Archived Professional News: May 2005
ANF lobbies for final jigsaw piece
National leadership is important to the nursing profession in Australia. While all states and territories have nurses in senior bureaucratic positions, the missing piece in the jigsaw is a chief nursing officer (however titled) at Australian Government level.
Despite constant protestations from a previous health minister that nursing is a state/territory issue, the Australian Government has a major responsibility for nursing, including:
- largely setting the health agenda using the national health priorities;
- funding service provision, which includes nursing, through funding agreements with the states and territories;
- having primary responsibility for Indigenous health and aged care;
setting the standards for service provision in sectors such as home and community care and care for veterans; and - having primary responsibility for education in the university sector, where registered nurses are educated.
Initiatives at a national level, particularly in the areas of rural and remote health, mental health, general practice and aged care, reinforce the nursing profession's view that there should be a national chief nursing officer to:
- advise government on nursing issues;
- contribute to decisions affecting the nursing workforce;
- liaise with state/territory chief nursing officers and the nursing profession generally;
- represent the Australian Government in national and international forums;
- coordinate national activities that impact on nursing; and
- track nursing initiatives from other government departments (eg. mental health, aged care, general practice, veterans' affairs, education etc).
In the international arena, the Australian nursing profession is seriously disadvantaged because it does not have a chief nursing officer to represent Australian interests.
There are many forums in which chief nursing officers meet to debate issues of importance to nurses, such as the newly constituted South Pacific Chief Nursing Officers Group and the Congresses of the International Council of Nurses.
Nurses and the health and aged care sectors in Australia would benefit from having a senior nurse present at these international meetings, and it would provide opportunities to the development of nursing and the enhancement of health care in other countries.
The cost of appointing a chief nursing officer is only about $1.2 million annually.
The establishment of such a role is a priority for the ANF and the nursing profession, and the ANF is lobbying Australian government ministers on the appointment of a chief nursing officer. While some ministers have made positive comments about the role, we do not yet have a commitment from the Minister for Health.
Victoria Gilmore
ANF Federal Professional Officer