Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday I attended the launch of the Australian College of Nursing white paper, titled 'Nurses are essential in health and aged care reform'. Nurses are amongst the most highly-regarded and valued professions in society. Nurses make up about half of the health workforce and are in the frontline of the provision of health services. For many rural and remote communities nurses are the first point of contact in primary health and often act as the sole provider of primary health services.

Nurses, however, face their own serious challenges. The average age of nurses is 44 years with too many younger nurses leaving the profession. By 2030, if existing trends continue, it is projected that Australia will have a shortage of 120,000 nurses.

Nurses have a unique insight into and direct impact on the success of programs, yet governments fail to adequately consult them or include them in strategic policy debates when developing health policy.

The nursing white paper offers a way forward for doing that and calls on the government to: recognise the nursing profession's role; invest in policy platforms that enable the full participation of the nursing profession; ensure the nursing voice is heard in strategic policy debates and reform developments; recognise the value of nurse led innovation; support nurses to work to their full scope and expanded scope, where necessary; and acknowledge the pivotal role of nurses in setting standards of care.

The government cannot be serious about health reform without genuinely including nurses in the process.