Remote area nurse recruitment for regional and remote employers

Remote area nurses provide primary health care and emergency care in communities where a doctor may not be on site. The work can include clinics, chronic disease care, child and maternal health, immunisation, emergency stabilisation and arranging retrievals, with medical advice by phone or telehealth.

A remote area nurse holds general registration as a registered nurse.⁸ The national endorsement for scheduled medicines in rural and isolated practice has been retired and was removed from the register on 1 February 2025. The Nursing and Midwifery Board says every state and territory now lets these nurses supply and administer certain medicines under local legislation, policies and protocols instead.⁹

Requirements follow the framework. Victoria names two courses, the Cunningham Centre rural and isolated practice course and a University of Southern Queensland graduate certificate.¹² Queensland accepts a program the Nursing and Midwifery Board recognised before 1 February 2025 or one approved by the employing service.¹⁰ The Cunningham Centre course runs for 36 weeks online, and applicants must be working in a rural hospital or isolated practice setting.²¹

CRANAplus runs Remote Emergency Care and Maternity Emergency Care for remote and isolated clinicians: each is a two-day workshop with online pre-learning and a scenario-based skills assessment.^22,23 Say in your brief which courses you require before the start date and which you will fund after it.

The Nurses Award 2020 has no separate remote area rate. Where it covers the role, a registered nurse earns at least $1,219.50 a week at level 1, pay point 1, $1,504.40 at level 2 and $1,631.20 at level 3, pay point 1, from 1 July 2026.³ The award's on-call allowance applies only when the employer requires a nurse at registered nurse level 1, 2 or 3 to be on call at home or another agreed place: $28.66 for each period of up to 24 hours Monday to Friday, $43.17 on a Saturday and $50.37 on a Sunday, public holiday or non-rostered day, with the whole period paid at the rate for the day holding most of it. Levels 4 and 5 are excluded.³

State and territory agreements add their own remote conditions. In Queensland Health, nurses at designated remote and very remote locations receive an annual isolation bonus at the end of each 12 months' service, from $3,695.00 after the first year from 1 April 2026; it is not paid to casual or temporary staff engaged for under 12 months, or alongside a greater locality allowance.⁷ WA Health nurses headquartered in districts such as the Kimberley and Pilbara can claim a district allowance.^24,25 NT Health remote nurses in departmental housing in a defined remote locality receive a full rental concession.²⁶

No earnings figure exists for remote area nurses alone. They are counted in the Registered Nurses group (ANZSCO 2544), whose national median full-time earnings were $2,192 a week in May 2025.⁵ We talk with you about the salary, allowances, housing and leave travel that will compete for an experienced remote nurse.

Start with the community and the service: a remote clinic, a nursing post, a multipurpose service or a small hospital, the population it serves and the nearest hospital and retrieval service. Then the team: how many nurses, whether a doctor or nurse practitioner visits, and how after-hours care is shared.

Then the practical details: the medicines framework and protocol manual you use, the courses you require, whether midwifery is part of the role, any 4WD or manual vehicle driving, housing and its standard, leave travel, and cultural orientation for the community.

We start with nurses already working in remote and rural services, then widen the search to experienced emergency, primary care and rural generalist nurses planning a move.

Tell us early about housing, relocation costs, leave travel, internet and phone coverage, and any help for a partner or family. We raise them in the first conversation, so candidates know what living in the community involves.

If the right person needs a visa or sponsorship, our sister business Australian Immigration Agency can advise.

Register with Hire Australia and tell us the remote and rural services you have worked in, your emergency and primary care experience, the courses you hold and the regions you would consider.