Though the majority of nursing care takes place within the practice, there are opportunities for nurses to provide care outside of the practice, such as:
- Completing health assessments in the home, particularly if the patient is elderly
- Providing assessments in an aged care facility
- Providing immunisations at external locations like child care centres, schools and workplaces.
Income for such services can be obtained through:
- Contribution to consultation and assessment on behalf of a GP, claimed through the MBS
- Part of funding received through WIP, available to all accredited practices
- A private fee payable for services rendered by the nurse
- Part of incentive funding available to the practice via initiatives such as the Practice Incentives Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI), Service Incentive Payments (SIP) and the Coordinated Veterans’ Care (CVC) program.
If nurse employees are working outside the practice facility, it is important to consider workplace health and safety in the patients’ homes, the cost of travel, professional indemnity, public liability and vehicle insurances, planning and processes, emergency contacts, etc. Information can be found in Nurse home visit guidelines.