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March
2004
New
projects for competency standards
A
team from the University of South Australia, in partnership with
Royal College of Nursing Australia, has been awarded the ANF
tender to develop competency standards for practice nurses.
The UniSA team, headed by Terri Gibson and Marie Heartfield,
developed the core competency standards for enrolled nurses for
the Australian Nursing Council in 2002. They were recently commissioned
by the National Breast Cancer Centre to develop competency standards
for specialist breast nurses.
Dr Heartfield and Ms Gibson, with funds from the Department of
Health and Ageing, also developed a mentoring framework for nurses
in general practice and reviewed the role and educational preparation
of nurses in general practice.
The practice nurse competency standards project is being managed
by the ANF and funded by the Australian Government Department
of Health and Ageing.
It will develop competency standards for both registered and
enrolled nurses working in general practice. The process will
include consultation with nurses and other key stakeholders in
cities and towns around Australia. Observation of nurses working
in a range of general practice settings will also take place.
The first stage of the general practice project is to review
the competency standards for the advanced nurse. These standards
were released in 1997 by the National Nursing Organisations (see
www.anf.org.au/NNO).
The NNOs have convened a reference group to assist with the review
of these standards which have been an important resource for
specialist nursing organisations when developing their own competency
standards.
The general practice project will be completed by January 2005
and the competency standards will then be available for use in
workplaces, education settings and other professional environments.
Further updates on this project both will appear in the ANJ and
on the ANF website at www.anf.org.au.
The ANF is also involved in the review of competency standards
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers.
Validation of the first draft was recently completed and a second
draft will be posted on the website of Community Services and
Health Training Australia in March this year (www.cshta.com.au).
In its first stage, the project is focussing on primary health
care, but negotiations are underway to include other Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander health workers such as social and
emotional health workers and hospital liaison officers. Some
specialist roles will also be considered at a later date: eg.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers in mental
health and sexual health.
Victoria
Gilmore
Federal Professional Officer |
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