a worrying precedent being set...everyone of us one day desperately need good health care...a nurse protected by their union body and primary loyalty to own union not going to cut it...nor anyone would choose a nurse and rather travel long distance to see a doctor...ending up with 'nurse' on government pay sitting around with easy money falling on lap...

nurses work to protocol...follow the chart...if patient says this and you find that...then do this...and so will be protected from any patient adverse outcome by nurses union legal section...this has no real place in frontline medicine...now effort to achieve\d position of influence in government expected to be used to protect 'nurse' treatment from own failures on 'patients' ie us and which their primary fear of accountability/litigation when working independently...

a person only becomes 'patient' when something goes wrong with their body...and immediately becomes dependent almost completely on 'carers' in the moment...so its a profession that starts on the back foot and struggles to improve natures/self-caused health deterioration...which makes it unique of professions...and best of us needed to successfully work in field... eg(warning...coroners case 17yearold taking panadol overdose but not tell doctor when treatment was possible...all we eat/drink have a toxic level including water) http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/courts/coroner/index.html ...a experienced/knowledgeable/intelligent doctor 'may'(almost a spiritual hope) have detected the mismatch between what she said and clinically found...saving the person from their own stupidity due to young age and emotional distress...but what happened is the daily reality and what all doctors struggle with in every moment...its hard for even the best of doctors...but whats needed...

instead of pathway for 'nurses who excel' to apply/get into medical degree program...we get a short circuiting by 'self training' and creating an parallel profession of those whom dont/cant complete medical course...doing same job as a doctor without passing exams/courses doctors have to to professionally get there...

so seems more do with exerting union power to benefit themselves than 'us the population'...so no thanks...

Sam
Ps~from personal observation...'organized sista unit' nurses really demonstrate this...dont talk independently but get 'advice' from somewhere then all say similar to care of 'patient gone wrong'..;

Ged, from a 'system' angle these proposals sound like a bid to create new professional roles for nurses, allied and others. The appointment of a Chief Nurse supports the trend. We have a very diverse set of health care professionals (and others) and the public expect to be able to pick and choose where to go and how to pay for the transactions. The private profit motive will always encourage the user-pays model because it relies on payments for transactions and interventions that are insulated from each other. It's a struggle to bring the facts of a person's health journey under the care of one single provider. Yet any, and all, of the facts in the History ought to be regarded as essential to future planning.
Another, insulated provider - such as Nurse Practitioner - creates another set of interfaces for communications. The arithmetic is formidable, as the number of interfaces increases geometrically while the providers are forced to message to each other. Another provider means, generally, another paper report to accumulate in paper records of numerous providers, and the likelihood of any of them holding an incomplete set increases with each new provider brought into the loop.
If any new category of provider is created, it ought to be that of Care Coordinator. Then the thinking would crystallise around the essential nub of modern health care - the management of shared electronic records. The arguments for SEHR are stuttering along, but true opposition is hiding in the woodwork. I mean all providers of private, profit-taking transactions will run away from SEHR. Prove me wrong - find one advocate for the private, profit-based model who wants SEHR. I hope, then that Nursing is not going to be another craft group on the billable bandwagon.
But, never mind the rational approach. More complexity means more conflicts of interests, more room for failures due to omissions, and therefore more need for academics to analyse the faults, more public policy units to advise governments, more department heads through the revolving doors to consultancies and another round of COAG planning.

Clearly something needs to be done! But why is there an increasing burden of chronic disease? And shouldn’t this question be the one that is discussed before we bring in more professionals to assist the overworked GP’s? Instead of just responding to the growth in the level of ill health in the general community by improving the operation of our stressed health care system more should be done to prevent the growth of the chronic disease in the first instance. Scrutiny and change are needed to our way of living and working; our 24/7 lifestyles, our overly processed food, our access to safe water and air, and our over-dependence on pharmaceutical products which come with their own burden of hidden health costs.

Let’s look at just one of the many factors that contribute to the increasing burden of chronic disease that is facing people all over the world particularly in the developed countries such as Australia and the U.S. and that is the alarming rates of pharmaceutical drugs taken by our populations. Of concern should be the statistic that has pharmaceutical drugs listed as the 4th largest cause of death in the USA. In fact, prescription pills taken as directed by physicians are estimated to kill one american every five minutes.

What will happen when the government gives the green light to more professionals having prescribing rights? Will the community be better off? I doubt it! I fear that the future expansion of health professionals who will be able to prescribe drugs will lead to the taking of more drugs which in turn may have considerable side effects necessitating the daily taking of more drugs and increasing the level of chronic diseases for which the community is paying dearly.

Rather than a solution to the increasing health needs of the community, Nicola Roxon’s new health plan may just be increasing the numbers of us hooked on prescription drugs and will have the drug industry laughing all the way to the bank.

I agree with the general thrust of what is being proposed as nurses and allied health will inevitably substitute for doctors where there are gaps. If the medical workforce was to increase I doubt the same argument would apply, but all the evidence tends to suggest a crisis in doctor numbers looking forward.

I wonder if the ANF will be as flexible when other unions make the same arguments about substituting registered nurses with VET trained employees, eg, Nursing Assistants, Patient Care Assistants etc ?

The ANF already argue there are not enough RNs to go around so maybe this will be an opportunity to stop degree qualified nurses handing out meals, changing sheets , and the like.