It’s just been announced that in NSW a new nursing qualification has been created: that of Nurse Practitioner. These nurses, often with Masters degrees and many thousands of hours of advanced nursing experience will be able to undertake many of the tasks traditionally done by doctors. The rate of pay will be the same as for hospital Registrars.

There are already Nurse Practitioners working in rural areas, especially where doctors are scarce and they have proven very successful. It’s the extension of this approach to city based hospitals that is new, and initially these nurses will work in areas such as accident and emergency and mental health.

Of course, the Australian Medical Association is sounding the alarm bells in a very predictable and well-worn fashion - “who will supervise these nurses?” “who will carry the ultimate responsibility?” and the inevitable “patient safety is being put at risk!” I’ll bet you’ve heard these bleated complaints before.....

The real issue, as I see it, is where midwifery sits in this scheme of things. Midwives have traditionally had the education and skills to work as independent practitioners at this level, yet at present they are the only group of health professionals being barred from working in this way, primarily from a lack of recognition and professional indemnity insurance.

How can the Government support Nurse Practitioners and not support midwives in the same way? This is a question that will no doubt be raised as part of the campaign surrounding the launch of NMAP and the commitment of the Government to equity and access for midwives (as well as for women) will be under close scrutiny. Things are hotting up!

The only certainty is that the AMA will no doubt trot out the same statements regarding midwifery models of care as they have done for Nurse Practitioners. Australian might be a nation of gamblers, but this is one bet I wouldn’t want to take on! Posted by andrea at September 05, 2002 08:39 PM