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About Practice Nursing
A practice nurse is a registered nurse or an enrolled nurse who is employed by, or whose services are otherwise retained by a General Practice.There are approximately 8000 nurses working within general practice with around 60% of general practices employing at least one practice nurse. This number has grown very quickly from 5000 in 2005.
Practice nurses are being allocated an increasing number of items in the Medicare Benefits Schedule in an effort to address the primary-care workforce shortages and are considered to be key part of the forthcoming changes in the delivery of primary healthcare.
Practice nursing is the fastest growing area within the healthcare sector and covers many specialist areas including; lifestyle education, aged care, women’s health, men’s health, infection control, chronic disease management, cardiovascular care, immunisation, cancer, asthma, COPD, mental health, maternal and child health, health promotion, care plans, population health, diabetes, wound management and much more.
With the ever increasing work loads placed on general practice, practice nurses are a critical element in delivering continuous and improved patient outcomes.
For more information on the practice nurse role, including frameworks to describe the role, refer to the following documents and websites
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