The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) welcomes the New South Wales and Queensland governments' introduction of an intranasal influenza vaccine (FluMist) for children aged two to under five years, which will address some but not all of the barriers to childhood immunisation.
ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz said subjecting a child to an injection is something no parent relishes, even when they know vaccination will help prevent serious illness in their child.
"The new intranasal vaccine is a positive alternative for families who worry about their child's reaction to having a needle.
"But this does not solve a critical barrier to increasing immunisation uptake across the nation – access.
"We need to make it as easy as possible for busy, time-poor families to get their children vaccinated."
"Flagging vaccination rates across many categories represent a growing public health concern, with fewer than 26 per cent of children under five years old covered by the influenza vaccine this year.
"The National Immunisation Strategy for Australia 2025-2030, released this year, was a missed opportunity to maximise the deployment of nurses to increase vaccination rates in Australia.
"Support is needed to encourage nurses to be available to vaccinate more widely in the community, including in the growing network of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics," Adjunct Professor Zeitz said.
Nurses are the backbone of Australia's immunisation programs, yet we continue to underutilise this incredible workforce.
There are nearly 500,000 registered nurses across Australia – the biggest and most geographically distributed healthcare workforce – but regulatory and funding barriers prevent them from working to their full scope of practice.
ACN calls for urgent implementation of scope of practice reforms to enable registered nurses to lead vaccination clinics and provide comprehensive primary care, including chronic disease management and preventive health services.
"Advanced practice registered nurses are perfectly positioned to deliver these vaccination programs, conduct holistic health assessments, and provide the kind of preventive care that keeps people out of expensive hospital beds," Adjunct Professor Zeitz said.
"The economic benefits of these vaccination programs extend far beyond immediate healthcare savings.
"Well-staffed, nurse-led preventive care programs deliver measurable productivity gains through reduced sick days, fewer hospital admissions, and healthier communities.
"While we welcome that vaccines are now available more widely in community pharmacies, nurses represent the gold standard in vaccination administration, responsible for delivering more vaccines than any other healthcare profession in culturally safe and compassionate ways."
ACN is pressing for all governments to:
- Remove regulatory barriers preventing nurses from working to their full scope of practice,
- Implement funding models that enable financially viable nurse-led clinics,
- Support processes for implementation of the registered nurse prescribing endorsement,
- Support digital health reforms to link care between sectors, and
- Prioritise the release of the National Nursing Workforce Strategy.
"We have the plans, we have the workforce, and we have programs like FluMist that show what's possible when we think innovatively about healthcare delivery," Adjunct Professor Zeitz said.
"What we need now are clear-eyed decisions about how to best use our incredible nursing workforce to enhance safe, quality healthcare while improving the productivity of our health system."
