Eligibility and Selection Process
Locum support will be provided to a range of nurses, midwives and eligible allied health professionals in a variety of settings in rural and remote areas to access leave.
The following information is an outline of the eligibilty and selection criteria that will be used to assess eligibility to access NAHRLS.
A variety of settings will be eligible for locum support placements under the NAHRLS including, but not restricted to, hospitals, health practices/clinics, Aboriginal Medical Services, aged care facilities, non-government organisations and community health centres.
The NAHRLS will also consider short notice requests on a case by case basis. Please forward all urgent requests to: enquiries@nahrls.com.au
Locum support will not be provided for vacant positions at the host organisation.
Applications for locum support must be supported by a person from the relevant setting with authority to approve employment of a locum.
NAHRLS will be responsible for the selection of locums and locum recipients based on the eligibility and selection criteria. Criteria such as rurality, as defined by the ASGC-RA (see below), may be used as ranking tools.
Eligible Health Professions
Locum support will be allocated across various health professions providing clinical services. In the first instance, the nursing and eligible allied health* professions under the NAHRLS include:
- Registered nurse
- Enrolled nurse
- Midwife
- Aboriginal health worker (certificate IV)
- Audiology
- Chiropractic
- Dental & oral health
- Dietetics
- Exercise physiology
- Medical radiation science
- Occupational therapy
- Optometry
- Orthoptics
- Osteopathy
- Paramedics
- Physiotherapy
- Podiatry
- Psychology
- Social work
- Speech pathology
NAHRLS will review the list of eligible professions annually, in consultation with the Steering Committee and relevant stakeholders, and make any agreed recommendations to the Department of Health and Ageing, including on possible priority disciplines within the eligible list. The list may be revised with approval from the Department of Health and Ageing.
*Eligible allied health professions will be reviewed on an annual basis in consultation with the Department of Health and Ageing.
Determining Rurality
An applicant for locum support must be located within the ASGC-RA Categories 2 to 5. The exception to this will be for Aboriginal Medical Services, which may be located in ASGC-RA Categories 1 to 5. The level of rurality will be used to prioritise applications. Increasing priority will be applied to increasing levels of rurality.
In assessing the rurality of the locum placement, the Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) tool must be used. The ASGC-RA is used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the collection and dissemination of geographically classified statistics. The ASGC-RA uses five categories to classify geographic locations:
1. Major cities of Australia
2. Inner regional Australia
3. Outer regional Australia
4. Remote Australia
5. Very remote Australia
Please refer to the Australian Standard Geographical Classification - Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) tool at: www.health.gov.au/internet/otd/publishing.nsf/content/locator
