Tania was diagnosed with MS in 2017 and often has concerns about her condition. She frequently relies on appointments with her MS Nurse, Tim, to allay her fears and answer any questions she has related to her MS.
“As each patient has such varying symptoms, the only real contact I have with anyone is with my MS nurse… I am extremely happy and have the biggest trust in [Tim]. He is my lifeline to this ‘new normal’ life.”
MS Nurse, Emma is the Nursing Team Leader at the MS Society, SA & NT and provides community nursing care to people across the state and territory. Having worked in MS Nursing for over 18 years, she is passionate about her work and sees the critical difference specialist knowledge and support makes in the lives of people living with MS.
“Living with a chronic condition is hard, and as specialist MS Nurses, we fill a significant gap in the acute, community, and primary healthcare sectors… We are able to reduce patient anxiety, improve health outcomes in the short and long-term, and empower patients to proactively manage their MS.”
Nurses play a critical role in strengthening economies, improving health systems, and ensuring better outcomes for communities worldwide.
MS Australia is focused on bolstering the important role of MS Nursing and is committed to advocating for a healthy nursing workforce. We have released a report outlining what we can do to better support our MS nursing workforce now and into the future.
The report was developed in consultation with MS Nurses Australasia (MSNA) and the MS Australia MS Nurses Working Group. It draws on the lived experience of MS nurses, MS nurse practitioners and people living with MS who have access to an MS nurse.
MS Nurses are an integral part of the multidisciplinary health care team of specialist health care professionals providing support, education, advice, and care for people with MS and their family and carers. Access to MS Nurse care brings health benefits for people with MS. These include lower disability level, slower self-reported disease progression, less severe symptoms, lower levels of depression and anxiety, and a higher quality of life.
MS Nurses are also a highly cost-effective model of care. MS Nurse care reduces the need for other, more costly health professionals, such as GPs and neurologists and prevents unnecessary emergency department presentations and potentially, unplanned hospital admissions.
Despite their crucial role in MS care, there is no consistent allocation of MS Nurses across Australia, including no agreed nurse/patient ratio, challenging employment conditions, no formalised education pathway and a declining number of MS nurses.
We have put forward in this report a range of improvements and recommendations to better support MS nurses and to expand access to MS nursing care:
- Current Nursing Workforce: We are calling for the funding of $6.5 million for an additional 65 MS nurses across Australia to meet the MS nursing current shortfall.
- Employment Conditions: We are calling on all employers of MS nurses to improve employment conditions for MS nurses through secure funding, increased permanent positions and appropriate working hours and conditions.
- MS Nurses National Strategy: We are calling for the development of an MS Nurses National Strategy at a cost of $1 million over four years
- MS Nurses Education: In partnership with the Australian College of Nursing, we are calling for funding of $125,000 over five years for the development and ongoing delivery of an MS Nursing microcredential and $90,000 over three years to fund scholarships for nurses undertaking this training
- MS Nurse Practitioners: We are calling for improved support for MS Nurse Practitioners to work their full scope of practice
A recent episode of the Raw Nerve Podcast, released to mark International Nurses Day 2025, also celebrates the work of MS Nurses. Dr Fiona McKay, Senior Research Coordinator at MS Australia, hosts this episode, which explores the value of MS Nurses and MS Practitioners.
In this episode, Fiona speaks with Belinda Bardsley, Manager N-CRESS at Austin Health, Chair of the MS Australia MS Nurses Working Group and co-author of the MS Nurse Care in Australia report and Tim O’Maley MS Nurse Practitioner, Queensland Health and member of the MS Australia MS Nurses Working Group.
