Having your say..... putting in submissions

The current state of play in WA is that Bill C has not gone through, what does that mean.... that means that WA will not be ready on the 1st of July for National Registration....we will probably be a month or two behind the rest of the country...Tasmania & SA are in the same boat as WA....

On 1 April 2010 The Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council announced its approval of national health practitioner registration standards in regards to the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions. The approval includes standards for scheduled medicines endorsements for suitably qualified and rural and isolated practice registered nurses (RNs). The proposed scheduled medicines endorsements for midwives, provided by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (the Board), has been delayed "pending the outcome of further priority discussions between the Board, and Commonwealth, State and Territory officials." For more information, read the 1 April 2010 Communique – Health Ministers Announce Approval of National Health Practitioner Registration Standards.

The latest documents sent for public consultation have been the Guidelines & Assessment Framework for the Recognition and Endorsement of Eligible Midwives from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and the National Guidance on collaborative Maternity Care from National Health and Medical Research Council.
The only way to have a voice is to be proactive and that means responding to these types of documents.....it is important to get as many people responding as possible because your comment count and helps to make new policies. The same applies to being politically active...this means lobbying your politicians for change.... At the end of the day it means that you need to spend some time writing about what you would like to see done.....it does take some effort on your part to create change.

Putting in submission is simple...it means you write what you would like to see changed about the policy and all submissions are published on the website and hopefully these comments are taken into consideration and some changes occur, that is if we are all on the same page for the change....for instance lets use one criteria from the Eligible midwife document.... the Board would like the 'eligible midwife' to have three years experience before they can practice independently.... in order to change this the submissions would have to all say 'where is the evidence for this criteria?' and that this is not acceptable because once you have finished your course as a midwife you are ready to practice as one.....you could argue that one year to gain experience as a graduate would be acceptable but not 3, or you could argue that once qualified you are ready to practice. The majority of comments would all have to say the same thing......However, you usually have to use a computer and email your response....but don't let that stop you....

I guess the proof will be in the pudding so to say..... when they release the next draft documents...... watch the blog or the websites to see when the submissions are published.... lets hope for the best.....