Reflecting on 16 years with APNA

President's Message

By Karen Booth, APNA President 

Source: APNA Primary Times Winter 2025

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This will be my last Primary Times message as APNA President. By the time you get your Winter edition of the APNA publication, we will have conducted the 2025 APNA elections and you will have a new President. APNA has worked hard to strengthen the organisation, our corporate governance, and our prominence in national health policy. As a result, APNA is now seen as THE GO-TO organisation, not just for primary health care nurses, but also for big-picture thinking in primary health care. 

As I step down from the President role, I can reflect with great pride on my 11 years as President (2014–2025) and the preceding five years as Vice President (2009–2014). The size of the primary health care nursing workforce has grown considerably during that time, as has APNA in its membership and membership offerings, and in the size and sophistication of the organisation. In 2013, APNA changed its constitution to widen our membership umbrella to include all nurses working in primary health care as part of a future focus to build and represent a strong nursing workforce. APNA is now one of the largest nursing membership organisations in the country, second only to the nurses’ union, the ANMF. We have grown from a handful of staff to close to 100 team members delivering education and membership services, a formal policy and advocacy team, a nursing research arm, as well as one of the best attended nursing conferences in the country. 

Demand for APNA representation continues to grow. APNA has been appointed to all the major health reform and PHC clinical guidance committees for more than a decade. It has been with great satisfaction that I have received several ministerial appointments to serve on key Australian Government Department of Health advisory groups, predominantly focused on reform. This has given me a high-profile opportunity to lobby for better recognition of the role of primary health care nurses and a future-focused primary health care system. These committees have included the Primary Health Care Advisory Group, the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review, the National Primary Health Care 10-Year Plan and more recently the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce, where I have actively pushed for a better recognition of scope of practice for nurses and all multidisciplinary team members. I continue to serve on the Expert Panel on Primary Care and Workforce Reviews. 

APNA’s Workforce Survey has gone from strength to strength. The survey started life as a tool to inform APNA about the learning needs of our members and to help document the skills of nurses in general practice. It has grown to become the major information-collection tool for the profession, building a comprehensive picture of the primary health care nursing workforce. The survey informs APNA’s lobbying efforts and has been cited by key policy-reform reports, including the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report, the Scope of Practice Review, the National Nursing Workforce Strategy and reports by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 

Between 2015 and 2018, it was with great pleasure that I chaired the committee in the early stages of the APNA Career and Education Frameworks for registered and enrolled nurses. The importance of this early work was to help nurses map their professional experience and identify the areas they wanted to develop for career progression. The tool also helped push the argument for embedding primary health care into university curricula to ensure that student nurses are aware of the potential of primary health care nursing and to set the direction for the development of postgraduate studies.  

Jump to 2025, and we have seen the launch of Florence by APNA, a dynamic digital handheld career tool for the 21st-century nurse. The new platform aims to help nurses map their careers, tailor and record their continuing professional development, and find employment opportunities that match their professional goals. I encourage all nurses to give it a try!  

Other great developments for APNA have included attaining charitable gift deductible status and the establishment of the APNA Foundation and the APNA Scholar Program. This year, the inaugural APNA Global Scholarship has been awarded to school nurse Samantha Browne for the prestigious Florence Nightingale Foundation’s Leadership Scholarship Program. We also look forward to hosting Professor Greta Westwood from the Nightingale Foundation for the second year in a row at the Festival of Nursing in Brisbane. 

My main reflection on my time as an office-bearer for APNA has been the truly wonderful opportunity to meet so many amazing nurses and champions of health care in Australia and internationally. I have worked with so many talented people, board members, CEOs, team members, APNA members and stakeholders, who all hold the same goals for a better primary health care sector. I look forward in my final year on the board to supporting the incoming APNA President.  

A big thank you to previous APNA Presidents for your leadership. A big thank you to APNA CEO Ken Griffin for his support over the past 6 years in his role and for driving APNA’s growth. A big thank you to my fellow Board members who guide APNA and lead in best-practice corporate governance. 

I would like to give a special shout-out to fellow Board member Maurice Wrightson, who is the longest serving APNA board member (yes, even longer than me!). Maurice will be a familiar face from AGMs. He has chaired the APNA Finance Audit and Risk Committee and supported APNA governance since 2007 and will retire from the APNA Board with me in 2026. We thank him for his dedication and guidance. Finally, a very big thank you to our APNA Patron, Professor Rosemary Bryant, for her counsel and insights, a great sense of humour and support for APNA. 

So, what’s next?!  

The federal election results have seen the return of the Albanese Government. The Hon Mark Butler has returned as Health Minister. The strong result will give the government a mandate to push through with its reform agenda and remodelling of funding to make better utilisation of all members of the primary health care team to support the current and future health care needs of the nation. 

The event of the year, the APNA Festival of Nursing, will be held in Brisbane in July. There is a very exciting line-up of national and international speakers. I look forward to addressing you in my new role as Chief Clinical Adviser – Nursing to the Australian Digital Health Agency. I’ll see you on the dance floor! 

 

Karen with Professor Greta Westwood CBE, CEO of the Florence Nightingale Foundation 

Karen with NSW Health Minister Ryan Park on Primary Health Care Nurses Day in February 2025 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen with Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler at the post-Budget Health Briefing Breakfast in March 2025 

Karen at Australian Healthcare Week with (left to right) APNA Founder Sam Moses, Professor Brian Dolan OBE, Tracey Johnson from Inala Health and Dr J.R. Baker from the Australian Social Prescribing Institute for Research and Education