Report From Australia

Desley Hegney

doi:10.14574/ojrnhc.v6i2.148

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2006)

Columns

Report From Australia

Published 2012-04-12

Desley Hegney

Desley Hegney
The University of Western Australia

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Abstract

We have just held the Association for Australian Rural Nurses Inc conference. The conference was attended by about 90 rural nurses from around Australia. A major highlight of the conference is that we are now known as the Australian Rural Nurses and Midwives (ARNM). The governor of Queensland – Ms Quentin Bryce opened the conference. Speakers included Dr. Kim Walker who provided some suggestions on how we might address the nursing workforce shortages (other than recruiting from developing countries or taking advantage of the retrenchments in the UK). On the last day of the conference we had a great debate around current issues facing rural nurses and midwives. We noted that our nurse practitioners were still limited by their lack of ability to provide prescriptions that are subsidized by the Australian government. All nurses have been working to try to have this addressed without much success (mainly due to the medical lobby). They can write a private prescription (once they have a relationship with a pharmacy), but this costs the client much more than they would get it if the prescription was written by a doctor.

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Author Biography

Desley Hegney

Head, Discipline of Nursing

School of Population Health

and Professor and Chair of Nursing Research, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth