The Coalition of National Nursing and Midwifery Organisations (CoNNMO) is a diverse group of national nursing and midwifery organisations working collectively to advance the nursing and midwifery professions and to improve health care. The Coalition is funded through the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, as a program within the Health Workforce Division of the Australian Government Department of Health Disability and Ageing.
CoNNMO is currently comprised of 63 national nursing and midwifery member organisations, each focusing on a different area of specialist nursing or midwifery practice.
The member organisations vary in size – some are very small, and may have as few as 20 members, while the largest represents over 320,000 members – over half the nursing and midwifery workforce. Some are set up to principally provide networks for dissemination of information; others perform a broader range of functions including:
Since an informal forum in 1991 sponsored by the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (ANMF), the National Nursing Organisations (NNO) have been meeting regularly.
In 2007, a new governance structure was determined which included a name change to the Coalition of National Nursing Organisations (CoNNO) followed by the election of an inaugural Council in 2008. The establishment of the Governance Framework represented a new, more formalised phase in the life of the Coalition.
At the October 2015 member meeting, members unanimously voted to approve a proposal to include midwifery in the CoNNO name, leading to the current Coalition of National Nursing & Midwifery Organisations (CoNNMO).
CoNNMO meets biannually, and these meetings are supported with funding from the Australian Government Department of Health Ageing and Disability. As the original sponsor and auspicing body of CoNNMO, the ANMF acts as the CoNNMO Secretariat.
