A belief in a wider scope of practice for nurses and an innovative mindset has garnered Melissa Freeman several prestigious health awards.

Two decades working in acute, emergency and anaesthetic nursing taught Melissa Freeman that as a nurse she had little power to implement individualised, patient-focused care.

“I was seeing really big gaps in the delivery of care, and people going home with sub-optimal care,” says Melissa, who established the Port Macquarie Wound Care Clinic, a nurse-led practice that is collecting accolades.

“I saw people go home without care I would give my friends and my family, and I decided to give it a go myself,” says Melissa, who received the Australian Primary Nurses Association’s 2024 Nurse of the Year Award in the Positive Disruptor category.

Now in its sixth year, her clinic has expanded from a focus on post-operative care to a team of more than 20 nurses who provide care for a wide range of community health needs.

“I started looking after people in the community who needed a high level of care, and it just snowballed and I employed a team of nurses.”

“We provide care for people who are fitted with catheters, PEG tubes and stomas. We provide services for people with disabilities under the NDIS scheme, holistic home support, and palliative care that allows people to die respectfully.

“We look after everything someone needs to stay at home: delivering medications, helping people shower, allowing them to have their loved dog in their bed while we provide care if that is what they want.

“Care should always be kind and individualised… and this is what our model of care is based upon.”

Seeking Medicare coverage for nurse-led primary health care

Melissa’s philosophy is that primary health care needs to constantly evolve. “We can’t stay in the old model. People are changing and needs are changing, and people are getting sicker. It is harder for people to live in the community and harder for people to get to GPs.”

Her clinic looks after people within a 450 km radius of her clinic on mid-north coast, and her work was recognised in November when she was one of three finalists Australia-wide in the Innovator of the Year category at the 2025 National Rural and Remote Health Awards.

Melissa said she can be flexible, innovative and responsive in her nurse-led clinic thanks to a lack of the kind of ‘red tape’ that holds back change in the public system.

One of her biggest goals is to achieve Medicare coverage for nurse-delivered primary health care services.

In the meantime, she has been made a fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, and she currently sits as the Chair of the Clinical Expert Advisory Panel (CEAP) of Wounds Australia.

“Almost half a million Australians each year suffer from chronic wounds, and the cost of each wound is approximately $4,000 per year. It’s important to equip people for early detection and early treatment.”

While her nurse-led clinic is groundbreaking, she would like to extend the services her clinic can provide, including providing vaccinations, which her staff are qualified to deliver, but which they can’t offer unless a doctor is employed by her clinic.

“I’m a huge advocate for scope of practice for nurses. We work up to our scope of practice, we don’t work halfway. All the nurses in our team take on extra roles and extra training. I see nursing as a tool belt, and you add the tools you can to your belt.”