Workforce characteristics of privately practicing nurse practitioners in Australia

Abstract

Purpose Australian private practice nurse practitioner (PPNP) services have grown since legislative changes in 2010 enabled eligible nurse practitioners (NPs) to access reimbursement for care delivered through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This article provides data from a national survey on the workforce characteristics of PPNPs in Australia. Method PPNPs in Australia were invited to complete an electronic survey. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic analysis. There were 73 completed surveys. Conclusions One of the intentions of expanding access to MBS and PBS for patients treated by NPs was to increase patients’ access to health care through greater flexibility in the healthcare workforce. The results of this survey confirm that the workforce characteristics of PPNPs provide a potentially untapped resource to meet current primary healthcare demand. Implications for practice The findings of this study allow us to understand the characteristics of PPNP services, which are significant for workforce planning. The focus of PPNP practice is toward primary health care with PPNPs working predominantly in general practice settings. The largest age group of PPNPs is over 50 years and means a proportion will be retiring in the next 15 years.

Practice activities of privately‐practicing nurse practitioners: Results from an Australian survey

“…NPs practice in a private capacity in all states of Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, the only jurisdictional exception being the Northern Territory (Currie, Chiarella, & Buckley, 2016a).…”

“…PPNPs work predominantly in community and primary care settings, such as community mental health roles (Raeburn, Hungerford, Sayers, Escott, Lopez & Cleary, 2015), in general practice surgeries (Helms, Crookes, & Bailey, 2015), and are integrated within pharmacies in a primary healthcare and health-promotion role (McMillan & Emmerton, 2013). The main focus of Australian-based PPNP services is the provision of chronic and complex care (Currie et al, 2016a). Reported in the literature are issues surrounding the sustainability of PPNP services, including the range of MBS items (Elmer & Stirling, 2013), the inadequate scheduled fee allocated to NP MBS items (Currie et al, 2013;Helms et al, 2015), and the mandatory requirements for collaborative arrangements (Currie, Chiarella, & Buckley, 2016b;Schadewaldt, McInnes, Hiller, & Gardner, 2016).…”

“…An electronic survey was designed using the Survey Monkey platform, and was available for 6 weeks (February-March 2015). The survey questions were informed following a review of current literature (Currie et al, 2013), and focused on the following four aspects of PPNP practice: workforce characteristics (Currie et al, 2016a), collaborative arrangements (Currie et al, 2016b), access to MBS and PBS, and practice activities. There were 82 questions included in the survey; the majority were quantitative "yes"/"no" or multiple choice questions, with a free text space to explain the reason for the participant's answer.…”

Collaborative arrangements and privately practising nurse practitioners in Australia: results from a national survey

“…In the present study, 28 (38.4%) of the PPNPs worked in rural and remote settings, compared with 35 (47.9%) and 31 (42.5%) who work in suburban and metropolitan settings respectively. 2 Although the number of PPNPs working in rural and remote settings shows potential for further development, the collaborative arrangement legislation poses a potential barrier.…”

“…This paper forms part of an evaluation of PPNP services in Australia. 1,2 The data presented here address the collaborative arrangements of PPNP services in Australia.…”