Nurses in the news

The latest Australian Primary Care Nurses workforce survey found that just over a third of nurses intend to leave primary care in the next 1-5 years, so it is essential that we train and grow a new workforce. Recently, an article in Pursuit regarding the importance of broadening the scope of primary care nurses to help address the current GP crisis sparked a wave of general media interest on the topic.

Tracy Murphy from the Department of General Practice and Primary Care (DGPPC) and Professor Marie Gerdtz from the Department of Nursing were invited to speak about the topic on three radio programs: JoyFM, ABC Radio’s Conversation Hour and ABC Radio’s Nightlife. The presenters were keen to discuss how nurses’ talents could be better utilised to support general practice.

The partnership between the two departments has been further cemented with a joint education initiative. Jo Martin and Kate Furlong from the Department of Nursing have been working with DGPPC to secure new placements in primary care. Fourteen final-year nursing students enrolled in the Master of Nursing Science will complete the Nurse Immuniser elective from the Graduate Certificate in Primary Care Nursing and then experience life as a primary care nurse with a novel placement in general practice. Their qualification as nurse immunisers means they will have valuable additional skills that may make them more attractive future employees to general practices.  By providing these students with general practice placement opportunities, we hope they will find the experience enjoyable and consider working in primary care in the future.

We also look forward to finding other ways in which our departments can work together to support general practice and expand the talents of the nursing workforce.

Read the pursuit article here: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/at2s

Listen to the interview on the Conversation Hour here: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/bg2s