A profile of primary health care nurses

Web report

Last updated: 12 May 2020

AIHW

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2020) A profile of primary health care nurses , AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 08 November 2024.

APA

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2020). A profile of primary health care nurses . Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/primary-health-care/a-profile-of-primary-care-nurses

MLA

A profile of primary health care nurses . Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 12 May 2020, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/primary-health-care/a-profile-of-primary-care-nurses

Vancouver

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. A profile of primary health care nurses [Internet]. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020 [cited 2024 Nov. 8]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/primary-health-care/a-profile-of-primary-care-nurses

Harvard

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2020, A profile of primary health care nurses , viewed 8 November 2024, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/primary-health-care/a-profile-of-primary-care-nurses

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Primary health care is usually the first point of contact Australians have with the health care system. Primary health care nurses are the largest group of healthcare professionals working in primary health care. In Australia, at least 82,000 nurses work outside of the hospital setting including nurse practitioners, registered nurses, enrolled nurses and registered midwives. This snapshot demonstrates that primary health care nurses are: mostly women, working in a wide range of settings in the primary health care sector, and are highly qualified and experienced.

COVID-19
This release covers data up to 31 December 2019, preceding COVID-19.

Cat. no: PHC 2

Findings from this report:

The majority of primary health care nurses were registered nurses (82%), followed by enrolled nurses (9%) in 2019
The advanced role of nurse immuniser was the most common qualification among primary health care nurses in 2019 (56%)
Two-thirds of primary health care nurses reported working in general practice settings in 2019 (68%)
The majority of nurses were women (96%) and aged between 45 and 65 years (60%) in 2019

What qualifications do primary health nurses have?

Nurses are highly educated and qualified. According to the APNA Survey, the majority of primary health care nurses were registered nurses–a qualification requiring a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in nursing. Enrolled nurses require a Diploma of nursing (NSW Government 2020).

Building on their formal education, nurses are additionally qualified to practice in a variety of advanced roles (Schwartz 2019). Between 2015 and 2019, common qualifications among the primary health care nurses included nurse immuniser, cervical cancer screening, asthma, respiratory, and diabetes educators (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Education attained or working towards among primary health care nurses, 2015–2019

More than a third of primary health care nurses have postgraduate qualifications

There are a wide range of postgraduate diplomas and master’s degrees in nursing, allowing registered nurses to become highly skilled specialists in a variety of nursing areas (Schwartz 2019).

According to the APNA Survey, almost half (42%) of the respondents reported completing or working towards a postgraduate qualification in 2019. Of these, over half (53%) stated their postgraduate course was a certificate or diploma in or related to primary health care, followed by ‘other postgraduate course’ (28%) and master’s degree in or related to primary health care (19%) (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Postgraduate courses completed or working towards among primary health care nurses, 2015–2019

References

Australian Primary Health Care Nurse Association (APNA) 2017a. APNA Annual Report 2018. Melbourne: APNA.

APNA 2018a. APNA Annual Report 2018. Melbourne: APNA.

APNA 2019a. APNA Annual Report 2018. Melbourne: APNA.

APNA 2015. Microdata: APNA Workforce Survey, 2015. Melbourne: APNA. Findings based on AIHW analysis of APNA microdata.

APNA 2016. Microdata: APNA Workforce Survey, 2016. Melbourne: APNA. Findings based on AIHW analysis of APNA microdata.

APNA 2017b. Microdata: APNA Workforce Survey, 2017. Melbourne: APNA. Findings based on AIHW analysis of APNA microdata.

APNA 2018b. Microdata: APNA Workforce Survey, 2018. Melbourne: APNA. Findings based on AIHW analysis of APNA microdata.

APNA 2019b Microdata: APNA Workforce Survey, 2019. Melbourne: APNA. Findings based on AIHW analysis of APNA microdata.

New South Wales (NSW) Government 2020. Becoming a registered nurse. NSW Government. Viewed 25 March 2020.

Schwartz, S 2019. Educating the Nurse of the Future—Report of the Independent Review into Nursing Education. Canberra: Department of Health. Viewed 25 March 2020.