Aboriginal Health Forum
Support for Practice Nurses and General Practices
The Australian General Practice Network's (AGPN) website has extenstive information on the NiGP program
View information on the AGPN NiGP webpage (view AGPN website)
Amongst the many resources available on this website is a comprehensive guide for GPs, practice nurses and Division of General Practice staff. This guide is designed to assist in the recruitment and orientation of nurses into general practice.
Nursing in General Practice Recruitment and Orientation Resource (view AGPN Website)
The Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA) has developed an information kit to provide the general practice team with guidance on roles and responsibilities, legislative, regulatory, employment and human resource support information to assist general practices to effectively include a nurse within their general practice team.
View the RCNA Information kit (View RCNA website)
The Department of Health and Ageing have provided guidelines on how the NiGP is funded and how it operates.
Guidelines for Division staff working in the Nursing in General Practice program(PDF 552 KB)
Phone Support
Some Divisions offer phone support to practice nurses as part of their role in building the capacity of practice nurses. Divisions have acquired in-depth knowledge of the practice nurse role and in areas of uncertainty, can direct practice nurses to other divisions� programs, GPV, AGPN, professional nursing bodies and other programs. Practice nurses may request knowledge and advice regarding a range of issues.
Practice Visits
Some Divisions visit practice nurses at their workplace as a way of introducing the division and the range of services available to practice nurses. In some cases, practice nurses may request a visit from division staff to assist with general nursing issues or other matters.
Email List
Electronic communication with practice nurses is an efficient way of imparting information about practice nurse events, CNE activities, recent initiatives and other relevant information. It helps the division to keep in touch with practice nurses and for practice nurses to interact with the division and other practice nurses. An email list or list serve will assist each division to maintain communication with practice nurses. If possible, divisions should encourage practices to provide an email address for each practice nurse so communication is direct and avoid sending electronic communication to other staff within the practice or to the practice nurses� home email.
Database
An accurate database of practice nurses will assist the division to communicate continuing nurse education (CNE) activities, network meetings and other information to practice nurses. Divisions may wish to identify each practice nurse on the database according to practice address, hours of work, qualifications and interests. A well managed database can provide the details needed to build capacity among practice nurses by targeting CNE and other activities to the appropriate practice nurses.
Division PN Network
Divisions provide practice network local meetings as an opportunity for networking and professional development and face two face contact. To find out when the next network meeting in your division
Please contact your division representative [https://gpdv.com.au/gpdv122.htm]for futher information.
For further information contact:
Lesley Czulowski, Program Consultant Nursing in General Practice and Aboriginal Health Ph: 03 9314 5221 | Fax 03 9341 5299 | Email: l.czulowski@gpv.org.au