Practice Nurses

GP Program Advisor

Dr Jane Opie

Program officer

Margaret Dempsey, 5229 1922

Quicklinks

Practice nurse newsletter

Practice nurse vacancies

Become a Nurse Pap Test Provider

Pap Test Provider - A Nurses Story

Program summary

The Practice Nurse Program aims to support General Practice in the uptake and retention of Practice Nurses. The Program Officer may provide support by means of phone or email communication, or practice visits.

An extensive 'Nursing in General Practice Recruitment & Orientation Resource' is available through the Australian General Practice Network (AGPN) website.

Resources/templates:

Practice Nurse Newsletter - The GPAG Practice Nurse Newsletter is currently distributed to all Practice Nurses on our database bi-monthly. Newsletters contain information on GPAG educational events, Barwon Health education, and other professional development opportunities for practice nurses and latest news in nursing in general practice.

Please notify us if you have changed practices or if there is a new nurse starting in your practice so we can amend/include details on our practice nurse database and ensure you receive newsletters and education mail outs.

Newsletters 2010

January/February edition
March/April edition

Past editions
Newsletters 2008/2009

January/February 2008

Practice Nurse email list

Ensure you receive timely notification of professional development opportunities, educational events and the latest news in nursing in General Practice, via the Practice Nurse Email List.

Contact the division to update/add your current email contact details.

Practice Nurse Education

The GP Association of Geelong (GPAG) offers Practice Nurses four educational events per year, based on professional development need assessment data collected by us. The GP Association is a Royal College of Nursing (RCNA) Endorsed Provider and as such can offer Continuing Nurse Education (CNE) Points to our educational events.

Our educational events are advertised via our Practice Nurse Newsletter, Practice Nurse Information Board (located in GPAG Lecture Theatre), Practice Nurse Email List and event flyers, which are usually sent out 3-4 weeks in advance.

Practice Nurse Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Registered Nurse Continuing Professional Development Portfolio

The Nurses Board of Victoria (NBV) under the Health Professionals Registration Act 2005 have introduced the requirement for a registered nurse or midwife to provide information about any continuing professional development undertaken during the previous 12 months. With the introduction of the national registration scheme on July 1^st 2010, CPD will become a mandatory requirement for all health professionals. Read more......

Practice Nurse Training Calendar (Subsidy Information)

General Practice Victoria (GPV) has on offer subsidised training in chronic disease management of 50 per cent of the full course fee. The training is offered though the Lung Health Promotion Centre at the Alfred.

Courses on offer may include Respiratory Nurse, Introductory course in Asthma Education, Managing COPD, and Smoking Cessation Facilitators course, Spirometry, Paediatric Respiratory Update, Presenting and Educating with Confidence.

How to claim the subsidy:
View the training calendar pages on the GPV website below, follow the links to the program pages and the Nursing in General Practice (NiGP) Program

On the GPV website if you follow the links from the program pages to the NiGP pages you will find the training calendar page. There are instructions on how to claim the subsidy, and links to calendars for the months August through to November. Each calendar has listed the relevant courses from Lung Health with links to information sheets and registration forms, these items are in red, also on the calendar are professional development opportunities that do not attract the 50 per cent fee subsidy such as external conferences/seminars these are in blue. There is also division run education events included (as provided by division staff) in black.

Training Calendar Pages

Subsidy Information Flyer

Barwon Health Education

The GP Association of Geelong has an agreement with Barwon Health Nursing Education Services which allows Practice Nurses within the Geelong area to access Barwon Health educational events at the same cost as Barwon Health employees

When completing your Barwon Health Registration Form please write 'GP Association of Geelong ' in the section allocated for employee number and pay the Barwon Health fee.

Information on upcoming Barwon Health educational events can be found in the Practice Nurse Newsletter and GPAG Practice Nurse Information Board.

Australian Practice Nurse Association Education

Practice Nurse Vacancies

The GPAG website provides a space for General Practices in the region to advertise any vacant Practice Nurse positions. Practice vacancies are advertised under the Come for the Job Section.

Advertisements provide the following information:

Name of Practice
Brief description of the Practice Nurse role
Position Hours e.g. F/T, P/T, Relief, Job share
Qualifications required e.g. Division 1, Division 2, Immunisation etc
Practice Contact

Please direct all enquiries regarding these positions to the Practice Contact person listed on the advertisement.

MBS Link

MBS Online contains the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), a listing of the Medicare services subsidised by the Australian government. The Schedule is part of the wider Medicare Benefits Scheme managed by the Department of Health and Ageing and administered by Medicare Australia. MBS Online contains the latest MBS information and is updated as changes to the MBS occur.