APNA sustains its momentum

Pursuing excellence for primary health care nurses

Ken Griffin, APNA CEO

Source: APNA Primary Times Winter 2025

It has been a fast start to 2025 with APNA wasting no time in making an impact. We continue to elevate the profile of primary health care nurses to ensure you are valued, visible and respected. 

So far this year, the work we’ve done to achieve this has included: 

Primary Health Care Nurses Day: In addition to posters and social media activity, this year’s campaign reached a wider audience with imagery of real nurses featured on public billboards across Australia. You set a new record for morning teas, and we made sure politicians got involved too. 

Nursing and Midwifery Peaks: Collaboration between nursing and midwifery organisations was taken up a notch with the launch of a joint election platform. 

PHC Congress: In April, we brought together a multidisciplinary group of more than 70 health leaders for the second PHC Congress. This resulted in another joint statement for government, which will benefit nurses as well as the broader health system. 

Nursing Student Placements: This continues to be a focus, and we are on track for a record number of students to have a positive introduction to PHC nursing during their studies. Thank you to all our members who have engaged with this vital program. 

Of course, the recent federal election was a significant focus. With the Labor party returned to government for another term with a decisive majority in the House of Representatives (although needing to negotiate in the Senate to pass legislation), we are confident in progress on the scope of practice reforms in this term of government. The Labor party has continually recognised the value that APNA brings to the policy table. This is evidenced by APNA being included in all major health consultations, committees and policy reviews impacting primary health care over the past three years. APNA also has strong relationships with all levels of the Labor government and the respect of its leadership. These relationships are based on our policy activity, workforce insights, strong leadership and the way we engage. Senior government figures have said publicly that their focus in this term will be on increasing productivity across the economy. In the context of health policy, removing barriers to nurses and midwives (and other health professionals) to work to their full scope of practice would be an effective way to increase productivity in primary health care and health more broadly. APNA congratulates the Labor government on this election result and looks forward to continuing to work with its health leaders, particularly Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Mark Butler, and Deputy Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Ged Kearney. 

We have also launched Florence, which is APNA’s first significant investment in technology for its members. As one of the few pieces of technology designed by nurses, for nurses, Florence aims to make education and career planning easy for all PHC nurses. This new app will be a central part of APNA’s future success. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, give it a go and let us know what you think. 

By the time you read this, APNA will have a new President. Karen Booth has been outstanding in the President role for more than a decade and as an APNA Board member for more than 15 years. I have had the privilege of working alongside Karen for more than 12 years. I’ve witnessed the impact she has had in raising the profile of PHC nursing and on nursing policy within government. I am proud to call Karen a friend and look forward to honouring her legacy at the Festival of Nursing. 

A BIG thank you to the APNA Board and the APNA team for all their work in the first half of 2025. 

We look forward to seeing many of you at the Festival of Nursing in Brisbane in July, and to showcasing more of the amazing work being done across Australia by primary health care nurses!