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Legislative hegemony and nurse practitioner practice in rural and remote Australia.
- Source :
- Health Sociology Review; Sep2011, Vol. 20 Issue 3, p269-280, 12p
- Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- Nurse practitioners were introduced into Australia in 1990 to improve access to health care in isolated communities where medical doctors are scarce. The slow uptake of nurse practitioners in these areas has largely been the result of legislation not affording them access to provider numbers through the Medicare Australia Act 1973. This has denied nurse practitioners the opportunity to become primary care providers because they cannot prescribe medications and order diagnostic tests at rebated costs. Recently this Act changed, making provision for nurse practitioners. Ironically the enactment of the new legislation still prevents nurse practitioners from practicing effectively. This paper describes the discursive practices in legislation, driven by traditional power brokers, which perpetuate the traditional role of nurses as care givers and fails to support the evolution of nurse practitioners as care providers. These continued practices effectively prevent nurse practitioners from working to their potential, despite government reassurance under recent health care reform in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MEDICARE laws
HEALTH care reform
MEDICARE (Australia)
RURAL health services
COST control
CLINICAL pathology
HEALTH services accessibility
LOBBYING
MEDICAL societies
NURSE practitioners
NURSES
POWER (Social sciences)
PRIMARY health care
DISEASE management
NURSE prescribing
HEALTH insurance reimbursement
ELIGIBILITY (Social aspects)
OCCUPATIONAL roles
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14461242
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Health Sociology Review
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 74387090
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.269