S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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not published any ‘Position Statements’ nor established any ‘Special Interest Groups’ related to remote nurses or related to the delivery of remote mental healthcare. This is an example of ‘silences’ and ‘absences’ in the situation being investigated (Clarke, 2005). The largest organisation of political influence is the nurses’ trade union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), with a membership base of 240,000 nurses, midwives and Assistants in Nursing (AINs). Like the Australian College of Nursing, it too makes submissions and advocates to the same or similarly constituted bodies on behalf of nurses, including remote nurses. Ninety-six submissions have been made between January 2011 and May 2015 (ANMF, 2016). None specifically addresses remote nurses as an identifiable group, nor addresses issues specifically related to remote mental healthcare delivery. The ANMF has established a ‘national professional team’ (NPT) to establish the recognition and advancement of the essential role of nurses and midwives in the provision of health. The team represents the interests of ANMF members across a wide range of issues that affect or influence the nursing profession and undertakes, national projects, national submissions, presents papers at national conferences, makes submissions to Commonwealth Senate and House of Representatives inquiries and participates in national forums, committees, roundtables, meetings, working groups and alliances. The NPT lists 25 ‘targeted’ health priorities, of which only two involve ‘rural and remote health’ and ‘mental health’, with no cross-referencing. The ANMF has 42 policies, one of which is ‘mental health nursing care’ which does not mention or discuss remoteness or delivery of care by remote nurses. There is no reference to remote nurses or mental healthcare in any of the other 41 policies. There are

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