A registered nurse (RN) is a nurse who has graduated or successfully passed a nursing program from a recognized nursing school and met the requirements outlined by a country, state, province or similar government-authorized licensing body to obtain a nursing license. An RN's scope of practice is determined by legislation, and is regulated by a professional body or council.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) is the largest union in Australia, with 274,956 members in 2018. The union is run by nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing to advance the industrial, political and professional interests of its members.
Nursing in Australia is a healthcare profession. Nurses and midwives form the majority (54%) of Australian health care professionals. Nurses are either registered or enrolled. Registered nurses have broader and deeper education than enrolled nurses. Nurse practitioners complete a yet higher qualification. Nurses are not limited to working in hospitals, instead working in a variety of settings. Australian nurses are in demand as traveling nurses, particularly those with advanced qualifications.
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN), formed in 2012 from a merger of the Royal College of Nursing, Australia and the College of Nursing, is the professional body for nursing in Australia. ACN advocates, develops policy, and provides education to advance the status of nursing nationally and internationally.
The word "nurse" originally came from the Latin word "nutrire", meaning to suckle, referring to a wet-nurse; only in the late 16th century did it attain its modern meaning of a person who cares for the infirm.
Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alleviation of suffering through compassionate presence". Nurses practice in many specialties with varying levels of certification and responsibility. Nurses comprise the largest component of most healthcare environments. There are shortages of qualified nurses in many countries.
Elizabeth Grace Neill was a nurse from New Zealand who lobbied for passage of laws requiring training and national registration of nurses and midwives; in 1901, New Zealand was the first country in the world to introduce such laws. The nursing experience she received during her early life inspired her to reform many aspects of the nursing practice, and her experience as a factory inspector led her to instigate other social reforms.
Grace Margaret Wilson was a high-ranked nurse in the Australian Army during World War I and the first years of World War II. Wilson was born in Brisbane, and completed her initial training as a nurse in 1908. After the outbreak of World War I she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and subsequently transferred to the First Australian Imperial Force. From 1915 until 1919 she was the principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. She served as the temporary matron-in-chief in the AIF Headquarters, London from late 1917 until early 1918. Wilson returned to Australia in 1920 and left the AIF to work in civilian hospitals. She was appointed the matron-in-chief of the AANS in 1925, and in September 1940 joined the Second Australian Imperial Force. She served in the Middle East until August 1941, when she returned to Australia due to ill health. She left the Army the next month, but from September 1943 worked in the Department of Manpower Directorate (Victoria)'s nursing control section.
Hester Maclean, was an Australian-born nurse, hospital matron, nursing administrator, editor and writer who spent most of her career in New Zealand. She served in the First World War as the founding Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service, and was one of the first nurses to be awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal.
Alice Hannah Holford was a New Zealand nurse, midwife and hospital matron.
Doris Clifton Gordon was a New Zealand doctor, obstetrician, university lecturer and women's health reformer. She was known as 'Dr Doris', famous for her work in rural general practice, for raising the status of obstetrics, improving obstetrics education of medical students and doctors, and working for the welfare of mothers and children.
Amelia Bagley was a New Zealand hospital matron, midwife and nursing administrator. She was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on 2 October 1870.
Suzanne Judith Denison OAM, née Brown is an Australian nurse practitioner based in the rural New South Wales town of Nundle. Together with Jane O'Connell, she was one of the first two authorised Nurse Practitioners in Australia.
Merle Elecia Parkes is a pioneer nurse educator who spent the bulk of her extensive career championing quality education for nurses in Australia. Parkes was eventually instrumental in affecting change from solely hospital-only training, to formal nursing degrees within tertiary institutions. In 1979, under Parkes's guidance, the Western Australian Institute of Technology became the first Australian tertiary institution to receive approval for a nursing degree program, which catalysed a National shift from hospital-based training to university-based education for the nursing profession.
The St Helens Hospitals were maternity hospitals located in seven New Zealand cities. They were the first state-run maternity hospitals in the world offering both midwifery services and midwifery training. The first hospital opened in 1905 in Wellington and the last one in Wanganui in 1921. The services of the St Helens Hospitals were gradually incorporated into other hospitals and the last hospital to close was in Auckland in 1990.
Caroline Susan E. Homer is an Australian midwifery researcher and international advocate for women's health rights. She is Co-Program Director, Maternal and Child Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne and Visiting Distinguished Professor of Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney.
Annie Lynch, known by her religious name as Mother Mary Xavier, was an Irish-born Australian religious sister and nurse. She was a member of the Little Company of Mary, and served as the congregation's first provincial for the region of Australasia. She oversaw the growth of the Lewisham Hospital as superior of the Lewisham convent. As provincial, she established several more hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.
Elizabeth Mary Chiarella AM is an Australian academic who specialises in issues relating to nursing, midwifery and the law. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, Australia and has been at the forefront of many regulatory changes to nursing practice and the nursing workforce and midwifery. These include the introduction of nurse practitioners into Australia, the move from a state based to a national regulatory system and, for midwifery, the introduction of the world's first Doctor of Midwifery and the establishment of the framework for state funded home birth midwifery in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. She is a nurse and midwife, who specialised initially in anaesthetic nursing and later in palliative care.
Georgina McCready, nee Johnstone, MBE, was a founding member of the New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) in 1931 and the New South Wales College of Nursing (NSWCN) in 1949. She was the founding president for the college from 1949 to 1950 and chaired the first meeting of the provisional council for the college. Also, McCready was one of the first supervisory sisters in the NSW Department of Health in 1929. The McCready Scholarship was established in 1954 by the NSWNA in her honour. She was appointed MBE (Member of the British Empire, 8 June 1963 for services to the nursing profession. It was during her term as a supervisory nurse inspecting hospital standards for the NSW Board of Health in 1929, that Georgina found the low salaries and poor working and living conditions for nurses throughout NSW. She found that, many hospitals fell below Nurses Registration Board requirements and nurses had no industrial cover. Supported by Jessie Street and in partnerships with Iono Nowland Georgina formed the NSW Nurses Association at an emergency meeting 27 March 1931. The 1931 Executive included Nowland as president and Johnstone as honorary secretary.
