National Co-Ordination Committee - NCOC

In Melbourne on Sunday 8th October 2006 all state branch of AONA agreed to form a national working group. The group will be called the "National Co-Ordination Committee"- NCOC. Janet Long and Cheryl Moore went to represent ANOA Inc NSW.

The national group is not a separate organisation just a group made up of 2-3 committee members from each State. This group will work on issues that relate across states.

National Ophthalmic Clinical Competencies Update

We reported last year on the decision of AONA groups from across Australia to follow the lead of the United Kingdom and form a competencies structure for Australian Ophthalmic nurses. Such a structure would help provide a framework for practice and education, consistency in patient care and provide a personal career development pathway for nurses in the specialty.

A committee made from representatives from AONA Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia has met via teleconference twice since our last News and Views report. Progress has been made in developing a national database of members and a timetable for reporting back to the committee of the various stages has been agreed on.
The Royal College of Nurses has kindly allowed us to use their competency framework as a guide for our own. Over the next few months, working parties drawn from interested members will be looking at specific issues relevant to our Australia setting, such as legal, geographical and career structure differences.
 
Each state’s working party will be reporting back in June. A workshop to discuss our various ideas and differences will be held in Sydney on June 24th, the day after our Annual Conference.

Ophthalmology nursing does not currently meet the criteria for a “Specialty” in nursing. Criteria and a discussion of issues surrounding specialty areas in nursing can be found at www.nnnet.gov.au/downloads/recsp_framework.pdf.