Australian Nursing Journal articles from April 2008

Australian Nursing Journal archives from April 2008

Editorial: it has been a busy but wonderful nine years and I am happy with what we have achieved together. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to lead such a vibrant, strong and ethical organisation.(Australian Nursing Federation)
April 1, 2008... Aged care is once again in the news. A federal government report has highlighted increasing and ongoing concerns about quality of care in aged care facilities: predominantly medication errors and poor care with a small number of cases of...

You know you're a nurse if ...(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You believe every patient needs TLC: Thorazine, Lorazepam and Compazine. You would like to meet the inventor of the call light in a dark alley one night. You believe not all patients are annoying... some...

Shared confidences enjoyed.(mail)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... I recently received my ANJ February 2008. My last, as I no longer work as a nurse but am enjoying my retirement. So sadly, I can no longer turn straight to the last page of the journal and laugh at the message in the Tandberg cartoon or...

Code red on climate change.(mail)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... In response to Joe Bevan's letter, Global warming questioned (ANJ February 08) I would like to quote from David Spratt and Philip Sutton's Climate code red: the case for a sustainabiiity emergency (published in Melbourne, February 2008). ...

Correction.(mail)(Correction notice)
April 1, 2008... An error occurred in the first paragraph of the text under the heading Background in the March ANJ Clinical Update 112. The ANJ apologises for any confusion resulting from this error. This paragraph should have read: Gliomas account for...

Who will care for nurses?(mail)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... I read the editorial in the February issue of ANJ and was struck by the reference to initiatives to attract nurses back into the hospital sector. My colleagues and I were recently discussing why nurses doing an evening shift are then expected...

Network.(hospital reunions)(Brief article)(List)(Calendar)
April 1, 2008... Bendigo Base Hospital Graduates Association--80TH Annual Reunion 12 April 2008, All Seasons Resort, McIvor Road, Bendigo, Victoria. Cost for day $40. For further information please contact Wendy Wilkinson Ph: (03) 5447 8582 or Joan O'Shea...

Nurse to focus Commission on remote innovation.(news)(Sabina Knight of the National Health and Hospitals Commission)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ms Sabina Knight, the only nurse on the new National Health and Hospitals Commission, will bring a passion for social justice, remote area nursing and Indigenous health to its work. Ms Knight, a Senior Lecturer...

New federal health commission draws immediate fire.(NATIONAL)
April 1, 2008... The Australian Government has made a shaky start to implementing its pre-election commitment to undertaking "one of the most significant reforms of Australia's health and hospital system since Federation". The composition of its new...

Health care education under review.(NATIONAL)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A project is underway to review the way health professionals are educated in Australia in an effort to develop a common framework of inter-professional education. The nation wide project, led by the University of...

Chief nursing and midwifery officer.(NATIONAL)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The ANF has welcomed the federal government's move to appoint a chief nursing and midwifery officer. The new leadership role has been created in response to strong demand from the nursing profession. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon...

Down in the dumps in Manila--APHEDA appeal.(NATIONAL)
April 1, 2008... The first thing that strikes you is the stench and millions of flies. Then you notice the people, hundreds of them crawling over the huge rubbish dump, collecting anything that could be sold for recycling. It's not just the usual paper, glass...

WA: nurse scholarships.(Western Australia)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The WA Government is offering 459 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships to nurses in the state worth more than $1.1 million. Scholarships on offer include: postgraduate clinical specialisation, including in midwifery, mental health, aged...

Spirometry training for practice nurses.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The National Asthma Council Australia has launched Australia's first national spirometry training course for GPs and practice nurses. The free six hour interactive course provides hands on application, measurement and interpretation of...

SA: we have the technology.(South Australia)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... A new web-based information system in South Australia will give nurses and midwives instant access to patient records. It is hoped the technology, which will be used to integrate patient records across the public hospital system, will improve...

New Chair and executive for AHCRA.(Australian Health Care Reform Alliance)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Fiona Armstrong, federal senior professional officer with the Australian Nursing Federation, has been elected Chairperson of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance. Ms Armstrong has been acting in the position since Kerren Clark stood down...

Increase autonomy for practice nurses.(NATIONAL)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Practice nurses should be given greater autonomy and a proper career and payment structure to attract and retain more nurses in general practice, a study has concluded. The Australian National University study...

Vaccination the best protection: NHMRC.(NATIONAL)(National Health and Medical Research Council)
April 1, 2008... Despite numerous dedicated campaigns delivered over a number of years, health care workers, including a significant number of nurses, remain resistant to the influenza immunisation message, according to the National Health and Medical Research...

New course to increase Indigenous nurse workforce.(STATE AND TERRITORY: WA)
April 1, 2008... The Marr Mooditj Foundation (MMF) in Western Australia is providing a new training program to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a career in enrolled nursing. The Foundation is dedicated to the education and training of...

ANF joins WorkCover campaign.(STATE AND TERRITORY: SA)(Australian Nursing Federation)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The ANF SA Branch has joined with union peak body SA unions in launching a campaign against the state Labor Government's plan to change WorkCover legislation. Injured workers will have their payments cut after 13 weeks to 80% of their...

Largest grant ever awarded to Qld nurse.(STATE AND TERRITORY: QLD)(Kay Wright from Queensland)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Queensland nurse Kay Wright has received the largest grant ever awarded to a nurse by the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) Foundation, for her pilot investigation into post burn itch. The $37,000 grant was announced recently at...

Moya Conrick: a passionate nurse educator.(Obituary)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The nursing profession lost a passionate nurse educator and nursing informatics champion when Moya Conrick died on 30 January 2008. Internationally recognised for her commitment and vision in the area of nursing informatics, Moya worked...

WA nurse to learn from 9/11 disaster.(STATE AND TERRITORY: WA)(Western Australia)(2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Western Australian nurse Rob Stewart will visit emergency hospitals in four countries to research how international paediatric emergency services cope with major disasters and epidemics. Mr Stewart, the recipient of...

Remote nurses demand security after rape.(STATE AND TERRITORY: QLD)
April 1, 2008... Remote area nurses working in the Torres Strait have threatened to leave facilities if Queensland Health fails to improve on their security and staffing levels. Queensland Nurses' Union (QNU, ANF Queensland) members issued their ultimatum...

Mortality rates lower with decentralisation.(STATE AND TERRITORY: NT)
April 1, 2008... An Aboriginal community with half the mortality rates of the general Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory supports a decentralised lifestyle with appropriate outreach health services as a prevention to developing diabetes and heart...

Early deterioration detection.(STATE AND TERRITORY: ACT)
April 1, 2008... A program to help nurses and doctors detect early signs of deterioration in a patient's condition will be rolled out in Calvary and Canberra hospitals in the ACT. The COMPASS program has taken two years to develop and consists of a new...

Nurses protest over car parking.(INDUSTRIAL: QLD)(Princess Alexandra Hospital )(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A car parking debacle at one of Brisbane's largest public hospitals may spark nurse resignations with nearly 1,000 staff left short of adequate parking. Nurses at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) held a mass...

Anti-union laws repealed in uni sector.(INDUSTRIAL: NAT)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Labor has repealed the former Coalition Government's anti union laws which tied university funding to Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) welcomed Labor's decision to repeal the laws during...

One third of British nurses suffer violence at work.(world)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An alarming 29% of UK nurses have suffered frequent violent incidents in the workplace, according to a new study published in the journal Occupational Medicine. Europe's largest public sector union body UNISON, has...

CN offers qualified support for task shifting.(world)(International Council of Nurses)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Leading international health organisations have issued 12 guiding principles for effective 'task shifting' which involves engaging health care workers to provide services normally delivered by health professionals. Meeting in Uganda at the...

Improving outcomes for nurses on temporary visas.(research)
April 1, 2008... The difficulties facing nurses educated outside Australia who apply for a temporary working visa have been highlighted by new research published in the latest issue of the Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing (AJAN). The research...

Lack of cancer support services revealed.(research)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A study of the breast cancer experience of Chinese-Australian women has been launched by the Nursing Faculty of the University of Sydney. Dr Cannas Kwok, the principal researcher, says the information needs and...

Emergency situations and refusals to care.(ethics & legal)
April 1, 2008... In 2003, following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Canada, a registered nurse with 17 years experience refused a directive to join a special SARS team. Because of a lack of adequately fitting face masks, the nurse...

New national employment standards explained.(industrial)
April 1, 2008... One of the pillars of the Rudd government's proposed changes to federal industrial relations laws is the establishment of 10 national employment standards. The standards will apply to people employed under federal awards or by...

Reform important but long term plan needed.(professional)
April 1, 2008... Health reform is currently the hot topic in health policy circles with the establishment of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NRHHC) and the possibilities it brings to improving our health care system. The first task of the...

Expand nurses' roles in primary care: it won't hurt a bit.(Cover story)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Australians are living longer and have better access than ever to new medical treatments and medicine at a cost but how are we living day to day? The latest national figures on chronic diseases paint a mixed picture...

The dignity of risk: challenges in moving on.(viewpoint)
April 1, 2008... This article is an edited version of a paper presented to the 17 Annual The Mental Heath Services (TheMHS) Conference in Melbourne in 2007. The dignity of risk The dignity of risk and the right to failure is a concept that was first...

Preoperative fasting for preventing perioperative complications in children.(CLINICAL UPDATE: 113)(Report)
April 1, 2008... Definitions For the purposes of this information sheet the following definitions were used: Standard Fasting Regime: Four hours nil per mouth for children 1-12 months, six hours for children 12 months to five years and eight hours for...

Working life.(A nursing utopia)(Nancy Vozoff)(Interview)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people live on traditional lands in Utopia in Central Australia. The local health service caters to people living on 16 scattered outstations. Nancy Vozoff's eight day walk along the...

Policy direction for emergency mental health triage.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Clients with physical injury and illness presenting to emergency departments (ED's) across Australia are triaged against the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS). Clients with mental illness presenting to ED's across...

Supporting ED nurses.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)(Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australia)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nursing staff in the emergency department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth are exposed to a plethora of presentations and problems from broken bones to major trauma. While these experiences are exciting and...

Detecting oncological emergencies.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)
April 1, 2008... Patients with cancer are at risk of developing complications and side effects associated with the illness or treatment processes. The more serious, life-threatening structural or metabolic complications associated with cancer or cancer...

Finding the balance in post graduate education.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)
April 1, 2008... The Post Graduate Certificate of Emergency Nursing (ENC) offered by Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) was developed and supported by stakeholders to meet industry needs for experienced, educated and clinically competent emergency nurses. ...

GP clinic helps ease emergency stress after hours.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)(general practitioner)(Nepean Hospital)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Busy hospital emergency departments (EDs) are often the only avenue for people to access immediate medical care after hours, but with EDs often overstretched the GP clinic at Nepean Hospital is providing the service...

Emergency care in the bush.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)
April 1, 2008... The Remote Emergency Care (REC) course is a unique two and a half day course designed to prepare and up skill health practitioners to confidently respond to an emergency in the remote setting where tertiary level care is often several hours...

Mapping a shared future.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The University of Notre Dame in Fremantle provides undergraduate education to both nurses and physiotherapists and recently joined the third year students from each discipline in combined classes. The aim of the...

Dementia research grants.(focus: Emergency nursing and education)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, has announced grants of more than $9 million to tackle dementia. Mrs Elliot made the announcement at the inaugural meeting of the Minister's Dementia Advisory Group on the North Coast of NSW last...

Calendar.(health care industry conferences)(Calendar)
April 1, 2008... CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION TRAINING AT THE WOMEN'S Or programs run at your hospital tailored to your needs can also be arranged. Royal Women's Hospital Melbourne Ph: (03) 9344 2244 Email: childbirth.ed@rwh.org.au APR LUNG HEALTH...

Give nursing the recognition it deserves.(Ged)
April 1, 2008... I was at a meeting recently with a large group of people representing unions, consumers, employers and health professionals all working together in the interests of health care delivery and the people who receive it. The group is very large and...