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Visions for a national nursing and midwifery workforce strategy.
The key outcome of the RCNA Nursing Summit held in May this year was the Nursing Accord 2010. The Accord provided a statement charging RCNA with the responsibility to provide leadership on a number of critical professional issues, including promoting the need for a national nursing and midwifery workforce strategy.
Nurses and midwives have identified the need to determine their professions’ roles in successfully meeting current and future service demands of a changing and ageing population.
As the professional voice of nursing, RCNA has called upon the Australian government to develop a national nursing and midwifery workforce strategy that looks beyond basic workforce supply and demand requirements.
There are many assumptions about the future direction of nursing and midwifery that must be unpacked, tested and considered to ensure the professions are well prepared to meet future challenges.
A national strategy will enable the realisation of a nursing and midwifery workforce vision to broadly deliver appropriate and necessary future population health outcomes. The strategy should, at a minimum, describe the following in relation to current and future health service planning:
• nursing and midwifery workforce profiles
• nursing and midwifery practice models
• leadership and management models to support the nursing and midwifery workforces
• educational preparation and professional development requirements of the nursing and midwifery workforces
• recruitment and retention of the nursing and midwifery workforces.
RCNA identified a national nursing and midwifery workforce strategy as a key election priority and will continue to lobby politicians on behalf of the professions.
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