Nurse practitioners say they could help solve the country's doctors shortage but only if Medicare funding models change.
General practitioners are in short supply nationally, particularly in regional and rural areas, leaving some communities without a doctor.
Nurse practitioners are those who are experienced, have completed further study, and are endorsed by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.
Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) president Leanne Boase said while the advanced-trained nurses were not doctors, they could provide many services that GPs usually perform.
"They certainly can offer a lot to communities around health care and medicinal care," she said.
Ms Boase said nurse practitioners were scarcer in regional and rural areas because the Medicare system did not accommodate for their services as much as a GP's.
"Nurse practitioners could very well provide a service in a country, rural, regional or remote area that can provide the clinic care … [in] management of acute and chronic health conditions," she said.
"But unfortunately that would mean in a lot of cases the patient will just have to pay for their health care and won't get a Medicare rebate."
Ms Boase said nurse practitioners often needed to be in an arrangement with a doctor for their services to be eligible for government subsidies, but that could be difficult to achieve in communities that had no doctor.
She wanted Medicare to become more inclusive of nurse practitioners.
"In reality, Australians are entitled to subsidised health care. It's what we all pay taxes for, and Medicare is that insurance scheme," Ms Boase said.
"It's unfair and unreasonable for patients to have to pay for nurse practitioner services.
"[Nurse practitioners] are not going to leave their current jobs and move and set up a business in a small country town or in a rural area where nobody can afford to pay for the services that they're providing."
Calls for more job funding
The ACNP president said many nurse practitioners were working as registered nurses instead.
"[That is] because the roles are either not viable or there's not enough available in the public sector," Ms Boase said.
She said if more jobs were available, including regionally, then registered nurses would be more likely to undertake nurse practitioner training.
"We know we're not going to get a lot of GPs in any short space of time whatsoever, but with a nurse practitioner, you're not starting from scratch," Ms Boase said.
"We can have a workforce within a couple of years that can really start to help meet those needs."
A federal Department of Health and Aged Care spokesperson said it was developing a 10-year plan for nurse practitioners, which would provide actions to address various issues for nurse practitioners nationally.
The spokesperson said the government would "consider reforms, including [Medicare Benefits Schedule] items and rebates for nurse practitioners in implementing actions under the plan".
They also said an independent review had been commissioned to examine the current collaborative model and its impact.
