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Australian Health Review Australian Health Review Society
Journal of the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Translating aspects of The National Rural and Remote Nursing Generalist Framework 2023–2027 into practice: opportunities and considerations

H. Beks https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2851-6450 A * , S. Clayden A B and V. L. Versace https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8514-1763 A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Deakin Rural Health, School of Medicine, Warrnambool, Vic., Australia.

B Specialist Physicians Clinic, South West Healthcare, Warrnambool, Vic., Australia.

* Correspondence to: hannah.beks@deakin.edu.au

Australian Health Review 47(5) 626-628 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH23098
Submitted: 5 May 2023  Accepted: 27 July 2023   Published: 14 August 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Reforms that grow the capabilities of the health workforce are critical to improving outcomes for populations residing in rural and remote areas of Australia. Nurses are central to improving the accessibility of health care for populations in these areas. The Australian Government’s recent release of The National Rural and Remote Nursing Generalist Framework 2023–2027 is timely for identifying opportunities to strengthen the rural and remote nursing workforce. Further consideration of how the nursing workforce can be supported to translate aspects of the framework into practice is required. To achieve this, it is necessary to identify strategies to support registered nurses to develop capabilities stipulated within the framework. A logical vehicle for this translation is through the continued support of the Australian Government’s Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training program, which includes an established network of 19 University Departments of Rural Health. Leveraging from this national network that is geographically expansive and has a long-term strategic impetus for growing the rural and remote nursing workforce, provides an opportunity for translating aspects of the framework at a national scale.

Keywords: health care quality, access, evaluation, health planning, health policy, nurses, nursing, research, rural health services, rural nursing.

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