Aged care nursing
Caring for those who care for others
Education @ ACN
ACN offers postgraduate education for registered and enrolled nurses who care for older people across all health care settings including; acute and subacute, residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and in the community. Nurses who understand the needs of clinical nurse leaders write all of ACN’s courses. ACN partners with industry experts to ensure our content is contemporary and can be applied to your practice as you study.
If you’re looking for a way to explore how studying fits in with your busy life, ACN also offers many single units of study including:
- Assessing and Managing Adult Pain (113)
- Assessment of the Older Person (054)
- Clinical Issues in the Care of the Older Person (055)
- Continence Management (045)
- Dementia Care (064)
- Healthy Ageing (053)
- Parkinson’s Care (299)
- Principles of Infection Control (117)
- Principles of Palliative Care Nursing (314)
- Wound Management (050)
CPD bundles
CPD
ACN offers a suite of continuing professional development (CPD) offerings both online and face to face through the CPD Centre.
If you have suggestions for topics, please email cpd@acn.edu.au.
ACN offers Customised Education Programs and Transition to Practice Programs specific to aged care. We recognise no two organisations are the same and individual learning needs are unique therefore we design education to meet your organisation’s specific requirements, in a format and venue of your choice. Contact us today for more information at customised.education@acn.edu.au.
Institute of Leadership
ACN’s Institute of Leadership offers a range of leadership development opportunities from CPD short courses to formal leadership programs for nurses to enhance their leadership skills and career progression. Our Leadership Programs Emerging Nurse Leader program to kick-start your career, or our Mid-Career Nurse Leadership program build your career and take the next step into management or our Nurse Executive Leadership program to accelerate your career and strengthen your influence, commanding respect and recognition.
Our ACN Nurse Executive Capability Framework provides a guide for those in, or aspiring to, nurse executive roles. Its sets the standard for capabilities required as an executive nurse leader.
Aged Care Policy and Advocacy
The ACN Policy Team is committed to ‘Shaping Health, Advancing Nursing’ in the provision of high quality, person-centred and sustainable aged care in Australia. We give our members a voice to advocate for an aged care system that rewards their efforts and empowers them to deliver the best possible outcomes for older Australians, whether in their own homes or in aged care facilities.
In conjunction with our experts, the Policy Team develops white papers, position statements and perspective briefs to address systemic challenges and opportunities in aged care.
White papers
- Nurses are essential in health and aged care reform
- Regulation of the unregulated health care workforce across the health care system
- Achieving quality palliative care for all: The essential role of nurses
- Establishing a nurse-led palliative care service in Australia: an implementation toolkit
Position statements
- Person-centred care
- Unregulated health care workers
- The role of nurses in promoting healthy ageing
- Voluntary Assisted Dying in Victoria
- The role of registered nurses in residential aged care facilities
Perspective briefs
Engagement
Faculty of Aged Care Nursing
ACN members can connect with like-minded nurses around the country who share areas of interest or specialty through the Faculties. The Faculty of Aged Care Nursing brings together nurses who are passionate about, or interested in, working with the older person. This enables members to enhance their knowledge and keep up to date with the latest news, research findings, and opportunities for the identification of best practice and major policy developments. If you are a member of ACN and would like to join the Faculty to connect and engage in discussions, you can do so via neo. Members of the Faculty can also read the latest discussion article written by the Faculty’s Leadership Team on neo. If you are not yet a member of the ACN Tribe and would like to sign up to access the Faculty and other member benefits, we would love you to join online.
Representation
ACN has and continues to represent its members and the broader nursing profession through participation in representation opportunities. Over the past 12 months ACN has contributed to numerous consultations, inquiries, government and non-government workshops and working groups on a wide range of aged care related subjects. These include the Department of Health (DoH) Use of Chemical Restraints in Aged Care Environment, COVID-19 Aged Care Forum, and Australian Digital Health Agency Aged Care Advisory Group into the adoption and use of My Health Record in Residential Aged Care Facilities, Development and modifications of My Aged Care Website and the National Aged care Alliance (NACA). Watch out for our expressions of interest through the Faculty of Aged Care Nursing.
Aged Care Solutions Expert Advisory Group
In response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety Final Report, the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) established the Aged Care Solutions Expert Advisory Group (EAG). The EAG is made up of leading gerontological nursing specialists and academics from across Australia, who provide expert guidance and a robust evidence base for system-wide reform in aged care.
In addition to the work of the EAG, members also work across the three sub-committees, devoted to areas most in need of reform: Workforce, the Aged Care Act, and Aged Care in the Community.
Through the EAG, ACN demonstrates its commitment to ensuring nurses are front and centre in clinical governance and leadership, while providing the person-centred, culturally safe and professional care every older person deserves.
