Professional News: February 2010

Ready to tackle new challenges

A new year, and a new decade; it’s like being handed a blank page and given the opportunity to start writing new thoughts. Or drawing a line in the sand and leaving the past to the past, looking ahead to see how we can do things better in the future.

In the years since we hailed in the new millennium, nurses and midwives have been faced with some fairly weighty policy issues relating to their professions and to health and aged care. I’m thinking of the government’s health reform agenda, educational preparation including clinical placements, equity and access to health and aged care services, introduction of new cadres of workers, effects of global migration of health workers, e-health capabilities, devastation caused by natural and man-made disasters, widespread effects of infectious diseases, social justice and human rights, and the increase in mental health illnesses and chronic diseases including diabetes and dementia, to name a few. Nurses and midwives have been front line workers in dealing with the practicalities of these events.

A recent article in the MJA (16 Nov 2009) reporting on a health policy research conference noted that researchers with expertise in the fields of medicine, anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, nursing, history, law and political science exposed multiple disciplinary perspectives on critiquing and addressing current and future health policy problems. I was thrilled to see nursing included. Nurses and midwives are now ‘stepping up to the plate’ and increasingly voicing concerns and professional perspectives in health and ageing policy forums. We’re having an impact on policy formulation at many levels. We’re more savvy about negotiating and the need for compromise to achieve a greater good. But we also know when to be uncompromising in the face of real threats that would diminish our professional standards and standing, our ability to deliver safe competent care, and the access that people have to care services.

The challenges for the next decade for nurses and midwives in relation to policy development are:

• to strengthen the links between nurses and midwives engaged in practice, research and policy formulation;
• to be informed about the broader health and ageing agendas, including the social determinants of health;
• to be confident about the unique and positive contribution they make to all areas of health and aged care; and
• to be articulate, get involved in policy decision making and work together to develop a health system which best meets ever changing needs of our community.

For more information about the work of the Federal Office Professional team go to the national news section.

Elizabeth Foley
ANF Federal Professional Officer