Archived Media Releases: 3 March 2006

Nurses want genuine collaboration, not trench warfare

The Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) new plan for a ‘medical dream team’ with doctors at the head of the team does not reflect the collaborative and patient care-focused model which nurses and the ANF have been advocating.

COAG, the Productivity Commission and all health professionals apart from doctors agree that a multidisciplinary model with nurses and allied health professionals taking greater responsibility for decision making in and delivery of health care and with patients being able to access rebates through Medicare for their services is the way of the future.

ANF federal secretary Jill Iliffe, said ‘Medical practitioners are just one member of the multidisciplinary team and are not always the most appropriate health care practitioner to lead the team. Collaborating in the provision of primary health care means accepting that each team member’s skills are of equal value in contributing to the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

‘It is arrogant to suggest that the doctor is the only member of the health care team who has the qualifications and skill to lead the team. It is also arrogant to suggest that the doctor is the most pivotal member of the health care team. As far as nurses are concerned, it is the patient who is the pivotal member of the health care team’, Ms Iliffe said.

‘Nurses value and respect the contribution doctors make and acknowledge they bring particular and unique skills to the health care equation. Nurses want to work collaboratively with doctors.

‘It is time the AMA, and the doctors they represent who support their policies, stopped thinking their contribution is more important and more valuable than that of any other health professional. They need to start showing a little more respect for the nurses and other health care professionals who work with them in caring for the health and well being of the Australian community,’ says Ms Iliffe.

Media Contacts
Jill Iliffe, Federal Secretary 0419 576 590
Ged Kearney, Assistant Federal Secretary 0417 053 322
Lani Stanistreet, Manager Communication & Journals 0414 471 339

The ANF, representing 145,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses in Australia.