The Australian Nursing Federation will now be known as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), it was announced today.
ANMF Federal Secretary, Lee Thomas, said the new name better reflects the health union’s membership base, which is comprised of both nurses and midwives.
“We are pleased that we are representing the interests of nurses and midwives working across Australia’s health and aged care, in the public and private sectors.” Ms Thomas said today.
“The ANMF is the country’s largest health and aged care union and a force to be reckoned with in the health, aged care, industrial, professional and political arenas.
“We represent the professional, political and industrial welfare of nurses and midwives in government and non-government forums at state, national and international levels.
“We continue to campaign on crucial issues impacting nursing and midwifery professionals such as the shortage of highly-educated nurses; the continued non-employment of nursing graduates; the urgent need for nurse to patient ratios; delivering better wages for aged care nurses, and mandated skills and training for staff working in the aged care sector.”
With membership of the ANMF now standing at over 230,000, it is now ranked as one of Australia’s fastest-growing unions.
“We have continued to attract new membership from a full-range of health settings across Australia, including private and public hospitals, aged care facilities, medical practices and community medical centres,” Ms Thomas explained.
“We believe this growth in membership is the result of successful campaigns we’ve run both nationally and by our state and territory branches, working on behalf of all of our existing and new members.”
The name change takes affect from today (Thursday 25 July) following a hearing before the Fair Work Commission.
The ANMF, with over 230,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing in Australia.