Federal Election 2025
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) is calling on the major parties this election to publicly commit to implementing the recommendations of the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review as a critical step in improving access to quality and affordable health services for all Australians.
ACN CEO, Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz FACN, said it is time to update Medicare and the health system with new thinking and new funding models to achieve the maximum benefit of the skill sets of all health professions.
Adjunct Professor Zeitz said the Scope of Practice review, led by Professor Mark Cormack, sets out practical, sensible, and affordable recommendations that will enable greater contributions from nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, and allied health professionals – in partnership with doctors – in meeting the health care needs of Australians, no matter where they live.
"Nurses are the largest workforce in Australia, and they live and work in large numbers in every electorate across the nation," Adjunct Professor Zeitz said.
"In some communities, nurses are the only health professionals in town.
"As more doctors retire in rural and remote Australia – with no younger doctors moving out of the cities to replace them – country people will miss out on quality care if nurses are not empowered to work to their full scope of practice, using all their clinical kills and knowledge and experience.
"Nurse-led clinics and services have been operating successfully in Australia for decades. We need more of them.
"Nursing is an agile, versatile, and highly educated profession with skilled professionals working in every health setting across Australia.
"We need policies and funding to attract more people to the profession, retain nurses and midwives in life-long careers, and entice nurses who are not working as nurses back to the profession.
"It is estimated there are around 70,000 trained nurses working in jobs other than nursing. We need to actively promote the positive image of modern nursing to bring them back to the job they love."
ACN has an election blueprint, that – alongside the Scope of Practice reforms – should be the guide for health care reforms for the next government. It will enable nurses and midwives to provide immediate solutions to health workforce health issues affecting the nation, especially for patients and communities in underserved metropolitan areas, and rural, regional, and remote Australia.
ACN BLUEPRINT
Nursing: A Career for Life
A $15 million national multimedia campaign to elevate nursing's image, addressing critical workforce shortages. This would be an essential investment in Australia's healthcare future and would highlight how a stronger nursing workforce directly translates to better community health outcomes.
Nurses Leading Healthcare Reform
Expand nurse-led models of care through modernised funding systems to improve healthcare accessibility while reducing pressure on GPs. ACN is calling for $10 million to be spent on the development of a business case for nurse-led services. And we need to cultivate nurse leadership – a $500,000 investment in the completion of nurse leadership courses through the ACN Institute of Leadership.
Supporting an Ageing Australia
We want $54 million invested in the development of Home Aged Care Nursing Services education with 5,000 associated education scholarships. This will enable more Australians to age with dignity in their homes, preferred by many older Australians and their families, and would address the goals of the new Aged Care Act while creating thousands of skilled jobs.
Rural Healthcare Revolution
Rural and remote nurses provide critical healthcare access to Australians in those areas, but they are often poorly supported. We want $50 million to be spent on coordinator positions in rural and remote health services. Many healthcare 'deserts' would be transformed through this investment, which would not only bring health, but economic and social benefits to regional communities.
Retaining Nursing Expertise
Nurses need support to stay in the workforce longer. We are calling for the development and implementation of a National Transition to Retirement Guide ($4 million); and a national, nursing-specific perimenopause and menopause awareness campaign ($5 million) with online education program development and delivery ($3 million). This would have the dual benefit of addressing both the nursing shortage crisis while providing dignified career culmination options for dedicated healthcare professionals who have served their communities for decades.
Future-Ready Nursing
There need to be investments in digital literacy, leadership development, and clinical supervision to create a modern, resilient nursing workforce. We are proposing $2.5 million for scholarships for CPD and specialised education and $3 million for digital and virtual literacy education and scholarship, for an essential modernisation of Australia's healthcare system, with digital-savvy nurse leaders poised to transform patient care while maintaining the human touch that makes nursing essential.
