The tireless work of Australia\u2019s nurses \u2013 particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 have been recognised by the Federal Government as part of International Nurses Day.
\nMinister for Health, Greg Hunt, said the virus emergency had created challenges for many, none were tougher than for our world-class health professionals working on the frontline.
\nToday, 12 May, marks the day one of the founders of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, was born.
\n\u201cHer pioneering work during the Crimean War focused on the importance of sanitation and hygiene including handwashing,\u201d Minister Hunt said.
\n\u201cThese hygiene principles are now at the heart of Australia\u2019s coronavirus response and we have seen it work.\u201d
\nMinister Hunt said there are more than 390,000 nurses registered in Australia.
\n\u201cToday is a day when all Australians should stand as one and applaud our amazing nurses,\u201d he said.
\nMinister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Richard Colbeck, said more than 31,000 registered nurses and more than 18,000 enrolled nurses are working in aged care across Australia.
\n\u201cAged care nurses make up around 14 per cent of Australia\u2019s total nursing workforce and care for more than 1.2 million senior Australians,\u201d Minister Colbeck said.
\n\u201cNurses working in aged care lead multidisciplinary teams working in residential aged care facilities and the community.
\n\u201cIn particular, they are ensuring vital infection prevention and control processes are in place to better protect senior Australians in care from this virus.
\n\u201cThe nurses working across aged care are more important than ever.\u201d
\nMinister for Regional Health, Mark Coulton, said more than 95,000 nurses work outside of Australia\u2019s metropolitan areas \u2014 around 27 per cent of the total nursing workforce.
\n\u201cNurses are the lifeblood of small communities responding to increasingly complex health needs away from major hospitals,\u201d Minister Coulton said.
\n\u201cRural nurses are highly skilled generalists that country communities rely on\u2014often with reduced access to the clinical supports and assistance found in our cities.
\n\u201cWhether in charge of a clinic or providing nursing care to outback patients, our nurses are valued and respected health professionals in rural, regional and remote communities.\u201d
\n\u201cRemote nursing organisation CRANAplus has provided important local insights throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the government\u2019s health response meets the needs of regional communities.\u201d
\nThe Australian Government recently provided $4.1 million to fund up to 20,000 new online education places so Registered Nurses (RNs) can further assist in the delivery of care in intensive care and high dependency units across Australia.
\nAdditionally, an online refresher course to allow 3000 RNs who are not currently in clinical practice to update their knowledge to re-join the health workforce is also available.
\n\u201cTogether, we thank and acknowledge Australia\u2019s extraordinary nurses for their ongoing commitment and dedication to deliver exceptional frontline health care during this unprecedented time,\u201d Minister Coulton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The tireless work of Australia\u2019s nurses \u2013 particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 have been recognised by the Federal Government as part of International Nurses Day. Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, said the virus emergency had created challenges for many, none were tougher than for our world-class health professionals working on the frontline. Today, 12 … Continue reading “International Nurses Day 2020”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}