Welcome
to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 307 6 July 2016
National
news
Waikato's queen of
pain management Sue King retires on a high note
New
Zealand’s first nurse practitioner registered to prescribe pain medication is
leaving her lifelong career at Waikato DHB to gracefully retire after 33 years
of achievements.
Read more here
Nurse Education In Family DNA
Recently appointed head of
EIT’s nursing school, Jennifer Roberts continues to build on the strong
leadership she has shown in the various roles she has filled during eight years
at the institute.
Read more here
Counties Manukau
Health – making improvement count
Counties
Manukau Health (CM Health) wants to be the best at getting better.
It’s
a bold objective, but a recent report by the University of Otago shows the
South Auckland District Health Board (DHB), which serves a population of
500,000, is well on its way to becoming one of the top health systems in
Australasia
Read more here
'Outstanding' results
in Nelson Marlborough DHB certification audit
The
Nelson Marlborough District Health Board has excelled in an audit of health
services.
Board
chief executive Chris Fleming said there were only nine recommendations that
came out of the board's three-yearly certification audit, which measured the
health board against 57 standards and 141 criteria.
Read more here
MidCentral District
Health Board looks to address health inequities
MidCentral
District Health Board is looking to create a fairer health system for its
patients.
Equity
was one of several goals the DHB set as part of its strategic planning, which
were presented to the board on Tuesday.
Read more here
Government approves
$11 million for critical care unit at Dunedin Hospital
Health
Minister Jonathan Coleman has announced funding has been approved for
a $11 million critical care unit at Dunedin Hospital.
Read more here
Capital & Coast
DHB services under review as debt nears $10.5m
Medical
jobs and patient care could be in jeopardy in a review of all services
at Capital & Coast District Health Board, a senior doctors' union has
warned.
The
health board is facing $10.5 million in debt this financial year
– about one-fifth of all DHB debt of $50m, TVNZ reported.
Read more here
Cancer
issues
Bowel cancer focus of
latest Atlas domain
The
latest Atlas of Healthcare Variation has been released today, focusing on bowel
cancer.
Bowel
cancer is the most commonly reported cancer in New Zealand, with approximately
3000 cases and 1200 deaths each year.
Read more here
Data shows bowel cancer
diagnosis issues
As
many as 40 percent of Māori and Pacific people with bowel cancer only discover
they have the disease when they need emergency hospital care.
Read more here
Heart
disease
New help for Kiwis
with common heart condition
A
new website has been launched by the Heart Foundation to help the estimated
46,000 New Zealanders living with Atrial Fibrillation (AF), one of New
Zealand’s fastest growing forms of heart disease.
Read more here
Patient
safety
Safety results go beyond surgeons' work
Teams rather than individuals should be the focus on demands
for more public data on medical procedures, a leading health quality and safety
expert says.
Read more here
Pharmacy
New hepatitis C
treatments funded from 1 July
Hepatitis
C is a viral infection affecting over 50,000 New Zealanders, although it is
estimated only half are currently diagnosed. Untreated, 20-25 percent of those
with the disease will develop cirrhosis, and without successful treatment, 5
-10 percent of those with cirrhosis will progress to life-threatening liver
cancer or liver failure every year
Read more here
PHARMAC devices savings to
help hospitals manage budgets
New data from
PHARMAC is predicting DHB hospital spending on surgical and medical devices
will fall by about $25 million over coming years.
Read more here
Primary
health care
Iwi Health Board
concerned management shakeup will 'marginalise' Maori health
Expanding
a key Maori health role to represent refugees and transient vineyard
workers will not marginalise Maori health, the region's health boss
says.
Read more here
Cuts to elderly and
primary healthcare only the start for the Canterbury District Health Board
Looming
cuts to elderly and primary healthcare to subsidise mental health funding may
only be the start of what's to come for Canterbury.
The
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) have indicated a $23 million
shortfall in Canterbury's mental health funding will likely be filled by
pulling money from other services.
Read more here
Telehealth
Mobile
health: empowering people with type 2 diabetes using digital tools
This report
outlines a project aimed at developing evidence-based strategies to support
wider adoption of mobile tablet devices in healthcare, initially focusing on
type 2 diabetes. A multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the University
of Canberra, NICTA, ANU Medical School and Canberra Hospital, in collaboration
with Ochre Health Medical Centre Bruce, conducted the project at the ACT GP
Super Clinic.
The main
objectives of this project were to: (i) Understand and overcome barriers to
mHealth adoption among type 2 diabetes patients; (ii) Understand how Australian
GPs perceive and understand the state of mHealth in their practice; and (iii)
Increase digital engagement of health practitioners and patients through
mHealth models of service.
The project
consisted of four stages: participatory research design via workshops;
participant recruitment; mHealth intervention with 28 type 2 diabetes patients
including digital training and data collection, and a national GP survey; and
the analysis and modelling of the data. Because mHealth is novel, we devised a
participatory research design to capture the perspectives of Super Clinic
healthcare practitioners and researchers. The outcome of the participatory
workshops was a loose-knit mHealth pilot program design for type 2 diabetes
patients. The program continued for 10 months. Participants were given mobile
tablet devices (iPads) and were offered on-demand digital training and support.
The researchers monitored participant choice, behaviour and engagement using
online surveys and semi-structured interviews.
This research
project demonstrates the potential of mHealth. Once mainstreamed, these digital
initiatives have the capacity to merge face-to-face consultation with mobile
health interactions according to specific needs. Current healthcare models can
shift toward new and flexible modes.
Read more here
Tobacco,
drugs and alcohol
Removal of point-of-sale tobacco displays working
A new study led by University of Otago
researchers suggests that July 2012 legislation that removed all point-of-sale
tobacco displays from shops selling cigarettes has helped reduce smoking among
New Zealand school students to record low levels.
Read more here
Electronic cigarettes
a health risk but less so than tobacco cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes pose potential health
risks to users, but these are less than those faced by smokers of tobacco,
Otago University at Wellington researchers have concluded.
Read more here
International
news
NMC to amend English
skills test for overseas nurses
The
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is to amend the International English
Language Testing System (IELTS) requirements for nurses and midwives coming on
to the register from overseas and within the European Economic Area.
Read more here
New policy gives N.S. nursing grads unlimited
attempts to pass final exam
Starting
Monday, nursing grads in Nova Scotia will be given an unlimited number of
attempts to pass their final exam.
Under previous
policy, nursing grads in the province used to have a maximum limit of three
attempts to pass the national test known as the NCLEX-RN. If they failed, the
only way to become a registered nurse would be to re-do their entire nursing
degree.
Read more here
Warning NHS facing
'retirement timebomb' over ageing nurses and midwives
THE
NHS is facing a "retirement timebomb" as figures show almost a fifth
of Scotland's nurses and midwives are set to retire in the coming decade.
Read more here
Articles
of interest
Retaining nurses in
metropolitan areas: insights from senior nurse and human resource managers
Aim
To
investigate the views of senior nurse and human resource managers of strategies
to retain hospital nurses in a metropolitan area.
Background
Against
a global shortage, retaining nurses is a management imperative for the quality
of hospital services.
Read more here
Evaluation of
undergraduate nursing students’ clinical confidence following a mental health
recovery camp
In
the present study, we evaluate the impact of participation in a mental health
recovery camp on the clinical confidence of undergraduate nursing students in
dealing with individuals with mental illness. Twenty undergraduate nursing
students who participated in the recovery camp completed the Mental Health
Nursing Clinical Confidence Scale both before and directly after attending the
camp. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Participation in the recovery camp was associated with a statistically-significant
increase in students’ level of overall confidence between the pretest and
post-test data (P < 0.005). The results also demonstrated that students over
the age of 25 years and who do not have a family history of mental illness are
more likely to self-report a higher level of confidence in both the pre- and
post-results. The clinical confidence of undergraduate nursing students
improved through participation in an immersive clinical experience within the
recovery camp.
Read more here
When the management of
nurse absenteeism becomes a cause of absenteeism: a study based on a comparison
of two health care facilities
The
study aims to explore perceptions of the causes of nurse absenteeism.
Background
Nurse
absenteeism is rising in many countries. However, there is little evidence as
to how strategies adopted in order to cushion the effects of absenteeism on
workload influence absenteeism itself.
Read more here
The above information has been collated for the
College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc by Linda Stopforth, SNIPS and is provided
on a weekly basis. It is current as at Tuesday
5 July 2016
If you have any feedback about content - what parts
are most useful or what you would like added - please email admin@nurse.org.nz
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