The purpose of the Nursing in General Practice program is to provide Practice Nurses with education and support in their role within general practice.

Aims

  • Encourage and assist with the recruitment of practice nurses.
  • Provide ongoing education to enhance practice nurse skills and knowledge.
  • Provide networking and peer support opportunities.
  • Provide information and assistance to practice nurses to ensure the appropriate and efficient use of the MBS item numbers for Practice Nurse Services.
  • Improve the prevention and management of chronic disease.

How ACTDGP is promoting this program

  • Visits to general practices
  • Provide ongoing education to enhance practice nurse skills and knowledge.
  • Provide professional development opportunities for Practice Nurses.
  • Bi-monthly electronic resource and education update

Funding

Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing

Who can help

Program Officer—Dawn Coulson
Ph: 02 6287 8099
Fax: 02 6287 8055
GP Advisor—Dr David Poland
Last update 4 March 2010

AGPN Practice Nurse Workforce Survey

The Australian General Practice Network released the results of the 2009 National Practice Nurse Workforce Survey in late March. Main findings of the report include:
  • Network member organisation data shows the number of Practice Nurses in 2009 as 8914 a 15.3 percent increase since 2007 estimates (7728)
  • From Network member organisation data, it is estimated that on average 56.9 percent of general practices employ one or more Practice Nurses (similar to 2007, 58 percent)
  • In practices that employ a nurse the GP to PN ratio in 2009 is 2.01:1 (headcount) corresponding to a 2.3:1 ratio in 2007. In full-time equivalent (FTE) terms the ratio in 2009 is 3.0 GPs : 1 PN, also lower than the 2007 FTE ratio of 3.42 GPs : 1 PN. This continues a trend seen in 2007 of more Practice Nurses per general practitioners
  • In 2009, 84.8 percent of Practice Nurses are registered nurses (79.4 percent in 2007) and 15.2 percent enrolled (15.1 percent in 2007). Similar to 2007 although with a small increase of registered nurses
  • Similarly to previous year¡¦s results, the bulk of the Practice Nurse workforce (79.7 percent) is aged 40 years or older (78 percent in 2007)
  • In 2009, there were 67 Aboriginal Health Workers employed in the 826 practices that responded to the survey. This represents a relatively higher proportion than for the 2007 survey that showed that nationwide, 20 Aboriginal Health Workers were employed in the 623 practices that responded
  • The majority of Practice Nurses (79.6 percent) worked part-time and 20.4 percent full-time. This was consistent with the 2007 results showing that 75.5 percent worked part-time
  • 32.3 percent of Practice Nurses in 2009 reported being employed in at least one other nursing job, again similar to 2007 when 30.7 percent were employed in another nursing position. This attributed to the part-time nature of the industry
  • In 2009, the proportion of practices employing one Practice Nurse was 24.8 percent (34.1 percent in 2007). The proportion with more than five Practice Nurses has grown slightly since 2007 (from 6.27 percent) to 6.7 percent in 2009. It appears that the overall structure of Practice Nurses per practice is relatively stable since 2007 but a clear trend shows that the majority have more than one
  • From practice data, 49 percent of Practice Nurses are located in RA1 ¡V Major cities of Australia, 19 percent in RA2 ¡V Inner Regional Australia and 18 percent in RA3 ¡V Outer Regional Australia. The remaining 14 percent are located in RA4 and RA5 (Remote and Very Remote Australia)

 

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