The times they are a changing...

What a couple of weeks! Life at APNA is never boring but I can say the last few weeks have been pretty amazing.

The conference was a very humbling experience to be surrounded by the enthusiasm and vibrancy of the practice nurses and others who attended. It is impossible to get down for too long about the level of work or stress in managing the APNA office, when you see the inspiring group of nurses we do this work for. And that goes for all in the office from the admin officer and accountant up. And do those nurses know how to party! The dinner was a huge buzz with everyone on the dance floor - photos are up on the website to prove to those unable to make it.

Then I had to change gears quite quickly to get a couple of urgent projects moving along as well as back to normal APNA business....

This week however saw me in Canberra for a range of meetings with AGPN, RCNA and others before attending the Federal Budget health lock-up. And while there had been a 'leak' a couple of weeks ago about nurse practitioners being given access to the MBS and PBS, it was still with a sense of disbelief that most of the nursing bodies present in the room listened to the almost afterthought in the presentations - nurse practitioners and eligible midwives will be given access to MBS and PBS from November 2010. For some in the room who had been advocating for this for up to 22 years there were even tears.

November 2010 is a long way off and alot can happen in between, including rejection in the senate, a double dissolution election, a normal election and alot of lobbying by medical groups. What we need though is to make this absolutely inevitable whatever happens - any of you who have any connections with any politicians on either side of politics, need to use those connections to lobby for this. While the majority of practice nurses will not aspire to become a nurse practitioner, we expect that raising their profile and role will have strong effect on raising the respect and clarity around nursing roles more broadly. For those of you who do want to explore the role, you will be able to mount a much stonger business case for the role and support for it.

And we hope this is only the first downpayment on a raft of new health reform that will place nurses firmly and squarely in the centre or primary health care.