Editorial


 4

Editorial 
 

REPORT FROM AUSTRALIA 
 

Desley Hegney 
Editorial Board Member 

 
 

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. 

We also looked at the move in Australia for a national registration. At present, we 
are registered in individual States/Territories, and each time we move we have to re-
register. Of course, we do have mutual recognition for most things – though there are 
differences between the States/Territories. In 2008 we will go to a national registration 
system – so there is a lot to be worked out before this happens. 

We also discussed the need for mandatory continuing professional education. At 
present, none of our nursing registering bodies require this. Victoria has been undertaking 
some research into whether this would be worthwhile, but their consensus seems to be 
that a mandatory system is not the way to go. 

In Queensland our rural nurses are experiencing a lot of change. For example, our 
State government is transferring mental health and community health to the Department 
of Communities from the Department of Health. This means the Department of Health 
will focus on acute care only. At the same time, there has been a reduction in the number 
of districts, and we have several senior nurses who have gone to being the director of 
nursing of a district, to being something (not sure yet) else within a larger district. So, an 
enormous amount of change is happening in our State. 

 
Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 6, no. 2, Fall 2006