The palliative care workforce is made up of a number of health professional groups including specialist palliative medicine physicians, nurses, general practitioners (GPs), pharmacists, other medical specialists (such as oncologists and geriatricians), as well as other health workers, support staff and volunteers.
Medical specialists must have completed post-graduate specialist training to become a palliative medicine physician. Palliative medicine specialists are required to have completed 3 years of full-time equivalent training in either a paediatric or adult setting under the supervision of a palliative medicine physician. Successful trainees gain the qualification of Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP)/Fellowship of the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine (FAChPM) and are accredited to practise as a palliative medicine physician in Australia or New Zealand. Medical practitioners may also complete a 6 month Clinical Diploma in Palliative Medicine, but this qualification does not result in specialist accreditation (RACP 2020). Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have completed Master’s level education and are endorsed by the Nursing and Midwifery Board to practice autonomously and collaboratively within a scope of practice to diagnose, plan and deliver high quality comprehensive health care (NMBA 2016). Additionally, nurses may complete a variety of short or more comprehensive courses (including postgraduate certificate and Masters qualifications) if they wish to work in the field of palliative care, and postgraduate qualifications are generally required for nurses working in specialist palliative care services (Centre for Palliative Care 2020).
The information presented in this section describes the number and characteristics of the workforce of specialist palliative medicine physicians and nurses working in palliative care (referred to as ‘palliative care nurses’). Information on other professions who may provide palliative care, such as those noted above, is not presented due to a lack of comprehensive data.
Data downloads
Palliative care workforce tables 2018 (299KB XLSX)
Palliative care workforce section 2018 (196KB PDF)
The information in this section was last updated in September 2020.
Key points
- 271 palliative medicine physicians and 3,528 palliative care nurses were employed nationally in 2018 (1.0 and 12.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) per 100,000 population respectively).
- 1 in 130 employed medical specialists were palliative medicine physicians and 1 in 95 employed nurses were palliative care nurses.
- 62.7% of employed palliative medicine physicians were female, which is almost twice the proportion of all employed medical specialists (33.1%).
- 70.1% of employed palliative medicine physicians worked in a hospital setting, compared with about half (52.2%) of employed palliative care nurses.
The information on palliative medicine physicians and palliative care nurses presented in this section was derived from the National Health Workforce Data Set (NHWDS) for the period 2013 to 2018. Further details on the NHWDS are outlined in data sources.
Palliative medicine physicians
There were 271 palliative medicine physicians employed in Australia in 2018, 0.8% or about 1 in 130 of all employed medical specialists. In addition, there were 5 paediatric palliative care specialists in Australia in 2018 (MBA 2019). These paediatric specialists are not included in the numbers presented here.
In 2018, 62.7% of employed palliative medicine physicians were female. This was almost double the proportion seen for all medical specialists (33.1%). The proportion of palliative medicine physicians aged over 55 was higher for males than females (48.5% of males and 24.7% of females).
Palliative medicine physicians worked on average 38.3 total hours per week in 2018, which was less than the average weekly hours for all employed medical specialists (43.1 hours). Average clinical hours were 29.7 per week which was also less than that of all employed specialists (35.9). Female palliative medicine physicians worked on average 36.4 total hours per week and males worked on average 41.4 total hours per week. Average hours worked varied by jurisdiction, ranging from 35.0 hours per week for South Australia to 43.2 hours per week in the Australian Capital Territory.
Nationally, there were 1.0 FTE (0.8 clinical FTE) palliative medicine physicians per 100,000 population in 2018. The rate of FTE palliative medicine physicians per 100,000 population across states and territories ranged from 0.8 in Victoria to 1.9 in the Northern Territory (Figure WK.1).
More than 8 in 10 (83.2%) FTE palliative medicine physicians worked mainly in Major cities during 2018. 1 in 10 (10.3%) worked in Inner regional areas and 1 in 20 (5.0%) worked in Outer regional areas. Taking into account differences in population sizes for each remoteness area, the FTE per 100,000 population for palliative medicine physicians was highest in Remote areas (1.3 FTE), followed by Major cities (1.2 FTE).
There were 246 (90.8%) employed palliative medicine physicians mainly working as clinicians in 2018. About 7 in 10 (70.1% or 190) were employed in a hospital setting, followed by 26 (9.6%) in other community health care services and 19 (7.0%) in outpatient services.