Denise M Breadsell
Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union, Australia
Title: Workshop: Rural and isolated nurses in Queensland Australia – Navigating transitional change between state and national based nursing governance to provide improved accessibility to universal healthcare through collective professional activism
Biography
Biography: Denise M Breadsell
Abstract
Queensland is Australia’s most geographically decentralised state with regional centres located throughout, as well as many isolated communities. The Rural and Isolated Practice Endorsed Nurse (RIPEN) is particularly effective in this environment providing emergency and primary healthcare, working in rural hospitals, mining sites, indigenous communities, tourist resorts, remote pastoral stations where onsite access to medical practitioners and/or nurse practitioners is by visit only or not available at all and to rural and remote area emergency sites. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia has advised the RIPEN endorsement for scheduled medicines for registered nurses to supply under protocol will be discontinued, once reliant states and territories have developed and implemented viable alternatives. The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU) has a long history of collective professional activism by members to achieve improved working conditions. This presentation will describe the collective professional activism initiatives undertaken by QNMU RIPEN members to maintain access and coverage of health services. This will include navigation through negotiations with key stakeholders across state and national jurisdictions to achieve a viable alternative to the RIPEN model of care for people living in rural and isolated communities in Queensland