Australian Nursing Journal articles from May 2002

Australian Nursing Journal archives from May 2002

Heeding the words of Florence. (Editorial).(Florence Nightingale; celebrating International Nurses Day)
May 1, 2002... This month we celebrate International Midwivies Day on 5 May and International Nurses Day on 12 May. IND falls on Florence Nightingale's birthday. Not all nurses hold Florence in high esteem, with one United Kingdom union going so far as to...

Lack of support is unforgivable.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I have been a nurse for 10 years and love my job dearly. Orthopaedics is my specialty and I currently work as an associate unit manager. I never saw nursing as a violent career but over the years it has become very much that, not just with...

Not ashamed to be a compassionate nurse.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... Thank you Jill lliffe for your editorial ('Asylum seekers: Let's do the right thing', ANJ, March 2002, p.1). By simply asking that we act with humanity and compassion toward asylum seekers, you speak for me. I've been depressingly ashamed...

Bullying and intimidation are managerial strategies.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... Thank you ANF for printing the letter ('Easier to keep quiet in a culture of silence', ANJ, March 2002, p3). My experiences are similar to those of the author. Having been the Victim of occupational violence I dared to raise, as an issue...

Rights versus duty of care.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I read with interest the article by Rhonda Nay ('The dignity of risk', ANJ, April 2002, p.33). As a director of nursing in an aged care facility I am often required to provide rationale for not restraining residents and allowing them to take...

Nothing changes.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... While going through my old knitting patterns I came across this recruitment notice from Woman's day, 6 October 1975 (see inset photograph). As I have just returned to the workforce after a four-year absence it brought a smile to my face -...

Nurses don't wear halos any longer.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I was pleased to read Ged Cowin's response to Janet McCalman's scathing look at nurses following an elderly relative's stay in hospital (Our younger nurses deserve better than that', ANJ, April 2002, p.40). It must have been rather a shock...

Are we blinded by emotion and guilt?(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I disagree with Jill Iliffe's comments that Australians 'have failed to be humane' ('Asylum seekers: Let's do the right thing', ANJ, March 2002, p.1). Many Australians have helped refugees and are very humane. True, the processing of...

Mandatory detention: The Minister replies.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I wish to respond to some factual errors and omissions in your article on mandatory detention ('Mandatory detention: Protection or punishment?' ANJ, March 2002, pp.26-28). Firstly let me assure your readers that detention centres are not...

Lies, damn lies and research. (Network).(discussion of correct methods of bandaging)
May 1, 2002... Congratulations to the ANJ on your clinical focus and research updates, particularly in the area of wound management. This field is an integral part of nursing and needs to be continually promoted so that our patients receive the best research...

ANCI releases EN report. (FED).(Australian Nursing Council Inc.; emergency nursing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Australian Nursing Council Inc (ANCI) has released a new report which examines the role and function of ENs in Australia and revises the national competency standards for ENs. An examination of the role and function of the enrolled...

ANF joins in Year of the Outback. (FED).(Australian Nursing Federation)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The ANF is using the Year of the outback to highlight to nurses the benefits of rural and remote nursing, ANF Federal Secretary Jill Iliffe said at the official launch of the celebrations at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra on 19...

Bed closures unless recruitment improves. (WA).(hospital system may have to implement bed closure due to nursing shortage)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The WA public hospital system will face imminent hospital bed closures unless the State Government acts to fill an estimated shortfall of more than 1000 nurses, ANF WA Branch Secretary Mark Olson says. Mr Olson, speaking after the release...

Petition grows as public backs nurses. (NSW).(New South Wales Nurses' Association petition)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... More than 80 NSW Nurses' Association (NSWNA, ANF NSW) members targeted Sydney's peak hour commuters on 11 April, asking them to add more signatures to the 48,262 already collected in support of their What's a nurse worth? campaign. The...

Vandals attack nurses' memorial. (FED).(Australian Service Nurses National Memorial)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Vandals have shattered one of the glass panels of the Australian Service Nurses National Memorial in Canberra, causing more than $25,000 of damage. The attack, thought to have occurred over the Easter long weekend, has shocked the National...

Exploring the limbo of refugee status. (News).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A new theatre show examining the refugee experience in Australia opens at the Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT) in May. The Waiting Room is a multimedia performance which examines the juxtaposition between the immediacy of dealing with...

Use of restraints causes concern. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Residents at a WA nursing home are being denied a sate and comfortable living environment because of the excessive use of restraints, an Aged care Standards Agency report says. The report found restraints -- including bed rails and table, leg...

Cystic Fibrosis fellowship on offer. (Briefs).(Cystic Fibrosis Australia)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Cystic Fibrosis Australia is seeking applications for its 2nd Allied Health Professionals Fellowship, valued at $4000. The Fellowship is open to health professionals who have been working in cystic fibrosis care for at least two years. The...

Whistleblower sues over critical letter. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A whistleblower nurse criticised by Oueensland Health Minister Wendy Edmond under parliamentary privilege last year has launched a $500,000 defamation action against the State Government and 11 nursing colleagues. Wendy Erglis, a former nurse...

Report outlines union benefits. (Briefs).(nursing union benefits)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Union members are an average $99 a week better off than their non-union counterparts and part time and casual workers benefit from unions even more, a new Australian Bureau of Statistics report suggests. The ACTU-commissioned report said union...

Decision heralds aged care action. (QLD).(Queensland)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A major decision by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) in April will lead to widespread action to stop aged care employers imposing excessive workloads, according to the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU, ANF Qid). The ruling...

Nurses suspended pending inquiry into deaths. (VIC).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Two Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) nurses accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to patients who later died were suspended by the Nurses Board of Victoria on 21 March, pending a full investigation into allegations of drug pilfering and...

Nurses threaten mass resignation. (ACT).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Nurses employed at an ACT nursing home threatened to resign en masse unless management addressed chronic staff shortages, unsafe working environments and 'unjust' pay rates, according to ANF ACT Branch. ANF ACT Branch Secretary Colleen...

New UK law recognises assault on nurses. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... New UK legislation aims to protect nurses from assaults in the wake of an alarming series of attacks on public sector employees. The legislation, to be introduced later in the year, will make the crime of assaulting a public servant similar to...

Acknowledging the sponsors. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Kate Allardice, the author of last month's clinical update ('Take HAART: Medication adherence in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy', ANJ, April 2002, pp.19-21), would like to acknowledge GlaxoSmithKline, the sponsors of her study...

A question of routine. (Briefs).(evaluation of frequency of recommended routine prenatal care visits)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Pregnant women may be spending more time at their doctors than they need to, an Australian study has found. The study looked at antenatal guidelines in more than 100 Australian hospitals and surgeries between November 1999 and March 2000 and...

Return unwanted medicines. (Briefs).(<www.returnmed.com.au> for information on disposal of unwanted household medicines)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... More than 640 tonnes of unwanted prescription and over the counter medications have been collected in Australia since 1999, following the implementation of the national Return Unwanted Medicines project. The Federally funded medicinal waste...

Senate Submission calls for a national workforce plan. (FED).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The ANF Federal Office, in its evidence to the Senate Inquiry into Nursing at hearings in Adelaide in March, called for a national nursing workforce plan to alleviate the acute shortage of nurses in Australia. In its submission, the ANF...

Major survey targets workplace violence. (TAS).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ANF Tas Branch is about to undertake a major workplace violence survey of the State's nurses in collaboration with Tasmanian School of Nursing researchers. Scoping workplace aggression in nursing will be used to demonstrate objective...

Career structure review is a significant advance. (NT).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Over the past 16 months the NT Department of Health and Community Services (DHCS) has been working with the ANF NT Branch in conducting a major review of the Territory's nursing career structure. The development phase of the review...

Vaccination plea as flu strikes. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... High-risk groups should vaccinate early against influenza, following recent outbreaks of the potentially deadly Moscow strain. This is the warning from the World Health Organisation (WHO) after a number of deaths were attributed to the virus in...

Coroner criticises charts. (Briefs).(during inquest into death of 16-month-old boy)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A Melbourne coroner criticised nurses' record keeping during an in inquest in March into the death of 16-month-old boy. Referring to the boy's hospital record chart, coroner Jacinta Heffey said notes were either inadequate to represent the...

Addressing lymphoedema. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Lymphoedema Association of Victoria has launched a new handbook aimed at helping lymphoedema sufferers and their families get help recognising and treating their condition. Written by a range of health professionals in an easily understood...

Health service fined for safety failures. (Briefs).(Central Sydney Area Health Service)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The NSW Industrial Relations Commission fined Central Sydney Area Health Service (CSAHS) $180,000 in March for failing to ensure the safety and welfare of five nurses attacked by a psychiatric patient. The Commission found CSAHS breached the...

NZ appoints first nurse practitioner. (World Briefs).(Deborah Harris)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... New Zealand appointed its first nurse practitioner at the end of last year when neonatal nurse Deborah Harris from Waikato Hospital received her certificate to practise. The New Zealand model is based on that used in the US and candidates will...

Nurses charged over kidnapping. (World Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... An alleged kidnapping gang including three nurses - was arrested in Karachi in March on suspicion of trafficking in children, after 11 children aged from two weeks to two year were found in a small room in the Pakistani port town. Police said...

Palliative sedation needs guidelines. (World Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Valid clinical guidelines for palliative sedation therapy are needed to deal with the widespread use of sedation in terminally patients in Japan. This is the finding of research which shows 66% of doctors use continuous deep sedation for...

Calling all doctoral students. (World Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Abstracts are invited for the 3rd European Doctoral Conference in Nursing Science to be held in Berlin, Germany on 4-5 October. Abstracts can come from every field of nursing research and are welcome from any doctoral student. The closing date...

HIV toll puts strain on SA nurses. (World News).(South Africa)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The 'shattering' scale of the AIDS problem facing South Africa is triggering widespread burnout among specialist health care professionals attempting to provide care, European mental health nurses heard in February. Pat Mayers, a senior...

Bigger role for UK nurses now likely. (World News).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... After more than 50 years in which GPs have jealously guarded their position as the first point of contact for patients with the National Health Service (NHS), the British Medical Association (BMA) said the pressures on the service were so great...

California's state hospitals fear private sector staff raids. (World News).(private hospital recruitment of state hospital nursing staff)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Nurses working in California's government-run hospitals have expressed fears that the State's private hospitals will raid the ranks of nurses in state service as they attempt to comply with the recently legislated mandatory nurse-to-patient...

Music soothes during surgery. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Listening to music during ambulatory ophthalmic surgery reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and perceived stress in older patients. This is the finding of a US study which compared two groups of patients undergoing ambulatory cataract...

Maternal refugee deaths are preventable. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Preventable maternal deaths account for a large proportion of the deaths among young Afghan women in refugee settlements in Pakistan, according to international research published recently in The Lancet. Researchers recorded deaths which...

Preoperative pillow relieves pain. (Research Update).(of hip fracture)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Placing a pillow under an injured leg of an individual with a hip fracture provides better pain relief than preoperative skin traction US researchers say. The researchers from New York looked at a group of 100 patients with isolated...

Early intervention reduces cardiac arrests. (Research Update).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Early intervention by a medical emergency team in clinically unstable inpatients significantly reduces the incidence of and deaths from unexpected cardiac arrest in hospital, Australian researchers say. The researchers, at Victoria's...

Using ultrasound to assess bladder function in aged care rehabilitation. (Clinical Update).
May 1, 2002... Introduction The arrival of a bladder ultrasound scanner at Victoria's Peter James Centre (PJC) in 1999 led to a breakthrough in the assessment and management of individuals suffering from urinary incontinence. In the absence of a...

Celebrating nurses: International Nurses Day 2002.(letters from Australian Nursing Federation Branch Secretaries; Federal and Assistant Federal secretaries)
May 1, 2002... To celebrate International Nurses Day we asked the ANF Branch Secretaries, Federal Secretary Jill Iliffe and Assistant Federal Secretary Denis Jones why they became nurses. These are their replies: Colleen Duff ANF ACT Branch...

Respect + Recognition = Reconciliation. (Feature).(reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians)
May 1, 2002... In the year 2000 historic `bridge marches' all around the country loudly demonstrated the strong community support for the process of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Two years on, however, the reconciliation...

The stress of aged care documentation. (Aged Care).
May 1, 2002... Excessive documentation requirements in aged care contribute to stress and are potentially hazardous to the health of nurses in aged care, as well as being a factor in many nurses leaving the industry. High levels of documentation increase...

Aged care courses. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Mayfield Education centre is running a number of courses in May and June for health professionals working in aged care. The courses cover a number of areas including caring for the feet of older people, assessment and management of common...

Medal honours centenarians. (Briefs).(Centenary Medal)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Australia's estimated 3000 centenarians are to be honoured with the award of the Centenary Medal. The medal will be given to Australian citizens born on or before 31 December 1901 who celebrated the Centenary of Federation on 1 January 2001....

Healthy ageing - A national imperative. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... This year's Natural Healthcare Summit will focus on ageing and its impact on Australia's health and healthcare costs. Healthy ageing - A national imperative on 28-30 September in Sydney will feature supplements, health foods, beauty products,...

Inquiry to trigger new aged care debate. (Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Two of Australia's wealthiest men, philanthropist Baillieu Myer and Arvi Parbo, have teamed up to launch an independent inquiry into the state of aged care in Australia. The inquiry 2020: A vision for aged care in Australia is aimed at...

Coordinating aged care improves outcomes. (Aged Care).
May 1, 2002... RN Catherine Johnston is the aged care coordinator in the emergency department at Melbourne's Epworth Hospital. In this article she outlines the work of the Epworth's Aged Care Coordination Team (ACCT), the first private hospital care...

Project addresses indigenous incontinence. (Aged Care).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A new project aimed at treating incontinence among indigenous communities is attracting national and international attention. The year-long project, recently completed by Dr Jan Paterson, a senior lecturer at the Flinders University School...

Guide examines behaviour assessment. (Aged Care).(Alzheimer's behavior assessment guide)
May 1, 2002... A new guide aims to help health professionals assess the behaviour of individuals with dementia. The behaviour assessment guide was developed by RNs who staff the Behaviour Advisory Service (Aged Care) of the Alzheimer's Association in...

Challenging depression in aged care. (Aged Care).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Challenge depression is the title of a new manual and video, produced by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing and the Hammond Care Group, which aim to highlight the prevalence of depression in aged care facilities. Challenge...

Trading away our health care? (Issues).(privatization of health care)
May 1, 2002... What If our government signed a legally binding international agreement which said that health had to be treated purely as a traded commercial good? What if the rules of this agreement meant that public health systems and regulation for...

I wish I'd shaved my legs. (The Federal President Reports).
May 1, 2002... Last year I became a day surgery patient for a very simple gynaecological procedure I feel I know you all well enough to say that now. It started at about 8am. That man of mine very bravely sat with me in a waiting room with a dozen or so...