CRANAplus: What do you iden­ti­fy as the most sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges fac­ing the rur­al and remote area nurs­ing work­force? How will the Gov­ern­ment work with peak indus­try organ­i­sa­tions to address these challenges?

The Hon Mark But­ler MP: Nurs­es are the lifeblood of our health sys­tem and have endured two years of the most dif­fi­cult con­di­tions as they have con­tin­ued to care for patients dur­ing the pandemic.

I met with many of these nurs­es over the last few years, includ­ing in region­al and remote areas. Two of the nurs­es I met were Saman­tha and Georgie, work­ing on the NSW South Coast. They were clear about their chal­lenges, work­ing through fires, floods and the pan­dem­ic, and were fight­ing for bet­ter health care ser­vices for their community.

The Mor­ri­son Gov­ern­ment did not invest in our health work­force, par­tic­u­lar­ly nurs­es. The Albanese Labor Gov­ern­ment will work with key stake­hold­ers includ­ing nurs­ing peaks, employ­ers and state and ter­ri­to­ry gov­ern­ments to attract, sup­port and retain nurs­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rur­al and remote areas.

As part of that work we are devel­op­ing a Nation­al Nurs­ing Work­force Strat­e­gy (the Strat­e­gy) and imple­ment­ing the Nation­al Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Health Work­force Strate­gic Frame­work and Imple­men­ta­tion Plan 2021 – 2031. The devel­op­ment of the Strat­e­gy will include exten­sive con­sul­ta­tion with stake­hold­ers and be guid­ed by the Nurs­ing and Mid­wifery Strate­gic Ref­er­ence Group, which includes CRANAplus, and oth­er key rur­al and remote stakeholders.

CRANAplus: A sus­tain­able, ade­quate­ly staffed remote area nurs­ing work- force would sup­port con­ti­nu­ity of care and improved health out­comes. But it can be chal­leng­ing for nurs­es to find a defined path­way from metro to rur­al to remote. Do you recog­nise a need for a sus­tain­able remote area nurse path­way and if so, how will the Gov­ern­ment sup­port this?

The Hon Mark But­ler MP: Nurs­es should be able to more eas­i­ly move from met­ro­pol­i­tan roles into rur­al and remote roles. 

This issue will be addressed as part of the Nation­al Nurs­ing Work­force Strat­e­gy – the craft­ing of which, and con­sul­ta­tion, is cur­rent­ly underway.

Work is also under­way on the devel­op­ment of a Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er 10 Year Plan. The Plan will set out actions to address chal­lenges and bar­ri­ers fac­ing nurse prac­ti­tion­ers which will pro­mote work­force sus­tain­abil­i­ty in pri­ma­ry health care. 

Rur­al and remote nurse prac­ti­tion­ers are a key part of that workforce. 

The Gov­ern­ment has com­mis­sioned a nurs­ing work­force Sup­ply and Demand study to pro­vide evi­dence to assist in mak­ing appro­pri­ate pol­i­cy and fund­ing deci­sions. This is expect­ed to be pub­lished in the sec­ond half of this year.

CRANAplus: Remote health pro­fes­sion­als often have sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns for their safe­ty and secu­ri­ty. Iden­ti­fied safe­ty risks includ­ing phys­i­cal assault, ver­bal abuse, bul­ly­ing and harass­ment. Staff accom­mo­da­tion, clin­ic facil­i­ties, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems are often felt to be inad­e­quate. There’s a call for wide­spread improve­ments. How can this be achieved?

The Hon Mark But­ler MP: The Albanese Gov­ern­ment recog­nis­es nurs­es and mid­wives are report­ing increased fatigue and burnout. 

That’s why dur­ing the recent elec­tion cam­paign, I announced the Nation­al Nurse and Mid­wife Health Ser­vice would be rolled out across Australia. 

The ser­vice will pro­vide free, con­fi­den­tial and inde­pen­dent advice, sup­port, infor­ma­tion, treat­ment and spe­cial­ist refer­rals for nurs­es, mid­wives and stu­dents. The local ser­vices will be mod­elled on the Nurs­ing and Mid­wifery Health Pro­gram Vic­to­ria (NMH­PV) and is expect­ed to be deliv­ered in con­junc­tion with oth­er pro­grams such as the CRANAplus Bush Sup­port Line.

The safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the nurs­ing work­force, includ­ing in rur­al and remote areas, is a major con­cern. The Albanese Gov­ern­ment is work­ing with stake­hold­ers includ­ing state and ter­ri­to­ry gov­ern­ments to sup­port and pro­mote safe work­ing envi­ron­ments across the health sector.

CRANAplus: Peo­ple liv­ing in remote Aus­tralia expe­ri­ence poor­er health out­comes and high­er rates of pre­ventable dis­ease than their urban coun­ter­parts. What role can nurs­es play in address­ing this inequal­i­ty? Do you see oppor­tu­ni­ties for them to be empow­ered to have even more of an impact?

The Hon Mark But­ler MP: I recog­nise nurs­es are the front­line of our health ser­vices and play a crit­i­cal role in improv­ing the health and well­be­ing of their patients through the care, edu­ca­tion and aware­ness they pro­vide for patients. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly true for those in rur­al and remote areas.

Nurs­es and nurse prac­ti­tion­ers are sup­port­ed with a range of tai­lored pro­grams to empow­er the nurs­ing work­force through team-based mod­els of care. These ini­tia­tives build nurse capa­bil­i­ty and capac­i­ty to deliv­er pre­ven­ta­tive care so Aus­tralians can keep healthy and well. These include the:

1. Nurs­ing in Pri­ma­ry Health Care Pro­gram
2. Train­ing and Pro­fes­sion­al Sup­port for the Remote Health Work­force Pro­gram
3. Work­force Incen­tive Pro­gram (WIP) –Prac­tice Stream.

The Gov­ern­ment also funds the Con­gress of Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Nurs­es and Mid­wives (CATSI­NaM) to sup­port and devel­op the grow­ing First Nations nurs­ing and mid­wifery work­force to bet­ter meet the needs of First Nations people.