Reach the PIP QI Incentive Targets with our Nurse Immuniser Online Course
Around 63% of general practices in Australia employ- at least one nurse, and there are approximately 14,000 nurses who work in general practice. Nurses are playing an increasingly crucial role in primary health care. Their skills are increasingly in demand to maintain the quality and the continuity of care to the patients.
The new PIP QI incentive program that was introduced by the government on August 1st encourages general practices to participate in continuous quality improvement and provide PIP Eligible data sets to the local PHN. General practices who are successful in fulfilling the PIP QI incentives are entitled to receive financial support from the government, which can total to approximately $12,500 per quarter.
“The practices have to choose four quality assurance projects a year, which can be based on the improvement measured reported to the PHN, or the projects can be something individual that’s important to your local community – maybe you have a lot of refugees, so you’re going to choose something to support them. But certainly, you can choose immunisation, such as trying to increase the number of people with diabetes and COPD who are immunised against influenza,” said Nurse Immuniser, Tracy Murphy.
Three of the PIP QI improvement measures are related to immunisation. Nurses can play a vital role in ensuring the delivery of these immunisations, and that the data entry, reporting and documentation are entered correctly.
Nurse Immuniser, Tracy Murphy RN RM MANP directs the Immunisation (Nurse Immuniser) Online Course which she created with The University of Melbourne – Mobile Learning Unit. This course will contribute to the quality improvement of a general practice, and it will also help general practices improve immunisation rates and to fulfil the PIP QI incentives.
“One of the problems in general practice is that a lot of data is entered freehand, so the data won’t be in a form that would be easily pulled. That’s something that practices need to work on. So, for nurses, there may be some opportunity for them to be involved in data entry, and the more they understand about immunisation the better they can identify and opportunistically vaccinate patients,” explained Tracy.
This online course includes a clinical placement which can be completed at the nurse’s place of employment supervised by a nurse immuniser or GP. This provides an opportunity for nurses and GP’s to work together and identify each other’s strengths improving teamwork and collaborative practice.
The learning outcomes of this course are consistent with the National Immunisation Education Framework for Health Professionals. Through this online course, nurses will learn the legal and ethical considerations for immunisation practice, evaluate the impact immunisation programs have on public health, describe the vaccine preventable diseases, and demonstrate knowledge of the cold chain national guidelines, management, reporting and accurate documentation. This course not only will benefit the general practices in terms of quality of service, but it can also help with reaching the PIP QI targets.
On successful completion of this course you can practice as a nurse immuniser in Victoria. Nurses working in other states should check if this course will attract recognition of prior learning with their local state or territory health department.
To learn more about this course, please visit the link below and connect with us today.