Nursing on the North Coast: partnering for excellence in primary care

This week, Healthy North Coast is building the capability of primary care nurses on the North Coast by launching two programs that aim to support, develop and upskill them in their delivery of quality health care to their communities. Healthy North Coast is partnering with the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) in co-sponsoring 13 practices from across the region in the ‘Building Nurse Capacity’ program, and eight nurses in the ‘Transition to Practice Program ’, after a successful Expression of Interest process. The Building Nurse Capacity program will support nurses to develop nurse-delivered, team-based models of care – also known as nurse clinics. The Transition to Practice Program will support nurses who have transitioned to primary health care and provide them with additional assistance, including mentoring, exclusive education tools and resources, and networking opportunities. Monika Wheeler, CEO of Healthy North Coast, highlighted the importance of supporting nurses in primary care:

“We have so many amazing nurses in our region doing wonderful work in their practices and communities. These sponsorships are helping to build nurse capacity and empower our nurse workforce to work to their top of scope – putting all their knowledge and skills learned to work when they are delivering care to patients. This will ultimately support better health outcomes for North Coast residents. “Nurse-led clinics will also relieve some of the pressure on our GP workforce which has experienced significant strain in recent years. “I’m thrilled we can continue to build upon work that we’ve been doing in supporting the health workforce on the North Coast, especially after a rough few years, such as the Workforce Support and Wellbeing grants that we’ve recently offered,” added Ms Wheeler.

Karen Booth, President of APNA, who was in Lismore on Tuesday for the program launch, added her enthusiasm in seeing the sponsorships underway on the North Coast:

“We know that building capacity in the primary health care nursing workforce has great flow on effects. Strengthening skills and supporting nurses, especially in nurse-led care helps to not only support the GP teams that they work with, but also shares the workload and increases access to care for our communities. “We also know that the APNA Transition to Professional Program supports nurses to build their career path and aides recruitment and retention of nurses new to primary health care. APNA is delighted to be partnering with Healthy North Coast on these great new initiatives.”

Healthy North Coast and APNA are equally co-sponsoring the successful 2024 TPP students with $8,500 each, with no out-of-pocket expenses for the students, while participating practices in the BNC program will receive $7,500 each in a similar co-sponsorship arrangement. Overall, the total funding is $331,000 split equally between APNA and Healthy North Coast contributing $165,500 each. New Transition to Practice Program students and Building Nurse Capacity programs will be based throughout the Mid North Coast and Northern NSW regions, and focus on a range of key priority health areas such as cardiovascular health, diabetes, cancer control, mental health and injury prevention and control. Brooke Fresen, Registered Nurse at The Lismore Clinic and a TPP student, described the benefit of participating in the program:

“As a new graduate Registered Nurse I was looking to expand my knowledge and increase my confidence in my new role. I heard about the Transition to Practice Program through Healthy North Coast. The application process was super simple and quick. I have now started the program and I am finding it very helpful in cementing my knowledge. The APNA team running the program have been easy to contact and helpful with any questions I have had.”

For more information on the TPP and BNC programs, head to APNA’s website.