With the theme, ​‘Build­ing on strength for a sus­tain­able, skilled, and safe work­force’, our 40^th Anniver­sary Con­fer­ence pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty for remote health pro­fes­sion­als from across the coun­try to come togeth­er in cel­e­bra­tion of their achieve­ments and to explore oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve remote health.

While the mez­za­nine buzzed with thought-pro­vok­ing con­ver­sa­tions at over 30 exhibitor stalls, the CRANAplus Well­be­ing Lounge, back again for anoth­er year, pro­vid­ed a sup­port­ive retreat to relax and recharge.

CRANAplus also held its inau­gur­al Mes­sage Stick Gath­er­ing, where del­e­gates came togeth­er to dis­cuss the Nation­al Rur­al and Remote Nurs­ing Gen­er­al­ist Frame­work 2023 – 2027, in par­tic­u­lar, domain one – ​‘Cul­tur­al­ly Safe Prac­tice’. A col­lec­tive mes­sage of Cul­tur­al Safe­ty, craft­ed by the group, was then tak­en for­ward and passed on to the wider conference.

As del­e­gates viewed the his­to­ry pho­to wall, mem­o­ries flood­ed back and the pic­tures on dis­play turned into tales of past events. New and old friends alike shared expe­ri­ences, knowl­edge and exper­tise. Del­e­gates smiled over the wins, both big and small, and pon­dered the solu­tions in a series of robust discussions.

Del­e­gates were intro­duced to new­ly appoint­ed CRANAplus CEO Lin­da Kens­ing­ton, who launched the two-day pro­gram. Com­mon­wealth Chief Nurs­ing and Mid­wifery Offi­cer Ali­son McMil­lan PSM fol­lowed on with a hope­ful open­ing address, stat­ing that ​“With cri­sis often comes oppor­tu­ni­ty. We know the chal­lenges of pro­vid­ing equi­table, sus­tain­able health­care, but what we are see­ing now is a will­ing­ness to chal­lenge the bound­aries tra­di­tion­al­ly affect­ing nurs­ing and midwifery.”

We heard from Pro­fes­sor Eddy Stivens and Diane Cadet-James on research find­ings and suc­cess sto­ries from the Healthy Age­ing Research Team and their col­lab­o­ra­tive approach­es with com­mu­ni­ties in Far North Queens­land. Oth­er moments includ­ed the impas­sioned pre­sen­ta­tion from Won­narua woman and NP Les­ley Salem on the con­tin­ued chal­lenges and under­utilised capa­bil­i­ties of nurse prac­ti­tion­ers in rur­al and remote loca­tions; Dr J’Belle Fos­ter PhD on trans­la­tion­al research and her work to improve tuber­cu­lo­sis out­comes in the Tor­res Strait; Ali­son Weath­er­stone, Chief Mid­wife at the Aus­tralian of Col­league of Mid­wives on the organisation’s opti­mistic vision for the future; and Michelle Tay­lor, psy­chol­o­gist and lead­er­ship coach on new ways to approach­ing self-care. Work­force sus­tain­abil­i­ty and reten­tion emerged as key themes at this year’s event, as did scope of prac­tice, cul­tur­al safe­ty and co-design.

The con­fer­ence was closed out in style with a touch of ruby sparkle at the gala din­ner to com­mem­o­rate and cel­e­brate the sig­nif­i­cant 40-year milestone. 

We would like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to thank our major spon­sors Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty and JCU Cen­tral Queens­land Cen­tre for Rur­al and Remote Health for their val­ued con­tri­bu­tion to this event. 

To our many exhibitors and del­e­gates, we are grate­ful for your con­tin­ued sup­port and com­mit­ment to improv­ing remote health. 

We look for­ward to see­ing you at future events!