This week, nurse practitioners (NPs) around the Northern Sydney Local Health District are celebrating Nurse Practitioners Week.
NP Week is celebrated from 12-18 December every year and this year’s theme is “Nurse Practitioners, the essential difference in healthcare.”
Currently there are 24 NPs and 9 Transitional NPs working across the district across specialties such as emergency, palliative care, oncology, neurosciences, diabetes, intensive care, dialysis, burns and wounds, aged care, heart failure, dermatology and drug and alcohol.
NPs across the district recognised the week with a celebration of their achievements throughout the year as well as some personal milestones for some practitioners.
One of the highlights for NPs across the district this year was attending The Australian College of Nurse Practitioners National conference in October.
RNSH burns & complex wounds NP, Peter Campbell conducted a clinical workshop at the conference, sharing his advanced nursing expertise on burns and wounds.
Peter said there were multiple highlights of the conference, but being able to present to fellow NPs was something he won’t forget.
“It was also great to be able to meet and share opinions with different health professionals about visions and plans for the future of NPs and the role we play in the health system,” he said.
RNSH intensive care unit NP Kelly Harbour presented a poster at the conference detailing the ICU NP model of care at RNSH.
“The paper outlines the service model that has been established and the core practice areas of the ICU NPs. It also highlights the sustainability and possible transferability of the model to other intensive care units throughout Australia and New Zealand,” she said
The poster was awarded second prize, however, Kelly was awarded first prize for her rapid presentation of the poster.
Kelly said it’s important that week’s like Nurse Practitioner Week exist to raise awareness for the essential difference NPs provide to healthcare.
“It’s important that weeks like this bring light to the work we do, as well as help shape the future, particularly for Intensive Care where in Australia, the role is very much in its infancy,” she said.