Practice Nurses Pivotal To Easing Primary Care Pressure, Australia

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 08 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Nurses play a key role in supporting general practice and giving people access to primary health care services, the Australian Practice Nurses Association (APNA) and Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) said after the release today of two reports on general practice and practice nurses in Australia.

The Australian Practice Nurse Study, released by the Australian National University (ANU) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report on general practice both show the benefits of using a variety of health professionals, particularly practice nurses in general practice.

Lee Thomas, ANF Assistant Federal Secretary, said nurses welcomed evidence that there had been a move towards multidisciplinary care and the use of practice nurses in general practice.

"Nurses are a pivotal part of making sure people have access to quality health care in the community. Increasingly general practices are employing practice nurses to carry out chronic and early childhood health checks; sexual health and cancer screening checks - all major parts of the primary health care initiative," she said.

Belinda Caldwell, APNA CEO applauded the ANU report saying evidence of a move towards practice nurses in primary health was promising, but she added that more needed to be done by government and policy makers to build on the benefits they bring.

"The community increasingly needs and wants access to a range of health professionals to assist them in managing their chronic diseases, lifestyle issues and many other health concerns. Practice nurses are ideally placed to fill this need."

Source
Australian Nursing Federation