Research

Praxera's clinical and consulting work rests on an active programme of research into urgent care, nurse practitioner regulation, and the policy conditions that shape both. The research is conducted by Nicole Carter through doctoral candidature at Curtin University and published in peer-reviewed journals.

The work asks three related questions. What urgent care actually is, and where it sits between primary and emergency care. How nurse practitioner autonomy has been built, and constrained, by regulation, funding, and systems. And how the profession moves policy.

Urgent care

Carter, N. W., Finn, J., & Brown, J. A. (2026). Urgent care centres and their role in metropolitan healthcare systems in high-income countries: A scoping review. Australasian Emergency Care. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2026.03.003

Carter, N. W., Gower, S., Helms, C., & Brown, J. A. (2025). Conceptualising urgent care: taxonomy, terminology, and relationships with primary and emergency care. Australian Health Review, 49(4), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1071/AH25028

Regulation and clinical autonomy

Carter, N. W., Helms, C., Gower, S., & Brown, J. A. (2026). Evolution of clinical autonomy: A critical analysis of nurse practitioner regulation in Australia, 1991 to 2025. Journal of Nursing Regulation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnr.2026.04.002

Policy and advocacy

Carter, N. W., Brown, J. A., & Helms, C. (2025). Nurse practitioners as policy leaders: the art and strategy of advocacy. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 21(8), 105468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2025.105468

Carter, N. W., Sedgman, R., & Boase, L. (2025). Letter to the editor “Nurturing Australian Nurse Practitioners: A 24-year odyssey toward independence and recognition”. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 21(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2025.105377

Publications