Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan;30(1):154-168.
doi: 10.1111/jonm.13493. Epub 2021 Nov 7.

The community nurse in Australia. Who are they? A rapid systematic review

Nicole Blay  1   2   3 , Mariana S Sousa  1   3   4 , Mick Rowles  3   5 , Pauline Murray-Parahi  1   3   4
Affiliations

The community nurse in Australia. Who are they? A rapid systematic review

Nicole Blay et al. J Nurs Manag. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to profile the community nurse in Australia.

Background: The need for nurses in the community health care sector is increasing in response to shorter hospital stays, an aging population and chronic disease. The increase in demand has not been followed by appropriate workforce planning, leading to structural issues and lack of qualified nursing workforce in the community sector.

Evaluation: MEDLINE and ProQuest Public Health and grey literature were searched for records published between 2010 and 2020 relative to the profile of the community nurse in Australia. Twenty-five records (21 publications, 2 databases and 2 reports) were included in the review. Abstracted data followed the principles of workforce planning and included demographics, qualifications and roles.

Key issues: Inconsistent definitions, self-reported data and a focus on practice nurses have contributed to data irregularities. Little is known about the specific aspects of community nursing work.

Conclusion: A lack of concrete data has overshadowed a community nursing workforce crisis with implications for patients' health and safety across the lifespan.

Implications for nursing management: There is urgent need for nurse managers globally to refocus nursing recruitment to the community sector to maintain quality and ensure sustainability of the nursing workforce.

Keywords: community health; nursing; primary health care; public health; workforce.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
PRISMA published and unpublished studies included in the review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams, J. , Hillier‐Brown, F. C. , Moore, H. J. , Lake, A. A. , Araujo‐Soares, V. , White, M. , & Summerbell, C. (2016). Searching and synthesising ‘grey literature’ and ‘grey information’ in public health: Critical reflections on three case studies. Systematic Reviews, 5, 164. Retrieved 7 December 2020 from. 10.1186/s13643-016-0337-y - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aggar, C. , Bloomfield, J. , Thomas, T. H. , & Gordon, C. J. (2017). Australia's first transition to professional practice in primary care program for graduate registered nurses: A pilot study. BMC Nursing, 16, 14. Retrieved 18 November 2020, from. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5363053/pdf/12912_2017_Arti..., 10.1186/s12912-017-0207-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aggar, C. , Gordon, C. J. , Thomas, T. H. T. , Wadsworth, L. , & Bloomfield, J. (2018). Evaluation of a community transition to professional practice program for graduate registered nurses in Australia. Nurse Education in Practice, 32, 101–107. 10.1016/j.nepr.2018.03.005 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research , & World Health Organisation . (2017). Rapid reviews to strengthen health policy and systems: a practical guide; Tricco, A. C. , Langlois, E. V. & Straus, S. E. (Eds); World Health Organization; Geneva. https://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/resources/publications/rapid-review-gu...
    1. Ashley, C. (2016). Making the move to primary healthcare—Unearthing the experiences of acute care nurses transitioning to PHC employment. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal, 24(2), 34. 10.3316/informit.223221439898833 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources