The upcoming launch of Florence: Thoughts from the APNA Leadership Team

Lighting the way forward: Why Florence is a milestone for nursing

Ken Griffin
CEO @ APNA | Changing Health Care. Driving Growth, Advocacy and Operational Improvement
April 14, 2025
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As someone who’s spent over two decades working across advocacy, communications, and strategy in health and related sectors, I’ve learned that real change doesn’t just happen with ideas — it happens with execution. It happens when you take insight and turn it into action.

That’s exactly what we’ve done with Florence by APNA.

Florence is a free professional development and career growth app for nurses. It’s the brainchild of APNA and is in direct response to one of the most pressing gaps in our health system: the absence of a meaningful, intuitive way for nurses to track learning, grow professionally, and be recognised for their contribution.

Our 98,000+ primary health care nurses are at the centre of preventative health care. They are the largest workforce in primary health care.  They are vital to early intervention, chronic disease management, mental health support and so much more, in clinical settings including aged care, correctional health, schools, community health, general practice and so much more.

But until now, there has been no central platform to support this significant profession’s development in a cohesive and career-oriented way.

Florence changes that.

Built on the foundations of the APNA Career and Education Framework — developed through extensive sector consultation and government support — Florence gives nurses the power to:

• Receive tailored CPD recommendations based on their unique clinical context, with no bias of provider
• Track their learning in a way that’s seamless and Ahpra-compliant
• Benchmark their development against peers
• Set and achieve goals over time
• Be matched with meaningful opportunities — including jobs, research, mentoring and leadership

Florence isn’t designed to be a product. It’s designed to shift mindset. It says to nurses: your learning matters, your goals matter, and your growth is something worth investing in — not just for you, but for the benefit of Australia’s health.

I’m not a nurse, but I am a passionate advocate for primary health care and the nurses who work within it. And I believe deeply in the power of nurses to lead the transformation of health care in Australia. But that only happens when we provide nurses with the tools to lead, learn and be visible.

APNA has always been an ambitious organisation, but Florence has been our most ambitious project to date — and possibly its most important.  It’s been designed with nurse experience and insight firmly at the centre.

Florence supports primary health care nursing to be recognised as a critical, specialised, and evolving profession. It also aligns directly with our values of Better Together, Pursue Excellence and Positive Disruptor.

Florence offers incredible potential, equipping nurses to take control of their professional journey, but also ensuring that the profession is no longer invisible by giving insight into learning trends, gaps, workforce strengths, and emerging needs. That’s the kind of intelligence we need if we’re serious about health system reform and lobbying for health system improvement.

The future of health care in Australia can’t be picking up the pieces of a patient after the fact in a hospital. It’s in schools, aged care facilities, prisons, general practices and homes. And at the heart of that future are primary health care nurses.

Florence is how we will support them — not with more red tape, but with enablers and recognition.

It’s how we are turning support for nurses into insight into impact.

📲 www.florence.today

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Are we on the verge of something big? We think so — but only time will tell

Mitch Wall
Chief of Staff and General Manager at APNA (Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association)
April 14, 2025
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In all of our careers, we get used to evolution. Changes in priorities, system adjustments, process improvements. All small steps on the journey. But every so often, something feels different. Not just a change — a shift, a leap.

That’s what Florence feels like.

APNA is just days away from launching a new app for nurses — a completely free, smart, bespoke career growth platform, designed to support the professional development Australia’s nurses.

Florence by APNA is big. But will it be something big? That’s the question I keep coming back to. And honestly, I think the answer is yes. Here’s why:

Right now, education for nurses is chaotic. There are endless options, but no central place to navigate them. CPD tracking is still manual and fragmented. Nurses don’t have a clear way to benchmark their skills, set meaningful goals, or see where they stand. There’s also no trusted platform for matching nurses with the right professional opportunities — be it clinical trials, employment or leadership.

If we get it right, Florence will change that.

At its core, Florence is:

• A learning content aggregator and recommendation engine
• A CPD tracker, built for ease and AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) compliance
• A tool for identifying blind spots in your skill set and tracking progress in your career and education
• A reflection of expertise — backed by data
• A matchmaker between nurses and the huge number of opportunities out there

This isn’t theory. It’s functionality, built and tested. Grounded in the APNA Career and Education Framework and a teaching taxonomy. Informed by real nurses, real challenges, and a very real desire to do things differently. To do things better. To be better.

Florence is launching as an open platform — not just for primary health care nurses, but for all nurses. Student nurses. Nurse managers. Nurses in aged care, mental health, hospitals, schools, remote, metro, and everywhere in between. We believe nurses deserve a tool that reflects the scope, skill, and diversity of what they do.

The early signs are encouraging. The buzz is building. But the real proof will come when Florence lands in the hands of nurses — and we start to see how they use it. How it helps them. How it evolves with them.

We’re not naive about the size of this ambition. The Australian health system is complex. Digital adoption isn’t uniform. And nurses — rightly — are discerning users of tech. Florence will need to prove its worth. We welcome that.

If we get this right, it could be transformational.

Imagine the largest health workforce empowered with real-time learning data.

And the nursing profession having visibility over its strengths, gaps and growth. A generation of nurses who feel in control of their career trajectory, from registration to retirement.

That’s the world Florence is working toward.

The launch is a starting point. Florence is designed to grow with nurses. To evolve with feedback. To adapt as healthcare and the workforce changes.

And it’s free for nurses to use. Because tools like this shouldn’t be cost prohibitive.

So are we on the verge of something big?

Yes, we think so. But only time will tell. And when it does, it won’t be because of the code, or branding, or marketing — it will be because of nurses.

Because when nurses grow, the health system grows — and we’ll all be healthier because of that.

Are you ready to meet Florence in a couple of weeks? I know I am!

📲 www.florence.today

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Pathways with Purpose: How Florence will help APNA Guide the Next Generation of Nurses

Donna Gleisner
General Manager - Career Pathways
April 16, 2025
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Every career begins with a choice. For many nurses — including myself when I chose the profession — that choice is driven by a deep desire to make a difference. But the path forward isn’t always clear. In fact, for much of my early career as an enrolled nurse working in aged care and general practice, there was no real map. We learned on the job, followed gut instinct, and did the best we could to grow in roles that were often invisible to the broader health system.

That’s why the launch of Florence by APNA, a new free app for nurses, feels so significant.

Florence is more than just a tool to track CPD or access education — it’s a guide. It brings structure, visibility and inspiration to the career journeys of nurses across Australia. It helps nurses see where they are, understand where they want to go, and take the right steps to get there.

In my current role as General Manager of Career Pathways, I’m proud to lead a team committed to making those steps clearer and more inclusive for everyone. We know that nurses bring different backgrounds, goals and experiences to their work — and they deserve pathways that reflect that diversity.

Whether you’re a student nurse, a new graduate, or decades into your career, Florence meets you where you are. It’ll offers:

• Tailored CPD suggestions based on your setting, experience and aspirations

• A simple way to capture learning and track your professional progress

• A clear view of your skillset and how it compares to others

• Goal-setting tools to help you plan and stay motivated

• Matched opportunities — mentoring, research, jobs, and more

Florence is also backed by the APNA Career and Education Framework — the same framework that underpin our broader work to build more supported, visible and rewarding nursing pathways in primary health care.

But what makes Florence really special is that it doesn’t just point the way — it reminds you of your value along the journey.

Too often, the career growth of nurses is left to chance. Learning is unrecorded. Skills go unnoticed. Career ambitions are put on hold. Florence changes that. It helps nurses recognise what they’ve already achieved, and feel confident in what’s next.

Having led large, diverse teams across both the health and not-for-profit sectors, I’ve seen how powerful it can be when people feel seen and supported. That’s what Florence offers. It’s a resource. It’s a mirror. It’s a spark.

I’m especially excited for what Florence means for the future of nursing — for those entering the profession today who won’t have to build their careers in the dark. They’ll have a platform that reflects them, supports them, and connects them to what’s possible.

Career pathways aren’t just about progression — they’re about purpose. Florence helps illuminate that purpose. And we’re only just getting started.

📲 www.florence.today

For more information on APNAs Clinical Placement Programs visit APNA Clinical Placement Programs

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A New Era for Nursing Insight and Impact

Lisa Collison
General Manager, Research and Innovation, Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA)
17 April, 2025
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As a registered nurse with decades of experience in primary health care, I’ve spent much of my career advocating for greater visibility, structure, and support for nurses. But perhaps the most transformational work I’ve been a part of was, the development of APNA’s Career and Education Frameworks — and now, the evolution of those frameworks into something living, accessible, and game-changing: Florence.

The Career and Education Frameworks were developed between 2015 and 2018 with funding from the Australian Government. The process was comprehensive and rigorous. The team consulted more than 1,000 nurses, engaged with policy experts, tested across settings, and refined constantly. What we created wasn’t just a set of documents — it was a clear, evidence-based structure for how nurses could grow professionally, no matter their starting point.

But there’s always been one lingering challenge: how do we embed frameworks into real, everyday practice?

Enter Florence by APNA.

Florence is a free app created to help nurses take control of their professional development. It doesn’t just reflect the Career and Education Frameworks — it will bring them to life. It makes professional growth practical, intuitive, and empowering.

Florence helps nurses:

• Get tailored CPD recommendations based on role, scope, and goals
• Seamlessly capture their learning in line with Ahpra requirements
• See how their expertise compares with peers across Australia
• Set meaningful goals and track progress over time
• Be matched with opportunities for mentoring, research, leadership, and employment

From a research and innovation lens, Florence is so much more than a tool — it’s an insight engine.

For the first time, we’ll have access to real-time, longitudinal data that reveals the expertise and learning behaviours of Australia’s nurses. We’ll be able to see patterns in professional development, identify emerging areas of strength, highlight workforce gaps, and better inform education, funding, and health system reform.

That’s huge. Because right now, workforce data is sparse. Nurses are often lumped into large categories with little understanding of what they actually do, what they know, and where they want to grow.

The APNA Workforce Survey does a good job of giving visibility of the workforce, but a survey can only go so far.

Florence gives us the opportunity to change the narrative. It allows us to map the workforce in ways we never could before — to surface the skillsets, ambitions, and contributions of nurses across every setting, from aged care and community health to justice health, schools, and general practice.

As General Manager of Research and Innovation at APNA, this is what excites me most. We’ve long known the power of nurses. Florence gives us the live evidence.

It also allows us to close the loop — to ensure that the data we collect informs not only policy, but education delivery, professional recognition, and resource allocation.

And importantly, Florence is nurse-led. It doesn’t force a top-down structure. It meets nurses where they are, with recommendations and insights that adapt to their individual context.

We named Florence after Florence Nightingale for good reason. Like her, this platform is data-driven, reform-minded, and laser-focused on improving care through understanding and visibility.

I’m proud to have been part of the journey that started with the frameworks — and even prouder to see them now embedded in something dynamic, smart, and scalable.

Florence isn’t just a product. It’s a platform for professional respect. A tool for empowerment. And a milestone in the recognition of nursing as both a practice and a profession grounded in evidence.

We’re just getting started. And I can’t wait to see where this takes us.

Visit www.florence.today for more information

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CPD is no longer just for compliance – with Florence, it powers nurses’ professional growth

Mitch Wall
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Chief of Staff and General Manager at APNA (Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association)
24 April, 2025
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For too long, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has been viewed through a narrow lens — as a tick box exercise, a regulatory prerequisite, something to stay on top of to meet AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) requirements.

And while compliance is important, it’s never been the full story.

Every time a nurse attends a workshop, reads an article, participates in training or learns from peers on the floor — that’s professional growth in motion. But without the right tools, much of that growth goes unrecorded, unrecognised and underutilised — it’s forgotten.

That’s what we’re changing with Florence.

Florence is a free app for nurses, built by the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA), designed to help nurses take control of their professional development — not just for compliance, but for career empowerment.

At its core, Florence helps nurses:

• Track both formal and informal learning in seconds, in an Ahpra-compliant way
• Get tailored CPD recommendations based on their practice setting and goals
• Set meaningful learning and career goals
• Benchmark their knowledge and explore gaps
• Be matched with career-building opportunities — like research, mentoring, and employment.

Florence shifts the way we think about CPD. Instead of being reactive and retrospective, it becomes proactive, strategic, and empowering.

The problem we needed to solve

When we first pitched Florence to the APNA Board, our goal wasn’t to build another learning management system or static education portal. There are plenty of those already.

We wanted to build something that worked like nurses work — dynamic, mobile, grounded in evidence and designed to evolve.

Nurses are constantly learning. But the tools they’ve had to document that learning — spreadsheets, folders, notebooks (or worst of all, paperwork in a shoebox under the bed!) — haven’t kept up. We saw the need for a smart, user-focused tool that would:

• Reflect a nurse’s real-world expertise
• Recommend learning that’s actually relevant
• Recognise growth that’s happening every day.

From compliance to confidence

Yes, Florence tracks CPD in a way that meets Ahpra requirements. But more importantly, it helps nurses use that tracking to:

• Understand their strengths
• Identify areas to explore further
• Advocate for themselves in their workplaces to help them work closer to the top of their scope of practice
• Plan for the next step in their careers.

By aligning all learning to an Australian Career and Education Framework for nurses and an internationally recognised teaching taxonomy, Florence also provides structure. It connects individual growth with broader professional standards and career pathways.

This is powerful — especially for nurses in health settings where career development conversations can be limited, or support structures may be informal or absent.

The power of insight

From a system level, Florence also unlocks something we’ve never had before: real-time insight into what nurses are learning, their expertise, where there are gaps, and what workforce supports might be needed.

That insight will inform:

• Better workforce planning
• More targeted education offerings
• Stronger advocacy for scope of practice and career progression.

It also opens the door to creating a more connected profession — one where individual nurses can contribute to, and benefit from, the collective intelligence of a 500,000-strong workforce.

CPD is no longer just a requirement. It’ll be an asset.

It’ll be how nurses build confidence, adapt to change, pursue excellence, and lead reform.

Florence recognises this and puts the power back in the hands of nurses.

Where we’re heading

As someone who has helped bring Florence to life from concept to product, I’ve seen what’s possible when the right vision is matched with the right team. And I’ve seen how excited nurses are when they realise they finally have a tool that makes professional growth feel not just achievable — but exciting.

Florence is made to change the way we see CPD. And when we change that, we change the trajectory of nursing.

Florence by APNA is launching soon. Learn more at www.florence.today

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From one spark to thousands of lamps: Why Florence feels like coming full circle

Samantha Moses
Founder & Nurse Ambassador at Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA)
May 1, 2025
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When I founded APNA in 2001, I was just one nurse looking for connection.

I’d transitioned from the hospital system into general practice and found myself energised by the work — but isolated in the role. I was the only nurse in my practice, and I knew there had to be others out there navigating the same challenges, asking the same questions, wanting the same thing: support, visibility, and professional recognition.

That spark became APNA. It’s hard to put into words how it feels to look at Florence by APNA — a smart, modern, beautiful career development app for nurses — and see the same spirit that started APNA pulsing through it.

Florence is what we needed then, and what nurses need now. It’s a tool that doesn’t just recognise the role of nurses — it empowers them.

It helps nurses:

• Get CPD recommendations that are tailored and meaningful
• Capture their learning in ways that are intuitive and compliant
• Set goals, track progress, and feel momentum in their career
• Benchmark their growth and see where they shine
• Be matched with opportunities that stretch, challenge and elevate them

In addition, our premium offering — APNA membership — will be integrated with Florence, making it easier than ever before for nurses to find and access APNA’s world-class education offering. Working on staff as APNA’s Nurse Ambassador, I’ve watched Florence come to life over the past few years — and I can tell you, this isn’t just an app. It’s a shift in how we see ourselves. It’s the mirror that we need, reflecting our expertise that all too often is disregarded. It’s a guiding star to what’s next.

When I started APNA, we didn’t have much. A phone line, a fax machine, a hundred or so nurses. But we had heart. And that heart is still beating strongly today — now powered by innovation, strategy, and a team of brilliant people who believe in the profession as much as I always have.

Florence is a continuation of that belief. It’s an answer to the feeling I had all those years ago — “I wonder how other nurses work. I wonder if they feel supported.”

Now we have a platform that answers back: Yes, you’re not alone. Yes, your work matters. Yes, you are Florence of today!

Florence isn’t just for general practice, it’s for all nurses. It’s for school nurses, aged care nurses, nurses in justice health and community health, hospital nurses, mental health nurses, educators, and every nurse in between. It’s for all the nurses across Australia that deserve recognition, support, and a future full of possibility.

To every nurse reading this: Florence is for you. It honours the work you’ve done, it celebrates your expertise, and it lights the way for what’s next.

www.florence.today