More interesting times

Just in case we all thought life was going to settle down, we have an election! Every year I do a presentation to public policy students at the University of Melbourne where I present on the policy environment within which the APNA operates. At the session this morning I was asked a lot of questions about what impact a change of government at this election would have on health, primary healthcare and specifically nursing in general practice. What struck me as I was talking was a real sense that for health this election is crucial. Most of this government's first term has been spent in developing policies to move forward and if not given a second term in government, not enough on the health reform has been embedded that cannot be undone. For those of us who have been advocating for health reform, even if we don't agree with elements, would find it very frustrating to return to the status quo.

At APNA we have set up an Election 2010 webpage so keep your eyes on this as we get through the next few weeks.

On another note, the presentations for the New Zealand primary healthcare nurse's conference are available at the following website

http://www.nzno.org.nz/groups/colleges/college_of_primary_health_care_nurses/phc_conference_presentations

I am off to New Zealand tomorrow for the World Health Care Networks conference which will be debating and holding the development of our own primary healthcare networks or "Medicare Locals". Evolving from the current Divisions of General Practice Network, we to ensure nurses play a key role in the new organizations from governance through to program management and down to the practice.

Back from the wilderness

It has been a long time since I have written in this blog. It has been a combination of ill health and being a way in New Zealand.
Firstly over 5 weeks ago now, I experienced some chest discomfort and of course immediately thought heart attack. Along with severe chest pain, came waves of anxiety and adrenaline. As those of you who know me know, I can usually manage fairly high levels of stress with equilibrium - so these feelings of anxiety were very foreign to me. After many tests, I was diagnosed with chostochondritis and instructed to take it easy for several weeks. It has been a testament to both my proactive board and my resourceful staff that APNA managed perfectly well without me for a number of weeks.
However, I am conscious that my absence coincided with a lot of e-mails from members regarding the new practice nurse funding. Whilst I tried to reply to as many as possible, I apologize to those of you who did not get a response. Needless to say I have taken on board all of your concerns especially from those of you in large practices, those of you who are enrolled nurses and in fact all of you who feel the incentive may adversely affect your role. The consultation process has not yet begun and we will be taking your concerns into those meetings.
After much debate, I decided to proceed with a long planned trip to New Zealand with our new President, Julianne Badenoch. The purpose of the trip was to attend the New Zealand primary health care nursing conference, where I was presenting a paper, and to visit some of our nursing colleagues working in primary health care. Julianne and I will be putting together a paper on what we learned but in brief we were totally inspired by both the roles of the nurses at the general practice level and the level of engagement of nurses in their primary health care organizations. Nurses are key members of their Boards, leaders of their health programs and writers of their business plans.
The conference was equally interesting in that it brought nurses from a range of primary health care settings together. It marked the beginning of their new New Zealand College of Primary Health Care Nursing and provided us with numerous examples of nurses providing innovative and best practice care, some of whom we hope to entice across to our conference.
The trip also provided Julianne and I the chance to chew the cud and establish good communication channels which will enable us to have the robust President-CEO relationship an effective organization needs.
Whilst I am still not feeling 100%, I am back at work. It has been a significant shock to realize that your body can really only take so much and I think this will be a positive in the long run. Like many of you, I am trying to balance a demanding career with raising teenage daughters and keeping all the family stuff semi-organized. Like many of you, I am passionate about what I do and frequently feel reluctant to let any opportunity to escape me or APNA. However what gets lost is time for myself and I am now looking at ways to make some lifestyle changes and get some more balance in my life. What I really need is a nurse in general pratice to provide me with some lifestyle risk factor management counselling!