Nurse Practitioner Scholarships Welcomed, Australian Healthcare And Hospital Association

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 30 Oct 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) today welcomed Health Minister Nicola Roxon's announcement of $2.1 million for nurse practitioner scholarships targeting rural and remote areas.

The AHHA is the peak national body representing public hospitals, area health services, community health centres and public aged care providers.

"For too long Australians living in rural and remote areas have not had the same access to health care as those living in the cities. This is reflected in their overall poor average health status and shorter life expectancy," Ms Power said.

"There is no single solution to improving the health of rural Australians but increasing their access to high quality primary care is an important step forward. Nurse practitioners can play an important role in achieving this, particularly in areas with a shortage of GPs.

"Rural and remote communities already rely heavily on their nurses to deliver essential primary care services. This program will support those nurses who wish to increase their skills and experience to take on the additional responsibilities of the nurse practitioner role. This will improve both rural access to health care as well as increasing the skill base and flexibility of our rural health workforce.

"AHHA believes that our health workforce is our most critical health resource and needs to be used wisely to ensure that our health system can meet the community's health care needs. This means looking at new and innovative ways of using health professionals and equipping existing health workers with the skills they require to reach their full potential.

"The program announced today will be welcomed by rural and remote communities. AHHA looks forward to working with the Government on other innovative health workforce programs to address current gaps in access to care and inefficiencies within the system.

"In fact, given the importance of the health workforce to the future of our health care system, AHHA supports the establishment of an advisory agency, reporting to Health Ministers, to systematically facilitate and evaluate health workforce innovations including education and training models (vocational and clinical training) and their implications for courses and curricula, accreditation requirements and similar matters," Ms Power said.

Australian Healthcare and Hospital Association