Held on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth each year, International Nurses Day is a time to reflect on the advances in the profession and an opportunity to say thanks.

The theme this year is “Delivering Quality, Serving Communities: Nurses Leading Primary Health Care” which Clinical Nurse Specialist, Margaret Zannes says is fantastic recognition of what nurses in rural and regional communities do every day.

Primary Health Care is a relatively new phrase, but it describes what rural nurses have been doing for many years - being that front line of health care, drawing together the services needed to support a person’s health needs, often outside of the hospital environment.

Mrs Zannes said these days, primary health care nurses can take on a number of different specialty areas, from chronic disease education, immunisation, aged care and palliative care to home nursing.

“All of these services recognise that home is a better place to receive ongoing care for many people, as it is less stressful for the patient overall,” Julie Kirk, Tenterfield Health Service Manager, said.

“These community-based services also help to take the pressure off our acute hospitals, leaving their beds for the very ill or seriously injured.”

“A primary health care nurse is often a ‘Jack of all trades’ when it comes to health care,” Mrs Zannes said.

“We are trained to look for things that affect the health of the whole patient, whether this is a medical problem or even a social or health transport related problem. We can get the right people involved to help sort it out.”

“We really do serve the community, by working very hard to help people better manage their own health problems. Sometimes this takes the form of community education, sometimes one-to-one appointments, and sometimes it’s running groups that will put people in touch with other community members who are keen to learn about a particular topic.”

Mrs Zannes said primary health care nursing is definitely a growing field, as the benefits can be seen for all concerned.

So this International Nurses Day, take a moment to reflect on what primary health care nurses are available in the neighbourhood, and maybe offer a simple thankyou to those modern day Florence Nigh-tingales.