News

‘There’s a lot of chronic ear disease. I’ve seen surgeries that I’ve never heard of down south, and I work in disadvantaged areas’

Victorian-based Audiologist Bridget Gale shares her experience working within remote indigenous communities and how Audiologist can “make quite a big difference” to the lives of Indigenous Australians. 

The Australian Government has formally extended the Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) for a further three years taking the program through to 30 June 2022.

The Northern Territory (NT) Department of Health (DoH) require that all Remote Area Nurses (RANs) who work for DoH have completed, or updated if necessary, all courses considered mandatory for remote practice. Future placements in NT DoH clinics will be affected if this requirement is not being met.

Congratulations to Josh Stafford on winning the RAHC-sponsored Excellence in Mentoring Award at the 2018 CRANAplus conference which was held in Cairns, 20 – 22 September. Josh was recognised for his significant contribution to remote nursing within his role as Director of Nursing at the Lockhart River and Coen Primary Health Care Centre.

The new Board of Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) visited communities in Central Australia to gain a firsthand understanding of the impact of RAHC health professionals (HPs) on healthcare delivery in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.  The visit took place between 20 – 22 May 2018.

We are pleased to introduce Lisa Breakwell as RAHC’s new Clinical Coordinator for Central Australia and Barkly region.

A group of 23 RAHC registered nurses attended the Remote Emergency Care (REC) course from 27 February – 1 March 2018 at the Hub Training and Community Centre in Melbourne.   

It is mandatory for nurses to have an immunisation certificate before commencing work with the majority of health services in the NT. As per the RAHC professional development policy, we provide financial support for the South Australia (SA) Immunisation course.

The next Pharmacotherapeutics online course by the Centre for Remote Health will commence on 15 January 2018. We encourage our registered nurses to consider enrolling in this nine-week online course, designed for nurses who work in or are planning to work in remote areas. 

It has been a year of milestones for RAHC. We celebrated sending our 1000th new-to-remote health professional to the Territory and our 5000th placement of a health professional since 2008. 
 

The Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) has placed its 5000^th health professional into a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory (NT), since the program began in late 2008.

Please note this important information about luggage restrictions when travelling in the Northern Territory (NT). Health Professionals (HPs) should ensure they read their RAHC Travel Itinerary and make themselves aware of the different airline luggage restrictions.

RAHC has appointed Tony Lane as the new Clinical Coordinator for Central Australia and Barkly. Tony will be based in our office in Alice Springs.

Feature in The Health Advocate on Dr Margaret Niemann recipient of the Annette Walker Award 2016.