Report on the ACC Nurse Liaison Group

Jenny Phillips

The ACC Nurse Liaison Group continues to meet quarterly. The scope of this group is: to provide strategic input into primary community care developments undertaken by ACC, and the purpose is to: operate in such a way as to reflect the interests of nurse providers and claimants for whom the strategies are designed.

Frances Hughes from the Ministry of Health and Marion Clark from Nursing Council are also on the group and keep us directly informed on many topical issues, some of which cause lively discussions.

Some of the topics which have been discussed include:
Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act; Role of Nurse Practitioners;
Intramuscular injection sites; ear syringing and cost regulations. As a group, we initially did not feel that the nursing voice was being heard, but this is now changing thanks to the commitment of a couple of ACC staff and the hard work of the group members.

Our single biggest project has been work on Nursing Treatment Profiles which started in August 2003. These profiles will be similar to the GP and Physiotherapy Treatment Profiles which already exist, but with the focus on nursing treatments. Originally this was to be a six month project but, like Topsy, has grown. It covers all treatments to be provided for everything from broken limbs and sprains to bruises and burns and strategies for encouraging early return to work. Members of the group have worked on sections covering their own specialty, while the representative for the College of Practice Nurses and I have the role of co-ordinating and putting the whole document together.

At our May meeting we received positive feedback following internal circulation of the document within ACC, but at this point it was also decided to expand the Nursing Treatment Profiles to include patient education sections and sections on "how to" for nurses e.g. how to apply a plaster. Throughout the document, the phrase "according to competency" will be found, as this will eventually go out to a wide variety of practitioners varying from rural nurses who work alone, to practice nurses working closely with GPs.

The intention is that after the August meeting, the draft copy will be ready for distribution to all relevant bodies for comment and this will be your chance to have your say - don't miss out.

Jenny Phillips
jlphillips@xtra.co.nz