Nurse Practitioner Week
The annual Nurse Practitioner (NP) Week is celebrated during the month of December because that is the month NPs were first endorsed in Australia in the year 2000.
Nurse Practitioners are the essential difference in healthcare and Bellarine Community Health has a dedicated NP leading the BCH Palliative Care team.
Nurse Practitioners are proud of their nursing background, and carry with them the nursing philosophy
of kindness, care, empathy, and the desire to help others. This philosophy also underpins NP practice
and contributes to positive outcomes for NPs, their patients, and communities.
Nurse Practitioners have differences that make them essential to healthcare, and a real asset to the future of their patients and health care in this country.
Those essential differences in healthcare include:
• Practice in all areas and sectors of health care
• Providing much-needed health care services in areas and populations deemed vulnerable
• Work in metropolitan, regional, rural, and remote settings
• Patient focused and person-centred health care
• NPs can diagnose and treat a variety of health-related conditions
• NPs can prescribe medications
• NPs can order and interpret pathology and radiology tests
• Initiate and receive referrals from health professionals
• Improving health outcomes for patients and the community
• Strong communication and links with multidisciplinary teams
• Case management and care co-ordination
• Can work autonomously and independently
• Can provide extensive health education relevant to each person
• Can have their own private practices
• Can admit and treat patients in hospitals
The Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) is the peak body for NPs and Advanced Practice Nurses across the country, including rural and remote areas of Australia.
More information about BCH Palliative Care Services can be found here.
More information of the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners can be found here.
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