On 8 May 2018, the Australian Government announced it will help strengthen the role of nurses in delivering primary health to meet the future health care needs of the Australian community. As part of this announcement, ongoing funding for the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) was included in the Budget - the "Nursing in Primary Health Care (NiPHC)" Program.
The "Building Nurse Capacity (BNC) - improving patient outcomes" project is part of this program and builds on the work completed in the Enhanced Nurse Clinic (ENC) project—more details below.
The BNC project will focus on the development of nurse-delivered (team-based) models of care which improve patient outcomes, in a range of primary health care settings, to increase the capacity of the primary health care team.
This project will support a maximum of 35 nurses and their primary healthcare organisation, in two 18 month intakes, to implement nurse-delivered (team-based) models of care. Grant funding will be available for successful applicants.
Visit APNAs NEW Nurse Clinic Site
Project dates:
COVID Impact
The Building Nurse Capacity project will still continue despite COVID impacts.
Key Dates
| Call for Expression of Interest | Open Monday 3rd August 2020 Completed |
| Closing date for Expression of Interest | 12 midnight (AEST) Friday 11th September 2020 Completed |
|
Assessment process and approval (includes telephone discussion with shortlisted applicants) |
Monday 14th September to Monday 19th October 2020 Completed |
| All submitting agencies to be advised by | Monday 19th October 2020 Completed |
| Successful sites to commence | Monday 2nd November 2020 Commenced |
| All sites final report | April 2022 |
Contact Details
For more information call APNA on 1300 303 184 and speak to Sara Sewell, Project Manager, or email buildingnursecapacity@apna.asn.au
Health 2 Go (Flinders Uni), Diabetes & Healthy Lifestyle Clinic, SA
A Diabetes service which aims to improve diabetes care and reduce complications through health education.
GP Care, Antenatal Clinic, SA
A nurse-led clinic for pregnant women. Aims to initiate early support and screening with a focus on well-being support to the most vulnerable and 'at risk' women.
Acacia Ridge Medical Centre, Palliative Care Clinic, QLD
A Palliative Care service; the model will focus on better symptom management and support the quality of life for patients until death with a focus on meeting patient’s individual wishes through Advance Care Planning (an associate practice of Thornlands).
Thornlands General Practice, Palliative Care Clinic, QLD
A Palliative Care service providing support to patients, better symptom management avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions and enabling quality of life until death (an associate practice of Acacia Ridge).
GPs on Curzon, Improve Your Heart Health Clinic, QLD
A Chronic Disease Management service, specialising in supporting patients with ischaemic heart disease, coronary heart disease, angina and coronary stents.
Bloomhill, Bowel Care, QLD
This nurse clinic model has a focus on reducing the incidence and burden of bowel cancer for clients and their families living in the Sunshine Coast Health and Hospitals Service area.
Flynns Beach Medical, Living Well Diabetes Clinic, NSW
A Diabetes clinic that supports patients who have Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes, through coaching and education.
MedCIRC Young, Nursing Support Group, NSW
A Chronic Disease Management clinic, offering support and education to patients within a group setting, to better manage their long-term conditions.
Appletree Family Practice, Iron Infusion Clinic, NSW
An Iron Infusion Clinic with a focus on providing a timely, affordable service to patients with iron deficiency.
The Wellness House, A Preventative Health Service, NSW
This nurse clinic model will focus on obesity and have a preventative angle. The clinic will form part of an existing wellness clinic established in the first round of the building nurse capacity project.
Eastlink Family Medical, Asthma and Allergy Clinic, VIC
Providing accessible care relating to diagnosing and treating asthma and allergic conditions with timely and appropriate interventions for children and young adults.
Doctors of Ivanhoe, Healthy Futures with Diabetes, VIC
A diabetes self-management clinic designed to empower patients to maintain or improve their health; leading to lower rates of diabetes-related complications.
Woomelang Bush Nursing Centre, My Health; My Choice, VIC
A nurse clinic located in rural Victoria focusing on improving health care accessibility for patients living in remote communities, through the use of digital appointments, to address the tyranny of distance.
Sheffield Medical Centre, Better Health Clinic, TAS
A Chronic Disease Management clinic, offering motivational interviewing to help patients to better manage their long term conditions.
Rockingham Medical Centre (Healius), Well Women’s & Sexual Health Clinic, WA
A nurse-led clinic offering breast screening, contraceptive advice, immunisation, mental health support and health assessments. The clinic will assist with early detection and management of reproductive cancers and complex health conditions.
Craigie Medical and Dental Centre (Healius), The Craigie Bone Clinic, WA
The Craigie Bone Clinic will promote good bone health and holistic lifestyle choices. It will screen for low bone density and coordinate best practice care for those diagnosed with osteoporosis.
Interchange, Smoking Cessation Clinic, ACT
A nurse-led clinic with a focus on providing education on the long-term effects of smoking. Using a motivational interview model, the clinic will provide written materials, NRT and an on-going care plan to support patients. The clinic will perform spirometry testing for patients at risk of lung disease.
Ballan District Health and Care, VIC
Community Owned Health Service, Diabetes
Within the NiGP program, Ballan District Health and Care successfully implemented a nurse led osteoarthritis clinic. The new diabetes clinic will incorporate education and multidisciplinary care for people with diabetes, and completion of the Annual Cycle of Care for type 2 diabetes.
Junction Place
Medical Centre, VIC
General Practice, Wound Clinic
Junction Place Medical Centre established a wound clinic under the NiGP program. With funding from the Enhanced Nurse Clinics project, the wound clinic aims to increase their capacity and expertise by: setting up a wound specific consultation room, building the expertise of other staff to provide wound care, developing information systems and marketing the clinic to the local community.
Bluestone Family Medical Centre, VIC
General Practice, Cardiovascular
Bluestone Family Medical centre commenced an asthma clinic during its involvement with the NiGP Program. Bluestone Family Medical Centre has built on this experience by running a new nurse-led cardiovascular clinic.
Ballarat Community Health, VIC
Community Health Service, Dementia
The Memory Health Support Service is a nurse enhanced model of care provided within the general practice at Ballarat Community Health. The service will improve psycho-social and medical care planning for people presenting with cognitive decline and their carers.
Bega Valley Medical Practice, NSW
General Practice, Teen Health
The Teen Clinic provides a free service to local teenagers within the Bega Valley region. At the clinic teenagers have the opportunity to talk with a Registered Nurse about a wide range of medical and non-medical issues, including mental health and sexual health issues.
Carrington Health, VIC
Community Health Service, Hepatitis C
The community based clinic will provide accessible, timely and appropriate treatment to people with hepatitis C. The clinic will support clients to access new treatment (where appropriate), and also prevent further complications and disease progression.
Companion House, ACT
Not-for-Profit Community Organisation, Hepatitis B
The Healthy Liver Clinic will monitor and treat refugees and asylum seekers with chronic hepatitis B. The nurse-led clinic will screen patients for hepatitis B. Those patients diagnosed with hepatitis B will receive education, monitoring, and treatment where indicated.
Correct Care, VIC
Correctional Services, Men’s Health
The Men’s Health and Wellbeing Clinic addresses priority health and wellbeing issues for male prisoners. In this collaborative model, nurses work from agreed evidence based protocols, in partnership with the multidisciplinary health care team.
Kununurra Medical, WA
Aboriginal Development Organisation / General Practice, Diabetes
A diabetes clinic at Kununurra Medical will provide patients with access to a multidisciplinary and culturally appropriate collaborative model of care. There is no dedicated diabetes clinic in Kununurra. Thus, this clinic will provide access to innovative and evidence based diabetes management and care.
Helping Hand, SA
Aged Care, Healthy Ageing
The Primary Health Nursing Clinic for Older People will target older people with complex health needs. The clinic will provide older people with information and pathways to support wellness. The clinic will also support nursing students on clinical placements.
South Coast Primary Care – Worrigee Medical Centre, NSW
General Practice, Mental Illness and Chronic Disease
The ‘SKIP into Life Clinic’ aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people with enduring mental illness by preventing and managing chronic illness through person centred assessment, change management support, wellbeing education, care planning, and early referral to specialist services.
ACT
Well Women's Health Screening clinic, Gungahlin Medical Practice, Gungahlin, ACT
A Woman's Reproductive Health Service, the proposed model will focus on the early identification and management of women's sexual and reproductive health concerns.
NSW
Perinatal Wellness Clinic, Busby Medical Practice, Bathurst, NSW
A nurse-led perinatal mental health and early parenting support clinic, providing personalised and timely support and advice for new mothers and families in the perinatal period. The clinic aims to increase access to high quality perinatal mental health care and parenting support.
Healthy Lifestyle Clinic, North Nowra Medical Practice, North Nowra, NSW
A nurse-led healthy lifestyle clinic for patients with chronic disease. The aim of the clinic is to provide education to small groups for 1.5 hrs weekly for 8 weeks, focusing on improvements in physical and mental health by improving lifestyle choices.
The Wellness Clinic, The Wellness Family Medical Centre, Orange, NSW
The Wellness Clinic will actively seek to work with populations with chronic disease, to enable planned proactive chronic disease management care, focusing on delivering nurse-led care within a multidisciplinary team. The focus will be on the provision of care planning that is patient centred, focussed on patient’s goals and engaging with patient’s using health coaching techniques.
QLD
Cancer survivorship clinic, Bloomhill Cancer Care, Buderim, QLD
Survivorship provides a focus on the health and well-being of a person living with and beyond cancer.The nurse clinic will target patients with cancer, once they have completed their initial treatment phase. The model is based on the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia's survivorship guidelines and incorporates the five principles of Cancer Survivorship as identified by Cancer Australia.
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Nurse Lead Clinic, Mackay Family Medical Practice, Mackay, QLD
A nurse-led clinic that will provide a free comprehensive health check for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander patients. By improving patient engagement within a culturally sensitive service, the clinic aims to contribute to “closing the health and life expectancy gap" for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
TASMANIA
Men’s Health Outreach Clinic, Cygnet Family Practice, Cygnet, TAS
Cygnet Family Practice’s mission is to provide kind, holistic healthcare with a community spirit. The team at Cygnet Family Practice have identified a gap in service for rural men to access healthcare and have developed an outreach nursing service, targeting the local RSL club and a local business with 95% male employees.
VICTORIA
The "Good On Ya" Clinic, Turn the corner medical clinic, Northcote, VIC
The "Good On Ya" Clinic will provide a primary healthcare services for young people at a reduced cost. After hours appointments will be offered to accommodate those who are in full-time study or employment. Turn the corner medical clinic is set up to be appealing to young people and will offer usual general practice services but with a focus on preventative, screening, health promotion and education related to sexual health, reproductive health, healthy lifestyle and vaccine preventable disease.
Peri-diagnostic Dementia Support Service (PoDDS), Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP) Ballarat Health Services (BHS), Ballarat, VIC
An advanced practice primary health care, nurse-led care coordination service for people and their support person(s) in the adjustment period prior to and following diagnosis of dementia in the Cognitive Dementia and Memory Service (CDAMS) at Ballarat Health Services. This specialised nurse-led community based service will be based within HARP and aims to improve the psycho-social-medical healthcare outcomes for people impacted by a diagnosis of a dementia who are socially isolated.
Mental Health and AOD Clinic, Reid's Guesthouse, Uniting Victoria & Tasmania Ltd., Ballarat, VIC
A nurse practitioner led clinic, based within existing crisis accommodation at Reid’s Guest House, Ballarat, a fifty-three-bed emergency accommodation facility. The clinic will provide alcohol and drug (AOD) and mental health interventions and address general and mental health conditions of the most vulnerable people in the local community. This clinic will align with the homelessness stream of Uniting.
Better Breathing Wellness Clinic, Springs Medical (General Practice), Daylesford, VIC
The Springs Medical Better Breathing Wellness Clinic will be a nurse-led, collaborative and multidisciplinary clinic model supporting patient self-management. The overall aims of the clinic are to improve identification of patients with respiratory conditions including asthma and COPD and to improve engagement with care. Smoking cessation, spirometry, asthma education and allergy clinics will support improved care.
Healthy Ageing in Prison clinic (Langi Kal Kal Prison) Ararat, VIC
The “Healthy Ageing in Prison” clinic will deliver preventative care and health promotional activities using a nurse-led model of care for prisoners aged over 65 years. The focus will be on preventative care, including nurse-led cardiac, pulmonary and diabetes consultations together with practical health promotion activities such as falls and balance classes. The “Healthy Ageing in Prison” clinic will enable nurses to address priority health and wellbeing issues for the ageing prisoner population.
Hepatitis C Hub, Pritchard Health, Geelong region, VIC
A specialized Hepatitis C clinic for screening, assessment and treatment. The long term vision is to eradicate Hepatitis C in Geelong with a broader plan to eradicate Hepatitis C across the Barwon/Otway Region.
Health and Wellness Coaching, Whole Medicine (Peninsula Holistic GP), Rosebud, VIC
A 13 week health and wellness coaching program, designed to assist patients with a diagnosed chronic disease, to gain confidence, knowledge and skills to pursue their health and wellness goals.
Iron clinic, Junction Place Medical Centre, Hawthorn East, VIC
A nurse clinic focused on providing improved access to effective and safe treatment for patients experiencing iron related health conditions.
South Australia
Healthy ageing clinic, Allenby Gardens Family Practice, Allenby Gardens, SA
Targeted service delivery to frail patients as well as those at risk of frailty, through the provision of enhanced access for elderly through in home health assessments, increase knowledge of patients about care options, and improve timeliness of care through flexible points of access modes including telephone.
Western Australia
"Be well, stay well" health coaching clinic, Panaceum Group, General Practice, Geraldton, WA
With a focus on the 40-49 age range, the clinic will focus on preventative health measures and health coaching. The health coaching approach is to enable patients to take control of their health and assist them to find sustainable and meaningful approaches to managing their own health
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