It’s not often we pause to think of the positive impact that nurses and midwives have on our lives and communities or how we would get by without them.
International Nurses and Midwives Day is not like a butchers’ picnic with streamers and balloons but it does provide an opportunity to celebrate their contribution, and also for local practitioners to meet and share skills and experience in a professional environment.
Such a conference is happening today at the Ballina RSL, jointly hosted by the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSW LHD) Nursing and Midwifery Directorate and Southern Cross University (SCU).
The opening address will be given by adjunct associate professor Susan Pearce, who is also NSW’s chief health nurse and midwife.
Topics under discussion will include: mental health; renal and Aboriginal services; reducing patient falls; dementia care; and palliative and end-of life-care.
Professor Iain Graham, Southern Cross University’s dean of health, said the conference was about celebrating the positive impact of nursing and midwifery on health care.
‘It marks a celebration of how the partnership between the nursing and midwifery disciplines, within the school and with the Nursing and Midwifery Directorate of the NNSW LHD, has been working successfully over the past five years.
‘The partnership is bringing about improved patient care and better education and research activities, as well as establishing a strong leadership voice, with regards to nursing and midwifery on the north coast.
‘This event allows us to showcase a range of impacts that registered nurses and midwives are having in the provision of patient care.’
Chris Crawford, chief executive of the NNSW LHD, said, ‘I want to extend my thanks to our nurses and midwives for the excellent care they provide to our patients in hospitals and in the community’.
‘Nurses and midwives are an essential part of care given, not only to the patients in our hospitals but to people in the community who receive care from the Community and Allied Health Professionals who also treat patients that can be managed in their home.
‘They not only provide medical care and expertise but emotional support and companionship to their patients and their families, and I congratulate all of them for the care they offer across the LHD,’ Mr Crawford said.
