ACN offers a suite of continuing professional development (CPD) offerings both online and face to face including:

• Introduction to the Standards and Standard One
• Aged Care Standard Two
• Aged Care Standard Three
• Aged Care Standard Four
• Aged Care Standard Five
• Aged Care Standard Six
• Aged Care Standard Seven
• Aged Care Standard Eight
• Defining Palliative Care
• End Stage Dementia (topics 1 and 2)
• Infection Prevention and Control
• Wound Management

If you have suggestions for topics, please email cpd@acn.edu.au.

ACN offers Customised Education Programs and Transition to Practice Programs specific to aged care. We recognise no two organisations are the same and individual learning needs are unique therefore we design education to meet your organisation’s specific requirements, in a format and venue of your choice. Contact us today for more information at customised.education@acn.edu.au.

ACN’s Institute of Leadership offers a range of leadership development opportunities from CPD short courses to formal leadership programs for nurses to enhance their leadership skills and career progression. Our Leadership Programs Emerging Nurse Leader program to kick-start your career, or our Mid-Career Nurse Leadership program build your career and take the next step into management or our Nurse Executive Leadership program to accelerate your career and strengthen your influence, commanding respect and recognition.

Our ACN Nurse Executive Capability Framework provides a guide for those in, or aspiring to, nurse executive roles. Its sets the standard for capabilities required as an executive nurse leader.

The ACN Policy Team is committed to advancing nursing leadership in the provision of high quality, person-centred and sustainable aged care in Australia. We give our members a voice to advocate for an aged care system that rewards their efforts and empowers them to deliver the best possible outcomes for older Australians, whether in their own homes or in aged care facilities.

In conjunction with our Policy Chapters and other experts, the Policy Team develops White Papers to address systemic challenges and opportunities in aged care including:

• Nurses are essential in health and aged care reform
• Regulation of the unregulated health care workforce across the health care system
• Achieving quality palliative care for all: The essential role of nurses
• Establishing a nurse-led palliative care service in Australia: an implementation toolkit

and position statements:

• Person-centred care
• Unregulated health care workers
• The role of nurses in promoting healthy ageing
• Voluntary Assisted Dying in Victoria
• The role of registered nurses in residential aged care facilities

Our Ageing Policy Chapter and End of Life Policy Chapter are led by internationally renowned nurses who lead a team of experts to develop issues papers, position statements and proactive, long-term policy strategies around aged and palliative care.

Healthy Ageing COI

ACN members can connect with like-minded nurses around the country who share areas of interest or specialty through Communities of Interest (COI). The Healthy Ageing COI brings together nurses who are passionate about, or interested in, working with the older person. This enables members to enhance their knowledge and keep up to date with the latest news, research findings, and opportunities for the identification of best practice and major policy developments. If you are a member of ACN and would like to join the COI to connect and engage in discussions, you can do so via neo. Members of the COI can also read the latest discussion article written by the COI’s Leadership Team on neo. If you are not yet a member of the ACN Tribe and would like to sign up to access COIs and other member benefits, we would love you to join online.

Representation

ACN has and continues to represent its members and the broader nursing profession through participation in representation opportunities. Over the past 12 months ACN has contributed to numerous consultations, inquiries, government and non-government workshops and working groups on a wide range of aged care related subjects. These include the Department of Health (DoH) Use of Chemical Restraints in Aged Care Environment, COVID-19 Aged Care Forum, and Australian Digital Health Agency Aged Care Advisory Group into the adoption and use of My Health Record in Residential Aged Care Facilities, Development and modifications of My Aged Care Website and the National Aged care Alliance (NACA). Watch out for our expressions of interest through the Healthy Ageing COI.