Primary healthcare has a central role in addressing global sustainable goals

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) (2019) states that universities play a vital role in addressing global challenges and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDSN 2019). It is also well recognised that primary healthcare has a central role to play in achieving these goals (Pettigrew et al. 2015). With an ageing population and the associated burden of disease, the Report of the Independent Review of Nursing Education (Schwartz 2019) emphasises the need for primary healthcare and recommends that nurses must be prepared academically and clinically to enter the workforce in a range of practice environments and provide socially appropriate, universally accessible and scientifically sound healthcare. Primary healthcare is a social model of healthcare focused on the social determinants of health. Nurses and midwives play a vital role in promoting and practicing primary healthcare in Australia through partnerships with multidisciplinary teams and local communities to prevent illness and promote health across the lifespan working in a range of clinical and nonclinical roles, in urban, rural and remote settings (APNA 2019). Despite this need for a shift in the focus of health service provision the education of undergraduate nursing and midwifery students has historically concentrated on an acute care model in the hospital setting with an emphasis on disease processes rather than primary healthcare.