Grievance Debate

Nurses and Midwives

Debate resumed.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:30): It is my pleasure as well, as Minister for Health and Wellbeing, to address the subject raised by the member for Davenport, and that is the celebration of our incredible nurses and midwives across South Australia. As you have noted, Deputy Speaker, it is delightful to have so many nursing and midwifery leaders from across the state joining us here in the parliament today. I particularly highlight, of course, both Professor Dabars, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA branch, and also Jenny Hurley, the Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer for South Australia, and there are so many other leaders of the nursing and midwifery professions that we have across the state.

Both yesterday, International Nurses Day, and last week on the International Day of the Midwife we have been busy celebrating the countless hours of care and dedication that nurses and midwives bring to patients across South Australia. So many patients, so many families, have their own stories of the nurses and midwives who have gone above and beyond to provide that care, to provide that service for them.

In fact there are some 40,000 nurses and midwives in South Australia, the majority of which we are lucky enough to have working in SA Health. Of course, they are working not only in SA Health—in our hospitals, our healthcare services across the state—but also in the private sector, in the aged-care sector and in the community sector. Wherever you look in health care, there are nurses and midwives working day in, day out to provide that care.

Care is really at the forefront of what the nursing and midwifery professions are all about: putting the patient first, making sure that they have that care that they need. That is what sets this profession apart from all others.

Certainly from a government perspective we have been very keen to do everything that we can to further these professions, to make sure that we can progress the scope of practice that nurses and midwives can operate at, to progress the research agenda for nurses and midwives in this state and also to progress in terms of recognising that work.

A couple of weeks ago, both the Minister for Human Services and I were delighted to join so many hundreds of nurses and midwives across the state at the annual excellence awards, where we recognised 13 different categories of recipients of excellence awards for nurses and midwives. Some of the notable award winners included from Limestone Coast, Barbie Sawyer, Excellence in Practice—Nurse Practitioner. That is the first time that we have had that award here in this state, recognising what is an incredible part of our profession in terms of nurse practitioners and that advanced practice that they can provide. The Excellence in Practice—Team award went to the NALHN Clinical Placement Collaborative, a really important project where NALHN have been working to make sure that we can provide those placements closer to home and working with our regional partners in Yorke and Northern to deliver that.

We recognised Darryle Barnes from Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network with the Excellence in Practice—Aboriginal Nurse/Midwife award. We recognised Tina Bode from the WCHN with the Excellence in Practice—Midwife award and Karen Gregory from Resthaven with the Excellence in Aged Care award.

We also announced the Premier's Nursing and Midwifery Scholarships: Charlotte Grove from FUNLHN, Jessica Walkley from SAAS MedSTAR, Paula Medway from the Department for Health and Wellbeing, Rochelle Griffin from Yorke and Northern, and Sally Neumann from Limestone Coast. All those nurses will use that opportunity from their scholarship to meet with international leaders and implement their learnings locally and bring that back home to their South Australian health services across the state.

I would also like to recognise Marion Eckert, who was also a recipient of an award and obviously heads up the Rosemary Bryant Foundation. I know that it was a real honour for her to receive that award from Rosemary Bryant. Both Minister Cook and I are very familiar with her work and that is a tremendous honour for her in the work that she does.

In closing, and following what the member for Davenport was saying, not only do we want to recognise this but we want to put it into action. I am really delighted that there has been a lot of work happening behind the scenes on a very fundamental piece of recognising our regard as a government for the nurse and midwifery profession, and that is to bring to the parliament within coming months—this year—the legislation to establish nurse/patient ratios for the first time. I thank the ANMF for the work that they have been doing constructively on that. I look forward to bringing that to the parliament. That will be another day, no doubt, when we celebrate and bring lots of nurses into the parliament to celebrate that legislation coming before the parliament at last.