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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Tuesday, 9 March 2004) . . Page.. 881 ..
masters program at the University of Canberra, which I understand is different from the programs offered interstate.
The trial emphasised team building and drew in associated doctors and others. This is a very good example of evidence based practice, and I would like to congratulate the people who designed and worked on the project. One of the very pleasing outcomes of the way the trial was conducted is the support of the medical association. There was in the past some fear expressed by doctors that nurse practitioners would be seen as a replacement for doctors. It is a great credit to the people involved who have turned this around to show how it would work as a complement and not a replacement. The sex worker outreach nurse practitioner, for example, was providing health checks and care to a group of women who were unlikely to reach it otherwise. The role of a nurse practitioner within a general practice clinic is another that will make a big difference, allowing more ongoing oversight and treatment of, for example, wounds. I understand that the Medicare schedule has been updated to again allow claims specifically for nurse consultations. This was one issue raised by the GPs, when they briefed members here last year, as a reason for having stopped having practice nurses some time ago. So, although nurse practitioners will not replace doctors, they will work in complementary ways that will ease some of the pressure.
The particular areas where we will have nurse practitioners in the ACT will depend in part on the skills of available nurses as well as need. This bill makes changes to the Health Act to recognise nurse practitioners, including the capacity for regulation about the scope of practice of nurse practitioners. It also makes essentially consequential amendments to the acts relevant to the practice of nurse practitioners that are foreseen at this stage. So, for example, again the sex worker outreach role required amendments to the Prostitution Act so that a nurse practitioner is recognised for the purpose of the statutory health check.
Similar amendments to recognise nurse practitioners for various statutory roles are made to the Mental Health Treatment and Care Act, to the Road Transport Act in relation to breath testing, and to the rights of an arrested person to be examined by a doctor, which is expanded to include nurse practitioner, and amendments to allow nurse practitioners roles in STD and tuberculosis identification and notification.
The Greens are pleased to support this bill, and we look forward to seeing as soon a possible nurse practitioners taking up some of the work in our health care system.
MS DUNDAS (11.24): The ACT Democrats are proud to support this piece of legislation. We are all aware that a high proportion of qualified nurses leave the profession well before normal retirement age. Increasing the number of graduates has not led to a commensurate increase in the number of practising nurses, so we obviously need to improve conditions in the workplace.
The national review of nursing education found that nurses were leaving the profession in droves because they thought that their knowledge and skills were not being respected. Other reasons cited for leaving the profession have included low pay relative to the workload and responsibility, and stress due to staffing shortages. A nurse practitioner accreditation scheme has the potential to address all of these problems in the longer term, provided that the government commits enough funding to new nurse practitioner
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