ANF HAS YOU COVERED IN THE MOST IMPORTANT WAYS Last year over 500 ANF members needed a legal referral from the ANF Helpline to the in-house ANF Legal Team. With this number expected to increase by 100 members each year we take a closer look at this vital service provided free to ANF members’. The free ANF Legal Service In 2010 nursing and midwifery registration went national with the creation of Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority (AHPRA) and within 12 months it became clear to the ANF Council that members in WA were going to need a much more robust legal representation than ever before and so the ANF Council moved away from expensive law firms and created the ANF Legal Service: purpose built to provide free legal representation for ANF members in Western Australia.
Continuous Expansion of Legal Services
According to Belinda, it’s crucial that members have access to legal advice and representation, especially as so much of a nurse or midwife’s working life can be exposed to various legal processes. “A member may be confronted with an adverse patient event at any time in their daily working life,” Belinda explains. “Nurses and midwives are also heavily regulated as professionals by AHPRA and are subject to potential complaints to AHPRA and investigations,” Belinda said. This can be stressful at any time. Throw in a pandemic and the pressure grows tenfold. Belinda understands the legal process is a foreign one for nurses and midwives.
Starting with just one lawyer in 2011 the ANF Legal Service has continued to grow and develop to ensure all members have access to the right kind of legal representation when required. Last year there were 500 legal referrals and this number is increasing by 100 referrals each year. The all-female team currently consists of nine lawyers led by the ANF Director of Legal & Industrial Services Belinda Burke and they assist ANF members with work related legal matters including registration issues with or complaints made to AHPRA, disciplinary investigations, civil litigation, coronial investigations, court proceedings and complex industrial relations matters where legal proceedings may be anticipated or imminent.
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western nurse June-July 2022
Belinda Burke
"As a lawyer, if I go into a hospital as a patient, the hospital environment is a very different one for me, I am unfamiliar with the sounds, equipment, and processes. I keep this in mind and understand that this unfamiliarity is shared by nurses and midwives whenever they step into a court room, or are the subject of a legal proceeding" Belinda said.
