy, the Working Better for Medicare Review, and the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review.
The nursing and midwifery Peaks believe that the spirit of the consultation process throughout these reviews indicates that the Government recognises the growing health needs of patients and communities now and into the future – and the Government has an appetite for reform.
Patients and communities – especially in rural and regional and remote areas, including First Nations communities – will benefit when nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives can use their full skill set under their scope of practice.
Nurses and midwives have spearheaded the promotion of culturally safe care, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
There is a critical connection between education, skills development, workforce, and clinical practice. Nurses and midwives are well educated and highly trained to safely deliver a wide array of healthcare.
For over thirty years, they have been educated in universities, backed by evidence-based research that reflects changing models of care and use of new technology.
Nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives make up 54 per cent of Australia’s health workforce. They are the most geographically dispersed health workforce in the country.
But one-third of nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives in primary health care rarely work to their full scope. This must change.
Governments are clearly seeing evidence of the benefits of using nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, pharmacists, and other health professionals to work to their full scope in providing more accessible primary health care services in the community.
Nurse-led primary health care has been operating successfully in Australia for decades.
This success has been built upon in recent times with an increase in the number of nurse-led walk-in clinics in some jurisdictions.
They are popular with patients because they are easy to access and are free. They are supported by governments because they take pressure off general practice and emergency departments.
Fully utilising nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives will make health care more accessible and better value for all Australians.
The Nursing and Midwifery Peaks campaign includes:
- Meetings with MPs and Senators.
- Public and media education about the quality, breadth, and diversity of nursing and midwifery.
- Mainstream and social media materials and activity.
- Actively using evidence and data and facts to refute misinformation and ill-informed commentary on nursing, midwifery, and allied health quality, capability, and cost.
- Combined evidence-based policy and advocacy programs.
