Safety & Security

A career in remote health can be high­ly reward­ing and present many pro­fes­sion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, but it can also have its chal­lenges. Remote health work­ers often report social, pro­fes­sion­al and geo­graph­i­cal iso­la­tion, with ser­vices most­ly pro­vid­ed in cross-cul­­tur­al set­tings in com­mu­ni­ties with com­plex health needs. It is impor­tant to know and fol­low your organ­i­sa­tion’s safe­ty guide­lines and pro­ce­dures to sup­port your per­son­al safe­ty and to devel­op resilience in fac­ing the recog­nised chal­lenges that arise.

A work­force sur­vey con­duct­ed in 2020 by CRANAplus iden­ti­fied key issues includ­ing ver­bal abuse, bul­ly­ing and harass­ment, motor vehi­cle acci­dents, dog bites, stalk­ing and oth­er intimidating/​threatening behav­iours, phys­i­cal harass­ment, issues with equip­ment and infra­struc­ture, and work­ing alone. Many of these issues can be pre­vent­ed or mit­i­gat­ed by sound risk man­age­ment and fol­low­ing safe­ty pro­to­cols and procedures.

These issues also cor­re­late with an increased con­cern for per­son­al safe­ty and well­be­ing, and can­not be sep­a­rat­ed from work­force sus­tain­abil­i­ty and reten­tion. The trag­ic death of Gayle Wood­ford in 2016 con­tin­ues to under­score the need for urgent and ongo­ing atten­tion to safe­ty from gov­ern­ment, employ­ers and com­mu­ni­ties, and the full imple­men­ta­tion of a ​‘Nev­er Alone’ approach to practice.

Improv­ing the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of remote workplaces

The safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the remote health work­force has remained a long­stand­ing pri­or­i­ty of CRANAplus. The below frame­work depicts our three key areas of com­mit­ment: pro­fes­sion­al sup­port, resources and advocacy. 

Pro­fes­sion­al Support

• Men­tal health and well­be­ing. Our well­be­ing work­shops teach skills to improve the well­be­ing and men­tal health of remote health pro­fes­sion­als. We pro­duce resources on self-care, which can be sent to work­places (email wellbeing@​crana.​org.​au). We offer a free course on man­ag­ing sen­si­tive work­place conversations.
• Edu­ca­tion. CRANAplus’ Safe­ty & Secu­ri­ty for Remote Health Pro­fes­sion­als online mod­ule enables the remote work­force to bet­ter appre­ci­ate work­place safe­ty guide­lines and how they can be used to pro­mote safe­ty. We encour­age pro­fes­sion­als to com­plete AMR­RIC’s Stay­ing Safe Around Dogs in Remote Com­mu­ni­ties Videos and Mod­ule, a 4WDing course, our Work­ing Safe­ly in Com­mu­ni­ty Night Patrol pro­gram, and Cul­tur­al Safe­ty train­ing, such as CATSI­NaM’s Mur­ra Mul­lan­gari course.
• Career guid­ance. The LINKS Men­tor­ing Pro­gram con­nects new-to-remote mentees with expe­ri­enced men­tors, build­ing capa­bil­i­ties in clin­i­cal lead­er­ship, deci­sion-mak­ing, and resilience. Our pro­fes­sion­al resources, includ­ing our Becom­ing a remote area nurse: essen­tial knowl­edge mod­ule, equip the work­force with help­ful information.

Resources

• Guides/​factsheets. Our fact­sheets out­line actions and process­es employ­ers, agen­cies, indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties can take to estab­lish and main­tain safe­ty and secu­ri­ty in remote and iso­lat­ed health work­places. See all safe­ty and secu­ri­ty guides and resources.
• Path­ways to Prac­tice. The Remote Area Nurs­ing Path­way Pro­gram pro­vides a path­way to a remote nurs­ing career. Our Path­way Incen­tive resource lists path­way sup­port to encour­age pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. We offer Under­grad­u­ate Remote Place­ment Schol­ar­ships to facil­i­tate preparedness.
• Bush Sup­port Line. Our free, con­fi­den­tial, 24/7 tele­phone sup­port line is open to all health work­ers and their fam­i­lies in rur­al, remote, and iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties. Call 1800 805 391 any­ time to speak with an expe­ri­enced psychologist.

Advo­ca­cy

• Posi­tion state­ments. CRANAplus gen­er­ates posi­tion state­ments on indus­try-wide issues to ampli­fy the voice of the remote health work­force. This includes our cor­ner­stone remote health work­force safe­ty and secu­ri­ty posi­tion statement.
• State and fed­er­al forums. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of CRANAplus hold posi­tions on steer­ing, advi­so­ry and work­ing groups, com­mit­tees and gov­er­nance bod­ies to rep­re­sent the work­force, fos­ter recog­ni­tion of safe­ty con­cerns, and advo­cate for effec­tive solutions.
• Writ­ten sub­mis­sions and con­sul­ta­tions. Through pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions, Sen­ate Inquiries, Roy­al Com­mis­sions, online sur­veys, jour­nal arti­cles and oth­er chan­nels, CRANAplus’ sub­mis­sions raise aware­ness of safe­ty needs and advo­cate for appro­pri­ate solu­tions to gov­ern­ments, reg­u­la­tors and oth­er bodies. 

If you have ideas about how CRANAplus could assist fur­ther with safe­ty and secu­ri­ty or would like to be involved in our advo­ca­cy, please email professionalservices@​crana.​org.​au