Nursing leaders welcome long-awaited national strategy

Australia has released its first National Nursing Workforce Strategy, a move leaders say could transform workforce planning and help build a more sustainable nursing profession for the future.

Launched by Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler earlier this month, the strategy outlines a vision for “a sustainable nursing workforce that adapts, innovates and excels to deliver evidence-based health and wellbeing outcomes for all Australian communities”.

The strategy establishes four priority areas:

• enhancing workforce planning, education and regulation
• enabling nursing innovation
• elevating the nursing profession
• delivering a sustainable nursing workforce.

It includes actions focused on workforce data, student support, career mobility, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce growth, nurse-led models of care, leadership development and rural workforce pathways.

The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) described the strategy as a significant step forward for the profession.

“ACN has been strongly advocating for the Strategy for two years. It is a long-awaited recognition that the nursing workforce cannot be left to chance or be subject to fragmented, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction planning,” said ACN chief executive Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz.

Nurses make up more than half of Australia’s health workforce, and the strategy is the first coordinated national approach to nursing workforce planning, investment and reform.

Nursing groups welcome the roadmap

The Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) also applauded the strategy, highlighting the importance of implementation.

“This is a key milestone for nursing. The National Nursing Workforce Strategy now needs to progress to funding and implementation as soon as possible,” ACNP chief Geri Sumpter said.

The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) said the strategy recognised that long-term workforce sustainability required more than simply increasing nurse numbers.

“Addressing workforce shortages is not just about growing nurse numbers. It is also about creating the conditions that allow nurses to work to their full potential, develop rewarding careers and deliver innovative models of care,” APNA president Denise Lyons said.

APNA welcomed the strategy’s focus on workforce planning, innovation, leadership, career development and retention, as well as its recognition of nurse-led models of care and workforce flexibility.

Education and rural workforce welcomed

The higher education sector has also weighed in on the value of the strategy.

La Trobe University Dean of the Rural Health School Professor Jane Mills said workforce sustainability depended on creating stronger links between education and nursing careers.

“This is an important milestone for rural nursing education. Building a sustainable nursing workforce starts with investment in education, clinical training and rural career pathways,” Professor Mills said.

The strategy includes commitments to support rural and remote career pathways, strengthen clinical placements and improve opportunities for students to train closer to home.

La Trobe University Dean of Nursing and Midwifery Professor Marie Gerdtz said it aligned closely with work already underway across the profession.

“The strategy recognises the importance of strengthening transition-to-practice pathways, supporting professional development, enabling nurses to work to their full scope of practice and fostering positive learning and working environments,” Professor Gerdtz said.

Focus shifts to implementation

While the sector has broadly backed the strategy, leaders say its success will depend on what follows next.

ACN has called on governments to release a costed implementation plan, establish measurable targets, improve retention initiatives and support nurses to work to their full scope of practice.

“Nurses have said repeatedly that pay, safe staffing and work-life balance are key to retention. We now need to translate the strategy into the conditions that keep nurses in nursing,” Adjunct Professor Zeitz said.

She went on to say that this is the beginning rather than the end of reform.

“ACN was pleased to host the Minister’s launch of the National Nursing Workforce Strategy at our National Nursing Forum,” Adjunct Professor Zeitz said.

“This reinforces ACN and its members’ willingness to work with governments, employers and educators to turn this Strategy into real change for nurses and the people they care for.”