Voices in the Dust

Remote area nurses(RANs)have worked in isolated areas of Australia since the 1800s. This isolation was(and in some cases still is)imposed in the first instance by geography. At times the isolation was caused by the fact that these nurses have been unable to access intraprofessional support.This book aims to explore which specific legal criteria were applied to define the scope of practice of remote area nursing; how appropriate was this given the reality of remote area nursing? Perhaps the invisibility of remote area nurses was more a matter of being 'out of sight out of mind'.In many cases this state of affairs seems to have suited remote area nurses.In remote Australia, when the dust settles after a wind storm,nothing remains the same-everything becomes coated with dust that covers all the surfaces and penetrates the crevices. So it was with remote area nurses the book suggests that it is not enough to merely blame others;nurses have not simply been the victims but in fact for many years have contributed to the silence regarding their unique position as practitioners in this area of specialist,independent nursing in Australia.