I am a registered nurse providing on-call telehealth service to a group of residential aged care facilities in a rural area. I have heard this can count towards the facilities direct care minutes, is this correct?

Only direct on-site ‘clinical care’ and ‘personal care’ activities provided by specified workers (RNs, ENs or PCWs/AINs) can count as care minutes. 

This means support provided through on-call and virtual telehealth arrangements cannot count towards care minutes targets. 

There’s a regularly updated online guide produced by the federal government which outlines the latest advice about direct care minutes and RN 24/7 responsibilities that you can use to assist.

You can access this this information via the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Aged Care website.

If you need more support, contact us at gensec@nswnma.asn.au

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