Slow to embrace nurse practitioners
Australia has been slower to embrace nurse practitioners than other parts of the world, like the United Kingdom and Canada, where they have been caring for people for more than 50 years, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has claimed.
Queensland nurse, Gemma May O'Brien.
The ANMF welcomed the recent endorsement of Australia’s 1,000th nurse practitioner, but claimed legislative issues and ongoing opposition from other health professionals has continued to limit the ability of nurse practitioners to widen their scope of practice.
Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with high levels of education and the experience needed to perform in an advanced clinical role across a range of health settings.
Since the first recognition of a nurse practitioner in New South Wales in 2000, ANMF federal secretary, Lee Thomas, said nurse practitioners had made a significant contribution to the delivery of quality care throughout Australia’s health system.
“Increasingly, nurse practitioners are being called on to provide frontline services to healthcare consumers who otherwise would need to see their local GP, improving access to treatment, particularly in outer metropolitan, rural and remote communities across the country,” Ms Thomas said.
In 2010, nurse practitioners and eligible midwives were given extended powers to offer rebates on services under the Medicate Benefits Schedule (MBS) and to write prescriptions that qualify for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) subsidies.
“This authority has benefited patients by providing them with greater choices in accessing primary care and allowing them to claim rebates without the long waiting times they usually experience in a doctor’s surgery.” .
Ms Thomas added that she hoped the endorsement of Australia’s 1,000th nurse practitioner would mean the beginning of embracing the model of care practiced by nurse practitioners.
