Professional News: December 2009
2009: A time of collaborating for change!
This year has certainly been one marked by change or proposals for change. We’ve seen the release of health reform reports and the introduction of draft legislation which gave promise of great change for nurses and midwives. Disappointingly at this end of the year some of those promises are being eroded by powerful lobbying from vested interest groups outside of nursing and midwifery.
The ANF has taken a leadership role in negotiating and collaborating on a range of issues, both within our professional ranks and with the broader health professional groups, to try to gain the best outcomes for health care recipients. While collaboration may not always be easy, and sometimes involves compromise, the ANF sees it as vitally important for the nursing and midwifery professions to unite and achieve consensus wherever possible. We have made some strides forward in professional collaboration, for example, through the development of the Primary Health Care: a nursing and midwifery consensus view document, which outlines the vision of nurses and midwives for the development of a comprehensive primary health care strategy across Australia. However, what the events of 2009 have reinforced is that we commit to unifying on issues critical to ensuring that nurses and midwives are in a position to deliver on improved access to care in our health and aged care systems.
As the end of 2009 looms large we have been reviewing the policy areas our team has contributed over the year. Below is a snapshot of some of the policy areas of major concern (see National News on www.anf.org.au for more comprehensive information). Our team has enjoyed working with our colleagues in the ANF Branches in the provision of advice to governments and health related bodies on these issues.
• Health reform: National Health and Hospitals Reform; National Preventative Health strategy; National Women’s health agenda; National Primary Health Care (PHC) strategy; the PHC Roundtables bringing nurses, midwives and medical colleagues together.
• E-health and informatics: National e-health strategy; Health identifiers and privacy regulation; project to develop informatics competency standards for the nursing profession.
• Social justice: Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2009; participation as a member of the Australian Council of Social Services; cultural awareness training and ongoing development of Reconciliation Action Plan.
• Medications safety: advising the Australian Commission on Safety & Quality in Health Care on medication safety such as development of national standards on parenteral medicines and the national inpatient medication charts; National Prescribing Service; National Medicines Policy Partnership Forum.
• Joint ANF/RCNA Influenza Pandemic Working Group: including development of guidelines for nurses in clinical practice.
• Regulatory work: Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council – national standards for the accreditation of nursing & midwifery courses; Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009 and related Bills (Midwife Professional Indemnity); MBS Nurse Practitioner Technical Advisory Group; PBS Nurse Practitioner Technical Advisory Group.
• Aged care: Residential Medication management review; Aged care complaints investigation scheme; because we care campaign.
• Environment: climate change including education sessions with community groups.
An exciting development has been the recent negotiation of a special deal for ANF members and staff to have access to the CINAHL database of nursing literature. CINAHL is a powerful research tool that will assist nurses and midwives in their work and study, and will be invaluable to our professional team. This database is available to members through your ANF state or territory branch office. In addition, an e-library facility has been developed to enhance the on-going policy work and communication of professional officers between federal office and state/territory branches.
Our team continues to provide secretariat support to the work of the Coalition of National Nursing Organisations, an alliance of over 50 nursing and midwifery organisations. This group serves as an ideal forum for collaboration on issues of concern across the professions.
We wish you a happy and safe Christmas and New Year period and look forward to working with you, our members, in 2010 to further influence the policy frameworks for nursing and midwifery practice.
Elizabeth Foley
ANF Federal Professional Officer