Frances Rice appointed ACN Chief Nursing Officer

Frances Rice has been appointed the Australian College of Nursing’s (ACN) Chief Nursing Officer, a role previously known as Director Professional Practice.

Responsible for leading the development and promotion of ACN’s health policy and nursing practice leadership programs, as well as driving healthcare reform in line with the organisation’s priorities, Rice was recently Senior Nursing Advisor to the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer within the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

With advisory, clinical practice, leadership and policy expertise — and having been an advocate for sustainable workforce models and education reforms that reflect the evolving demands of modern health care — ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz FACN said Rice “is eminently qualified and experienced to drive ACN’s policy and advocacy processes at a critical time for policy reform for the nursing profession”.

“There are unprecedented opportunities for patients to benefit from enhanced access to safe and quality nursing care and nurse-led models of care,” Zeitz said. “These include the reforms proposed in the Scope of Practice Review, as well as the groundbreaking changes to nurse prescribing, and the impending release of the National Nursing Workforce Strategy.”

Rice holds a Bachelor of Nursing Science from James Cook University and a Master of Business Administration from the Australian National University.