Four new elite nurses recruited for hospitals in Gunnedah, Bingara and Glen Innes as nurse practitioner model hailed as 'part of the solution' for short-staffed hospitals

After completing a master's degree to boost her nursing skills, Susan Mack has stepped aside from an administrative role to join Bingara's multi purpose service as a nurse practitioner.

Career progression is often a challenge in nursing, but the elite position will allow her to step aside from a role as a health services manager and see patients again, backing up local doctors, she said.

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"This is a way to support them. And I believe that, if we can get that support here, then when doctors start returning to the country, they'll look and see a model there, and think I'm going to be well supported. Maybe I won't have to be on call 24/7 and maybe I might go bush again and have a really good work-life balance," she said.

The four nurse practitioners will start next week, two of them at the Gunnedah hospital, one in Glen Innes and with Ms Mack at Bingara.

Nurse practitioners are qualified to diagnose health problems, prescribe medication, and receive referrals, tasks that might otherwise be conducted by a doctor.

Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said training nurses to fulfill an extra scope of practice was going to be "vital" for health services often plagued by a lack of doctor coverage.

"They can work independently or collaboratively with a doctor or their fellow nurses, but they have that ability to not just diagnose and prescribe medications, but they have the ability, without the presence of a doctor, to order imaging to refer to specialists, which is something at the moment, which our nursing staff have to actually ring up and get a doctor to do that sometimes remotely," he said.

"They'll be able to do that in a hospital setting."

Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson said the two Gunnedah nurses would be a big boost to the hospital, bringing expert knowledge, advanced specialised education and diagnostic skills.

"We are delivering on our commitment to boost our region's health workforce. The redeveloped Gunnedah Hospital will need additional staff and I look forward to continuing to work with the Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor on what more can be done to boost that workforce," he said.

Executive director Susan Heyman said almost any hospital in the Hunter New England Health area would benefit from the more senior nurses, and the local health district would soon advertise to hire even more.

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"If they come to us, we will employ them!"

She said the extra nursing staff wouldn't solve every problem in local hospitals, but they would help.

"Is it the total answer? No, of course, we have to keep trying to recruit doctors, we have to keep trying to recruit nurses. And we'll continue to do that. It's part of the solution," she said.

NSW Health employs more than 280 nurse practitioners across the state.

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