Members from ACN’s Affiliate organisations at the Policy Summit
Nurse leaders from across Australia and the world came together for the Australian College of Nursing’s (ACN) Policy Summit which was held in Canberra on March 19.
The Summit, which was held in a mixed face-to-face and virtual format, brought together members of ACN’s Policy Chapters, Working Groups, nurses and other health professionals to identify and discuss major policy opportunities and strategies to address these.
The morning began with addresses from ACN President Emeritus Professor Christine Duffield FACN and CEO Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward FACN who facilitated the day.
Adjunct Professor Ward then moderated a high-profile panel discussion which featured ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Adjunct Professor Alison McMillan MACN, former Secretary Australian Government Department of Ms Glenys Beauchamp PSM and Mr Howard Catton Chief Executive Officer, International Council of Nurses who joined from Geneva. We were privileged to have some of the leading decision makers in health care in the same room!
The ACN Policy Summit then turned to sharing the progress of ACN’s Policy Chapters and Working Groups over the past 12 months. The Chairs and Co Chairs of each of these groups presented a brief, five-minute overview of their work, which included the launch of several important policy documents including:
- The role of nurses in support older people to access, quality safe aged care Position Statement: ACN Ageing Policy Chapter
- Optimising person- and family-centred end of life care during a pandemic Position Statement: ACN End of Life Care Policy Chapter
- Voluntary Assisted Dying Position Statement: End of Life Care policy Chapter
- The role of the nurse in assessment and management of multimorbidity Position Statement: Chronic Disease Policy Chapter
- A national minimum dataset for nursing workforce planning and Decision-Making White Paper: Workforce Sustainability Policy Chapter
- ACN Emissions Reduction Charter: ACN Emissions Reduction Policy Chapter
- Men in Nursing Guiding Principles: ACN Men in Nursing Working Party
- Diversity and Inclusion Guiding Principles: ACN Diversity and Inclusion Working Party
- The importance of value-based health care to patient-centred, fiscally responsible health care and the centrality of nursing to its authentic and effective functioning White Paper: ACN Value Based Health Care Working Group.
This substantial amount of work does not happen without extensive contributions from our valued Fellows and Members. We are very grateful to have them share their time and expertise with us to produce these policy documents.
The afternoon break-out session provided the opportunity for Members of ACN’s Policy Chapters and Nurses and Violence Taskforce to come together and plan their advocacy work for the upcoming years. The results of these productive sessions were presented to the entire Summit in the final plenary session of the day. We are very excited about the work our Policy Chapters are looking to produce in 2021 to continue advancing the nursing professions role in the policy arena.
Thank you to all who presented and attended throughout the day. We can’t wait to see you next year on 11 March in Canberra!
If you would like to relive the action from across the day, be sure to check out the hashtag #ACNPolicySummit on Twitter throughout the day.
