The Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia (CRANA) was founded in 1983.
From the website: General concern about the poor health status of people who live in remote areas and the inequities, quality and accessibility in services available to these Australians was and remains the catalyst for action.

CRANA’s aim is to “promote the development and delivery of safe, high quality health care to remote areas of Australia and her external Territories”. This is enshrined in their constitution.

At their just completed conference CRANA members voted overwhelmingly to change its constitution and accept other health professionals as members.

The Central Australia Rural practitioners Association (CARPA) has long been a loose association of all health professionals whose aim mainly has been the CARPA Standard treatment Manual which is the main guidelines followed by Remote Area Nurses.

CRANA runs a lot of training courses and of course the CRANA Procedures Manual is a mainstay out bush.

We then have SARRAH – Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health, which is recognised as a peak body representing rural and remote allied health professionals. SARRAH is a ‘grassroots’ organisation whose membership consists of individual allied health professionals across rural and remote Australia.

I guess we’ll all fit into remote health. The CRANA press release is below.

MEDIA RELEASE : CRANA Comes of Age
Members of CRANA, previously an organisation solely representing the remote area nurses of Australia, have overwhelmingly voted to open the doors to other health professionals.

CRANA recently proposed sweeping changes to its constitution, copies of which were widely publicised and circulated to members. This lengthy process was followed by a postal vote seeking approval to make the changes that would change the face of CRANA and welcome all remote health professionals wishing to join.
At the 26th Annual Conference just last week, votes were counted, unveiling a massive 98% approval for change.
In line with that direction, members later also voted for our first Indigenous non nurse Board member. Jo Appoo is an Aboriginal health worker who has worked extensively in remote areas and is a staunch supporter of the Aboriginal Health Worker Program.

“We are very excited to have Jo on the CRANA board of Directors”, said Christopher Cliffe, President of CRANA, “she will bring a whole new perspective to the organisation and help us expand our training for this group of health professionals.”

Carole Taylor, CEO commented that there is currently a review of the plethora of organisations working in rural and remote Australia, and CRANA has been approached by a number of organisations from the rural sector seeking various forms of amalgamation or co-location.

“We have thought about this for some time and made the decision that, as the only organisation with purely a remote focus, we have a responsibility to widen our scope and embrace all remote health professionals”, she added, “there is a need for the remote health sector to be treated differently as the remote workforce has very different pressures than other sectors.”

“Our members work in the most challenging and geographically diverse locations to be found anywhere. Our members work in remote Indigenous communities, in the mining industry, on remote islands, holiday and ski resorts and on ocean liners. They are very often resource poor and have limited or no access to GP’s or specialists,” Ms Taylor said.

Ms Taylor continues, “Remote people are our specialty and remote training and support our focus. We may not be in a position to join permanently with our rural colleagues, but we will continue to work with them when the need arises. What we can now do, however, is represent all those dedicated health workers working in remote Australia and ensure that this sector continues to have a strong voice and an organisation that fully understands their needs.”

For further information, contact Carole Taylor, CEO 0429 649 226

- I write the occasional drug newsletter for CRANA and I am on the CARPA executive. -

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Tagged as: CARPA, CRANA, health, Remote Blogs, SARRAH