S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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Remote nurses practice in a variety of locations (Cramer, 2005); they are not limited to primary healthcare centres, but regularly work across vast geographical areas of wilderness and in isolated communities. This type of healthcare delivery is referred to as an ‘outreach’ model, where the nurse is principally based in a primary healthcare centre or community setting and provides outreach services to the community. Remote nurses deliver services in a variety of locations, such as private homes, public areas, schools or community buildings, when attending emergencies or situations where the patient cannot physically access the primary healthcare centre. Remote nurses deliver healthcare in multiple facets, ranging from patient transport via ambulance, attending to patients in police custody and patients presenting without notice at the remote nurse’s private residence, particularly when employer-provided accommodation is closely situated to the primary healthcare centre (Cramer, 2005; Currie, 2007). The AIHW (2014) reported that in 2014, 349,634 nurses (registered and enrolled, excluding midwives) were registered in Australia. Of this number, 4,122 worked in remote and 2,426 worked in very remote locations, totalling 6,584, or 1.88% of the total nursing workforce (see Table 1.4).