Australian Nursing Journal articles from February 2003

Australian Nursing Journal archives from February 2003

Nurses have a lot to contribute. (Editorial).
February 1, 2003... The beginning of a new year generally brings with it a sense of hope, a feeling that all things are possible and only good things lie ahead. I like to get out my new diary with its clean pages, and I make a mental commitment to myself that this...

Nurses facing extinction? (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... Reading the December ANJ ('Confronting the nursing shortage', pp.22-23) crammed with items about recruiting and retaining nurses, was strongly reminded of how far-sighted the ANF was when it adopted the old slogan Nurses an endangered species....

Call centre triage needs special nursing skills. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... As the demand for traditional health services continues to be under budget constraints, the move toward offering quality and accessible health services using telephony/technology is gaining momentum. The overseas experience of nurse led...

Subjective labels lack medical legitimacy. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... Recently, the Adelaide Advertiser carried an article entitled 'Hospitals "not coping" with aged'. It dealt with the problem of accurate diagnosis for older people presenting at accident and emergency with seemingly trivial or nebulous, rather...

CD celebrates nurses' outback contribution. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... What a wonderful way to commemorate the Year of the Outback and celebrate the contribution of the nursing profession to the development of outback Australia. Thank you for sending me a copy of the CD Still Beside You. I congratulate the...

Don't feel guilty about talking. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... Thank you for Ged Cowin's input each month. Her article in October ('Talking it all out in nurse speak', ANJ, p 52) was right on the money. The value of nurses reflecting on their work practice with their peers is a huge resource. As Ged...

TCH faces up to biggest ever emergency. (ACT).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The Canberra Hospital (TCH) faced its biggest ever emergency on 18 January, as hundreds of firestorm victims sought medical treatment after bushfires devastated the city's suburbs. A TCH spokesperson said 259 patients arrived at the...

Nurse shortages cost TCH $5700 a day. (ACT).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Staff shortages forced The Canberra Hospital (TCH) to spend, on average, more than $5700 a day to employ agency nurses in 2001-02, according to its annual report. The report reveals TCH spent $22,800 on advertising nursing vacancies and...

Nurses win postgraduate allowance fight. (TAS).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Tasmanian public hospital nurses have won the right to be paid for their postgraduate qualifications after Federal Court Justice Shane Marshall found the Tasmanian Government to be in breach of its obligation to pay them. The ANF Tas...

Prison nurses take 'record breaking' strike action. (WA).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... More than 90 nurses working in WA's prison system carried out a 15-day strike campaign at the end of 2002, in protest at the WA Government's refusal to grant the same pay and career structure deal given to the State's public sector nurses in...

IRC gives nurses an extra 6%. (NSW).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... More than 35,000 nurses working in NSW's public sector received a special 6% pay rise in December after the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) agreed to a special pay rise for public sector nurses. The Full Bench of the IRC granted...

QNU wins ACTU media award. (Qld).
February 1, 2003... The Queensland Nurses' Union (QNU, ANF Qid) won the 2002 Best Workplace Campaign Award at the ACTU's annual media awards for its Nurses. Worth looking after campaign. QNU Secretary Gay Hawksworth accepted the award on behalf of...

Nurses' salaries blamed for health insurance hike. (FED).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... ANF Federal Secretary Jill Iliffe has rejected attempts to use nurses' wages as grounds to increase private health insurance premiums. With millions of Australians with private health insurance reportedly facing premium rises averaging...

Mental health care by video. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... People living in rural and remote areas will soon be able to talk to a psychiatrist via video link and claim it under Medicare, according to the Federal Department of Health and Ageing. 'Telepsychiatry' will improve mental health outcomes in...

Nurses dismissed. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Three nurses at the St John of God Hospital in Goulburn were dismissed in late November after an internal hospital inquiry into claims of misconduct and unsatisfactory care. The move followed accusations by co-workers against five nurses at the...

Another NP for NSW. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Wendy Swann became the sixth Nurse Practitioner (NP) in NSW in December. Ms Swann took up her position as remote NP in Walgett in the State's Far West. Meanwhile, the NSW Government has announced it plans to advertise 92 new NP positions to...

WA staff pool coming soon. (Briefs).
February 1, 2003... The WA Health Department plans to create a pool of relief staff modelled on the system used in the UK National Health Service. WA Health Minister Bob Kucera said the system, due to be in place by mid 2003, would cut spending on agency...

Honouring nurses. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Do you know a nurse who has made an outstanding contribution to their community? Each year the contribution of nurses to Australian and international society is recognised with a variety of Australian honours, including the Order of Australia,...

Get them while they're young. (SA).
February 1, 2003... Young artists from Ocean View College, Willochra and Gedvilla Campuses, and patients at the Women s and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, provided the artwork for this year's ANF SA Branch Calendar. The work features children's views of nurses and...

More staff needed for golden staph. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... ANF Tas Branch has called for an effective response to infection control and education in Tasmanian hospitals. The call came at the end of last year as Tasmanian Government figures showed huge increases in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus...

Hot and bothered. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Nurses at Tweed Heads Nursing Home in NSW abandoned plans for industrial action this summer, in protest at stifling conditions with no circulating air, alter five air conditioning units were installed. A nursing home spokesperson said security...

Messages of hope. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Many women say that when they were first diagnosed with breast cancer, reading or hearing the stories of other women who have had the disease and gone on to lead meaningful and productive lives offers hope and inspiration for the future during...

Aspects of evidence. (Briefs).
February 1, 2003... The Australasian Cochrane Centre is hosting an evidence based practice symposium in Melbourne on 29 March. Aspects of evidence offers clinicians, consumers, policy makers and systematic reviewers an opportunity to engage with Australian and...

Australia's most remote ICU upgrade ready. (NT).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... After the intense activity following the Bali disaster, early 2003 will see the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) intensive care unit move into a new and improved specialist facility. The development will provide a separate nine-bed coronary care...

Warrnambool is family friendly. (Vic).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... In November last year, Southwest Healthcare, Warrnambool, launched its family friendly hospital policy providing improved working arrangements, such as reduced shifts, lactation breaks and a designated lactation room. Clinical Nurse...

NSW Health appoints new chief nurse. (SA).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... NSW Health has appointed Professor Mary Chiarella as the State's new Chief Nursing Officer (ONO). NSW Director General of Health Robyn Kruk said Professor Chiarella would take up the position in March. The CNO leads the nursing unit of...

Aged care calls for its fair share. (NSW).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Pink was definitely in fashion in NSW on 21 November, as NSW Nurses' Association (NSWNA, ANF NSW) members at nearly 400 residential aged care facilities joined the Pink Day of action. Thousands of nurses, residents and relatives from across...

Resolution injuries on the increase. (TAS).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... GPs are reporting an increase in New Year's resolution' injuries caused by a sudden increase in physical activity without adequate preparation. Dr Rob Walters, Chair of the Australian Divisions of General Practice, said many people ended...

Supporing triage. (Briefs).
February 1, 2003... The South Australian Emergency Nurses Association will launch its new triage education resource book in Adelaide this February. Developed by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, the book aims to promote national consistency in...

Exploring roles. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... ANF Federal Professional Officer Victoria Gilmore is representing the ANF on the Community Services and Health Training Australia Indigenous Health Worker Project steering committee. The project is focusing on the primary health care role of...

Colleges settle dispute. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Royal College of Nursing, Australia, and the NSW College of Nursing have settled a dispute regarding the proposed change of name for the NSW College of Nursing. Under the agreement, the NSW College of Nursing will trade under the name The...

Privacy and health. (Briefs).
February 1, 2003... The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner has produced a consumer's guide to privacy and health information. My health, my privacy, my choice outlines some of the National Privacy Principles introduced in December 2001, which affect the...

Free parking demands. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... NSW nurses are asking the State Government to provide free car parking spaces at public hospitals. The NSW Nurses' Association (NSWNA, ANF NSW) said most shift working nurses drove to work because of public transport safety concerns and many...

Nurses may lack asthma knowledge. (World News).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... US nurses working in ambulatory primary care may need to update their knowledge to effectively teach asthma patients about how to control the disease, a US study reported in the Journal of Asthma, suggests. A telephone survey of 80 nurses...

Glutaraldehyde gives nurses grief. (World News).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Nearly two thirds (60%) of Japanese nurses and medical workers have suffered from the side effects of glutaraldehyde and chemicals used to clean endoscopes and medical equipment, according to a survey organised by a medical technicians' group....

Nurses to ease pressure. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Nurses could soon be employed to help reduce pressure on and cut the costs of the police surgeon service in North Wales. Currently, there is a desperate shortage at female surgeons in the area to examine prisoners and crime victims. The UK...

Indonesia may join ICN. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The International Council of Nurses (ION) Board of Directors unanimously agreed at the end of 2002 to recommend to the ICN's governing body the application of the Indonesian National Nurses Association (INNA) for ICN membership. The INNA is the...

Prison for 'Black Angel'. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... A Hungarian court sentenced a nurse dubbed the 'Black Angel' to nine years in prison in December, alter she pleaded guilty to killing patients by lethal injection in Budapest's Gyula Nyiro Hospital. Timea Faludi, 24, was jailed for killing...

Loo breaks inconvenient. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... British nurses are second only to call centre workers in terms of missed toilet breaks at work, a recent poll by a laxative producer suggests. The poll of 1000 workers showed more than half (54%) were too busy to take breaks or felt work...

Nurses regain party spirit. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Nurses at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary were set to go ahead with their festive work night out in December after public donations replaced deposit money stolen by thieves. The nurses, clerical and administrative staff were able to go ahead with...

Anideal candidate. (This Working Life).
February 1, 2003... South Australia became the second Australian State to authorise Nurse Practitioners (NPs) when the Nurses Board of South Australia (NBSA) authorised Libby Birchmore as the State's first NP in November last year. Here, Allison Willis, Senior...

A matter of occupational health and safety. (Federal Professional News).
February 1, 2003... In January, the ANF met the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) in Canberra to seek information about the Commission's role in implementing recommendations from the Senate Inquiry into Nursing. Inquiry...

Flu vaccine not be sneezed at. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Nurses are reluctant to accept immunisation for influenza despite their high risk of contracting the disease. This is the finding of new research published in the latest Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing. Researchers asked 232...

Getting to the point of needlestick injuries. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... More than one needlestick injury (NSI) occurs for every two days of hospital operation and the majority of these happen to nurses, new Australian research says. Researchers looked at the frequency and circumstances of hollow-bore dirty...

Breast conserving best. (Research Update).
February 1, 2003... The long-term survival rate among women who undergo breast-conserving surgery is the same as that among women who undergo radical mastectomy, according to US research. Researchers conducted 20 years of follow-up on 701 women earolled in a...

Workloads affect survival. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The shortage of nurses in US hospitals is affecting patients' survival after surgery, a new study from the University of Pennsylvania suggests. Researchers surveyed 10,184 RNs; reviewed medical data on 232,342 general, orthopaedic, and...

The challenges of providing care to older people in the community. (Clinical Update).
February 1, 2003... Introduction The provision of aged care in the community today is undoubtedly a challenge, as demands outstrip resources. The nature of the work is 'invisible' as it occurs in people's homes, and can raise many ethical and safety...

Time to reflect: the ANF Federal Secretary's end of term report 1999-2003. (Feature).
February 1, 2003... It is almost four years since I commenced my term as Federal Secretary of the ANF and timely for me to report on what has been achieved. Not all achievements can of course be covered, but I am pleased with what has been accomplished so far. ...

Your guide to money for study.
February 1, 2003... Ongoing education and professional development are essential for nurses to maintain their skills advance their career. However, many nurses find it difficult to fund the courses that allow them to improve their practice and upgrade their skills...

Altering medicines: common and unsafe. (Nursing Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Crushing tablets and emptying capsules when dispensing medications, which is common in South Australian residential aged care facilities, is a potentially unsafe practice, a recent study says. Researchers observed more than 1200 medication...

Security jewellery: an answer to an age-old problem? (Nursing Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Jenny McKenna, an RN at Victoria's Alkoomi Nursing Home, sees the frustration new casual nurses experience when confronted with a sea of unfamiliar faces, particularly when it comes to giving out medications. Although many residences use...

Improving the dignity of dying in aged care. (Nursing Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... An Australian research project is developing national palliative care guidelines for aged care. Run by three universities and eight affiliated aged care agencies and palliative care organisations, the Australian Palliative Aged Care...

Certificate meets urology challenges. (Nursing Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... As specialisation in health care continues to evolve the challenge for nurses to meet high standards of patient care within specialty areas becomes paramount. Urology is one such specialty which offers nurses the challenges of surgical as...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2003... In the December/January ANJ, the focus article 'A new neurosciences centre of excellence' (p.28) was attributed to Debbie Fleming. The author was Anne McIntosh.

CRANA appoints education chair. (Focus Briefs).(Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia (CRANA) has elected Dr Trudy Yuginovich, Program Coordinator at the University of Southern Queensland's Wide Bay Campus, to its board of management. Dr Yuginovich will also act in the capacity of...

Charles Sturt launches double degree. (Focus Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Charles Sturt University is offering a four-year Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Midwifery in 2003, The double degree is the first in NSW and is aimed at helping address the chronic shortage of nurses and midwives across the State.

Queensland's first professor in aged care. (Focus Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Queensland University of Technology's School of Nursing has established a new Professor of Nursing (aged care) position. The position, funded by a $350,000 five year donation by the Kedron-Wavell Services Club will, according to QUT Nursing...

Position strengthens ties. (Focus Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Corey Beinke-Heath has recently taken up a joint appointment between the University of South Australia - Whyalla campus, and the Whyalla Hospital and Health Services where he combines his two interests as a practising midwife and as a nursing...

Transfusion nurses play vital role. (Nursing Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Transfusion nurses will play a key role in Blood Matters, a three-year Victorian Department of Human Services (DHS) funded project aimed at improving transfusion practice across the State's public hospitals. Already liasing with three...

Hospital in the home principles and practice. (Books).(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... Dr Michael Montalto ArtWords Publishing pp. 172. $66 ISBN 0-9581673-0-3 Visit: www.artwords.com.au/hih Dr Michael Montalto, director of hospital in the home (HIH) care at Melbourne's Epworth Hospital, presents a detailed...

Nursing law and ethics 2nd edition. (Books).(Book Review)
February 1, 2003... John Tingle and Alan Cribb (editors) Blackwell Publishing (Asia) pp.304 $63.75 ISBN 0-632-055073 Visit: www.blackwell-science.com The second edition of this successful text reflects the enormous developments in many aspects of...

Cancer council seeks nurse ambassadors. (Nursing Focus).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Join the Cancer Council Victoria Nurse Campaign team and experience the reward of educating and fundraising in your community. With one year already under its belt the Cancer Council Victoria Nurse Campaign is gathering momentum and looking...

Remote nurse program set for expansion. (Nursing Focus).
February 1, 2003... Central Australia's remote area nursing training and support program is being evaluated with a view to introducing improvements and expanding it across the NT and perhaps nationally. The Alice Springs District Remote Area Nurses...

When the coroner calls. (Issues).
February 1, 2003... Nurses sometimes find themselves under the legal spotlight when a serious incident occurs at work. Here, an ANF member * describes her experiences with the coroner's office after a death at her workplace. 'I am an RN/midwife working in a...

Calendar.(Calendar)
February 1, 2003... Graduate Certificate in Nursing (Health Services) by distance education in 2003 Nursing Services Management in Health, Financing Nursing and Health Services, Human Resources Management in Nursing Faculty of Nursing, The University of...

Being bossy in a nursing kind of way. (The Federal President Reports).
February 1, 2003... Well here I am sitting down to talk to you for the first time this year. I find myself staring at the blank screen waiting for inspiration. You see I have been on holidays. I love holidays. This year we stayed at home mostly with a few days...