Best Practice Awards and more

Just to update you on the huge weekend at APNA.
We had PNCE Melbourne on Saturday and Sunday which had around 200 nurses attending. It is always fantastic to present at these workshops ("Role of the Practice Nurse- where to from here" and "Salary and Conditions") as all sessions always end up doing what nurses love best, sharing stories of concerns and successes. It is also a great time to put faces to names that have called and I was particularly thrilled to receive special thanks from a member for time spent with a her on the phone about 4 months back when she got fired from her practice without cause. She was able to update me and confirm my general suspicions that practices that do things like this are toxic places to work and that these members can go on to find great practices that appreciate them. As we are not an industrial body it was lovely for her to indicate that the time we spent with her encouraged her to seek further assistance from the ANF with the result that she received 6 weeks pay. We don't often get to hear the end results of some of the conversations we have and assistance we provide, so I felt very buoyed by this feedback.
On the Saturday night we had the Best Practice Awards. You will all know by now the winners and their stories. It was a fabulous night with nurses describing to me that they had goosebumps as they listened to the stories of the finalists and winners. you can all be proud of the amazing work that your peers are doing.
We also had the APNA Board meeting on Friday and Saturday where we discussed our plans and budget for 2009. Next year is a big year for APNA with our inaugural conference, being the final year of our current strategic plan and contributing to the health reform conversations. We will be making a concerted effort to consult with members around the National Primary Health Care Strategy and the next APNA 5 year strategic plan. What you want nurses to do that they cant currently do, where you want your career path to go, what services you want your professional association to focus on - next year will be the time to stand up and yell!
Finally, instead of getting the day off yesterday, I had to go to Canberra to participate in the Primary Care roundtable for the National Preventative Health taskforce. Given the feedback that I had received from nurses at PNCE over the weekend and the work of some of the Best Practice Award winners, I was able to vocally express that practice nurses are well placed and keen to be the clinical leaders in prevention in the general practice setting given the right funding models, training and support. This message was heard loud and clear.
Until next week!