Summary
Nurses and midwives represent the largest group of health professionals in the Australian
health care system. In rural environments nurses and midwives make up a greater proportion
of the health workforce than in urban settings, which makes their role in service
provision even more significant. The role and scope of these nurses and midwives’
practice is by necessity more generalist than specialist, which results in disciplinary
strengths and weaknesses. As generalist health professionals they work in diverse
settings such as public hospitals, multi-purpose services, community health, aged
care and in non-government and private for profit and no-profit organisations including
general practices. Their scope of practice covers prevention, intervention and rehabilitation
and is lifespan inclusive. Rural nurses and midwives are older than their metropolitan
based counterparts, work part-time and traditionally have limited access to professional
development often due to ineffective locum relief programs. Workplace inflexibility,
access to acceptable housing and partner employment are factors cited as inhibitors
to growing this workforces. The future of the rural nursing and midwifery workforce
will only be secured if Government invests to a greater degree in both education and
training and the development of a nationally agreed remuneration scale that allows
for part-time work.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 28, 2010
Accepted:
August 12,
2010
Received in revised form:
August 2,
2010
Received:
June 4,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
