The growing role of nurse practitioners and the scope of their work in Canberra's health system is being reviewed, to update the ACT's governance of the roles with other states and improve quality of care.
While nurse practitioners have been around for at least 10 years in the ACT, the scope of their work and role they play is being reviewed in the wake of similar reviews interstate.
ACT chief nurse Veronica Croome said the review was looking at the barriers nurse practitioners face to getting approval to work in Canberra.
She said when they first began creating such roles, there was a heavy load of paperwork, including passing 'notifiable instruments' in the ACT Legislative Assembly for every single position.
But Ms Croome said no holistic review of the governance of the roles had been completed and the review would help bring the ACT's governance of such positions into line with other jurisdictions.
The ACT review also follows the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency last year updating the official guidelines for nurses working towards national endorsement of their skills as nurse practitioners.
While they need the endorsement of the Nursing and Midwifery Board - as do the 6000-odd others in the profession in the ACT - Ms Croome said nurse practitioners also had to meet a verified gap in service delivery before ACT Health could apply for funding to create the new roles.
She said nurse practitioners had become an essential part of ACT Health's "multi-disciplinary teams", filling a gap between doctors and other nurses, providing greater insight into patient needs and freeing up doctors' time for other patients.
Ms Croome said those filling the roles also became "experts" in their fields, including writing specialised practice guidelines on how best to treat patients.
"While we don't have many nurse practitioners compared to places like NSW, on a per capita basis, we have more than most other areas," she said.
"We have about 40 that work in almost every part of the health system, in the walk-in centres, palliative care, oncology, sexual health, mental health and aged care."
"They are ideally suited to treating a lot of the one-off episodes that we often see, whether it's treating a patient or educating them about how to manage a chronic disease.
"They really fill that gap and can refer patients back to their doctor or out to specialists."
She said while the review was not looking to "change the expectations" on nurse practitioners, it was trying to identify the barriers to people filling the roles in the ACT and ensure their scope of practice met the reality of what those skilled in the role were actually doing.