Territory nurses and midwives have opportunities unlike any other in Australia.
The Territory offers unique experiences in a wide variety of settings from major teaching and smaller regional hospitals, to home birthing and community health, to working in remote Aboriginal communities.
Working with Aboriginal clients – treating their diverse clinical needs and sharing their culture – is the stand-out feature of the Territory nursing experience.
This is hardly surprising when Aboriginal people make up 30% of the Territory's population and often experience poor health and wellbeing. Nurses and midwives tell us that, above all else, the experience of Aboriginal health presentations and the chance to be a part of outcomes provides enormous challenges and professional satisfaction.
Just over half (54%) of all Territorians live in the capital city Darwin, its suburbs or the thriving communities of Palmerston and Litchfield located just down 'the track'. The central Australian city of Alice Springs is home to 30% of Territorians and 5% live in Katherine. The rest live in Tennant Creek in the Barkly region, the coastal town of Nhulunbuy or in other small communities across the Territory.
The Department of Health and Community Services (DHCS) offers challenging and dynamic work opportunities for nurses across the depth and breadth of the Northern Territory. From working in sophisticated hospitals to remote community health centres, the opportunities are as vast as the landscape.
And the development of the Rapid Admission and Planning Unit and the National Trauma Centre in Darwin are chances to seriously fast-track your career.
There are five, Australian Council on healthcare accredited public hospitals:
Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) is the largest hospital in the Northern Territory, with 345 beds including 25 mental health beds and 1500 staff working across the four divisions of Maternal and Child Health, Medicine, Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. The hospital won international recognition for its role in the retrieval, treatment and transfer of victims of the two Bali bombings.
Alice Springs Hospital is the regional base hospital of Central Australia, servicing communities across a 1 million sq.km catchment area. Offering many services not often seen in a hospital of its size, Alice Springs Hospital is central to the health of communities in the region as well as the half a million people from around the world who visit Alice Springs every year. The hospital is a leader in Aboriginal cross-cultural treatment and houses 165 beds, catering mostly for acute care clients.
Katherine Hospital services about 20,000 people living in a catchment area of 340,000 square kilometres between the West Australian and Queensland borders. More than half of these people live in remote areas bordered by Dunmarra in the south and Pine Creek in the north. Our services are also available to the hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world who visit our region each year. Located about 3.5km from town, Katherine Hospital is a modern facility with 60 beds. It is staffed by about 13 hospital medical officers, 80 nursing staff and 80 support staff.
Tennant Creek Hospital offers nurses a unique opportunity to care for more than 7000 people in the Barkly region, including 4000 Aborigines living in six remote communities. A 20-bed hospital providing diagnostic and therapeutic services for both inpatient and outpatients, it features a 24-hour Accident and Emergency Department, and an Aerial Medical Service. A Renal Dialysis Unit, Community Health Services and a Health Development Unit are located on the hospital campus.
Gove District Hospital (located in Nhulunbuy) provides acute and specialist care for about 16,000 people in the East Arnhem District across a 6400sq.km catchment area. Most of the hospital's patients live in one of 12 main East Arnhem communities, or outlying small Aboriginal homelands on the mainland or nearby islands. The hospital employs about 40 nurses who thrive on the unique opportunity to work closely with Aboriginal people, particularly in the areas of accident and emergency services, and paediatrics.
Largely due to the remoteness, scattered population and the absence of alternative health care providers, some Northern Territory public hospitals may also provide numerous non-acute services to their communities.
And Territory nurses who want to continue to make a difference to Aboriginal health can also elect to become involved in research projects through the world-renowned Menzies School of Health Research.
With one of the most diverse population mixes in Australia the Territory also presents many other cultural experiences for nurses and midwives.
For those who want to experience nursing outside of an urban setting, great opportunities exist in the bush, where autonomy and delivering primary health care can be a rewarding experience.
Remote Area Nursing (RAN) employment involves a challenging and often expanded clinical role, working in the absence of on-site medical officers. Client groups comprise mainly of Aboriginal people, pastoralists, mining and tourist populations.
Aboriginal health issues are among the most complex in Australia, characterised by high rates of chronic and acute illness, with cardiac, diabetes, renal and infant growth problems the most common.
RAN work involves:
• providing a 24 hour on-call emergency service
• implementing primary health care
• extensive driving over outback roads in four-wheel drive vehicles
• working in a cross-cultural context.
Remote Health Centres are supported and managed by DHCS district offices located in Katherine, Gove, Darwin, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
Top End Remote Health , includes the old East Arnhem, Katherine and Darwin Rural Regions. Department of Health and Community Services (DHCS) runs 22 remote health centres with approximately 80 Remote Area Nurses, along with supporting the services and staffing of some non-government controlled health services. General and midwifery qualifications with experience in paediatrics and critical care are highly desirable.
Darwin and surrounds covers an area of 142,000sq.km, from Wadeye, 500km south west of Darwin across the top end of the Territory to Maningrida, 352km by air east of Darwin. Aboriginal people comprise 75% of the 12,300 population. The area is subject to extensive tourist movement as it contains both Kakadu and Litchfield Parks. Visitors exceed 500,000 per year which places increased demands on health services.
Katherine and surrounds covers an area of 340,000sq.km between the Western Australia and Queensland borders from Dunmarra in the south to Pine Creek in the north.
East Arnhem is situated on the most eastern corner of the NT, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, extending over an area of approximately 64,000sq.km. The DHCS district office is situated in Nhulunbuy in the hospital grounds. A Children's Health Clinic, private Medical Practitioner and a public and private Dental Practitioner are situated in the town.
Central Australia Remote includes Alice Springs and its surrounds as well as the Barkly region. There are 23 Health Centres and associated outstations, employing 51 nurses.
Alice Springs and its surrounds covers two-thirds of the NT, over 1 million sq.km and extends into the bordering areas of South Australia and Western Australia. There is a community health centre in Alice Springs.
Barkly region includes a mobile service that provides services to remote communities and pastoral properties.
Mental Health Nurses can also find great opportunities in the Territory.
Top End Mental Health Service (TEMHS) is a sophisticated mental health service of national standard, actively pursuing best practice in all areas. It has a dedicated purpose-built inpatient facility located on the Royal Darwin Hospital campus, and community based services located in Darwin, Katherine and Gove (Nhulunbuy).
The service provides a comprehensive range of clinical services to the population and it is possible to work within inpatient, community, remote and forensic mental health teams.
Central Australia Mental Health Service (CAMHS) services the heart of Australia comprising an area of some 870,000sq.km. It comprises a multidisciplinary team that provide inpatient, community, remote and forensic mental health services to diverse communities in collaboration with non-government organisations. It has a clearly articulated model of service delivery that seeks to enhance outcomes for clients and professional growth for staff. The clinical problems addressed are varied resulting in a stimulating and rich work context.
Community Health nurses also play a vital role in the delivery of health services in the Territory.
Primarily through Child and Family Health and Community and Primary Care, Community Health nurses help grow stronger families and communities through a diverse range of services, mainly in the five NT urban centres.
These services include NT Hearing, Health Promoting School Nurses,
Home Birth Service, Breast Screen NT and the Pap Smear Register. Child, Youth and Family and Community and Primary Care services are provided from Alice Springs, Casuarina, Katherine, Nhulunbuy and Palmerston Community Health Centres.
The Community Health Branch has been recognised for high standards of care with a recommendation by the Institute of Healthier Communities Australia (IHCA) to the Quality Improvement Council for Accreditation for three years.
The accreditation covers Hearing Services (all NT sites); the Home Birth Service (Darwin and Alice Springs); Health-Promoting School Nurses (all NT sites); Child and Family Health Services (Gove, Palmerston, Casuarina, Karama, Nightcliff, Katherine), Community & Primary Care Services (Gove, Palmerston, Casuarina, Katherine) and the Community Assessment, Co-ordination & Referral Unit in Darwin .
The Alice Springs Community Care Centre is already accredited and the Child, Youth and Family Health Service and the Community and Primary Care Service in Tennant Creek will be integrated into the Alice Springs accreditation process in 2007.
BreastScreenNT is accredited through the National Quality Management Committee (NQMC) of BreastScreen Australia.
And you'll be well paid.
Territory nurse and midwife salaries are automatically pegged at the third-highest in Australia.
Annual Recreation Leave (ARL) is six weeks per year with an additional week granted if 10 or more Sundays are rostered and worked. It is usual for staff to work a minimum of six months before leave may be granted.
Study Leave is available for approved courses.
Emergency Leave (paid) is available for permanent and temporary employees at three days per year for unforseen emergencies for both personal or family.
Bereavement Leave of three days per year is available for all staff, for death of immediate family.
Long Service Leave is available after completing 10 years service.
Sick Leave for permanent employees is three weeks full pay per year. Sick leave for temporary staff is one week full pay after two months service. All sick leave is accumulated. Sick leave can be utilised to care for sick family members for up to 10 days in any sick leave year.
The opportunity for transfers to one of the other Northern Territory hospitals or rural/community health services is available as positions arise.
Employees who maintain dependants and have met the dependency criteria as defined in the Public Sector Employment and Management Act are eligible to receive a Northern Territory Allowance .
In addition Remote Area Nurses receive:
• rental concession
• special study leave program
• accommodation allowance in conjunction with fares out
• family travel assistance scheme
• reimbursement of household contents insurance premiums.
For a more detailed explanation visit the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment (www.nt.gov.au/ocpe).
And the Territory's career pathway is different to that in other jurisdictions; nurses can apply for and be rewarded with exemplary practice status.
Exemplary Practice (EP) is an incentive for DHCS to retain nurses and midwifes in the delivery of patient care and in the achievement of quality outcomes. It is in the form of an allowance that aims to recognise and reward excellence and expertise in Clinical Nursing.
Enrolled Nurses and Registered Nurses who hold non-promotional positions can gain EP with one level of EP for Enrolled Nurses and two levels for Registered Nurses. It is determined on merit and is not subject to quotas.
EP is advertised twice a year and requires reapplication every three years to continue. It is judged on clinical expertise, professional development and professional behaviour.
The allowance for Enrolled Nurse EP provides an additional $2120 per annum and the first level of EP for the registered nurse provides an additional $2495 per annum. EP 2 for registered nurses will become available in 2003 and will provide an allowance of an additional $5407 per annum. The EP allowances will increase proportionally with each pay rise allocated to the nursing profession through the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement process.
DHCS also has a long history of providing support to nurses entering or re-entering the nursing profession .
Now, whether newly graduated, from overseas or having been away from nursing practice for five or more years, DHCS is able to offer a number of structured support programs, tailored to meet the needs of nurses from these groups. By providing these support programs, we keep our patients safe and maintain the high quality of nursing practice throughout the Northern Territory.
The support programs offered by the Nursing Development Practice Programs (NDPP) include the Graduate Nurse Program (GNP), the Re-entry Nurse Program (RNP), the Overseas Nurse Program (ONP) and the Preceptorship Program. An annual review by the program Clinical Nurse Educators (CNEs) looks at program quality and recommends changes to the Principal Nursing Advisor. All programs endeavour to develop safe and professional practitioners, instilling the confidence necessary to manage nursing workplace demands.
And this year saw the commencement of the Graduate School for Health Practice, a new initiative located within the Institute of Advanced Studies, Charles Darwin University (CDU).
The key objectives of the Graduate School for Health Practice are to work with the health industry to:
• develop and provide high quality postgraduate programs and short courses across a number of health disciplines that are responsive to industry and regional needs
• develop strategies and innovation around health services development in the Territory and internationally
• research and build local research capacity to inform health policy and practice.
So there's a place for you in Australia's Northern Territory. What are you waiting for?
Call us today on 1800 000 648 or e-mail nursinginfo.ths@nt.gov.au
