Workforce

“Nurses are ready to step up”: APNA

Published: February 12, 2025

Ritchelle Drilon

Workforce

“Nurses are ready to step up”: APNA

Ritchelle Drilon

On Primary Health Care Nurses Day, new data shows that half of Australia’s more than 98,000 primary health care nurses are bogged down by non-clinical tasks, such as taking out the bins and vacuuming, rather than caring for patients.

“We know Australia has workforce shortages across the health system, yet we’re not using the skills and training of the nurses we already have,” said Ken Griffin, Chief Executive Officer of APNA.

According to APNA’s latest Workforce Survey of 3,058 nurses working outside hospitals, 50% regularly perform non-clinical cleaning duties, rising to 61% in Queensland. Additionally, 30% say they rarely or never work to their full scope of practice, despite having an average of 21 years’ experience and 11 years in primary health care. Almost half (43%) hold postgraduate qualifications.“Highly trained primary health care nurses should be managing chronic disease, supporting mental health, and keeping people out of hospital—not taking out the bins. This is a big miss for Australia’s health care system,” Griffin said.

“When we underutilise nurses, we reduce access to care and increase pressure on hospitals.”

Primary Health Care Nurses Day celebrates nurses who work outside hospital settings—in aged care, general practice, schools, and community health. These professionals are instrumental in delivering vaccinations, preventing hospital admissions, and supporting patients with chronic illnesses.

APNA is calling for commonsense policy changes to address the underutilisation of nurses, including scope-of-practice reforms that allow nurses to fully use their expertise, and stronger accountability measures for the Workforce Incentive Payment.

“Nurses are ready to step up—we just need our political leaders to let them,” Griffin said.

Ritchelle Drilon

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Ritchelle is a Content Producer for Healthcare Channel, Australia’s premier resource of information for healthcare.

“Nurses are ready to step up”: APNA

Ritchelle Drilon

Ritchelle Drilon

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