Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 378
Wednesday 13 December 2017
NATIONAL NEWS
Research reveals conflict between nursing values and healthcare reality
New research from Victoria University of Wellington explores the conflict between the values of nurses and the values that drive healthcare delivery.
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Former Nursing Council chair is new head of Wānanga nursing school
Dr Deborah Rowe, a former chair of the Nursing Council, has been appointed as the new director of nursing for Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi’s nursing degree programme.
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Nurse volunteers on the world's biggest civilian hospital ship
On a sunny afternoon in an African port, an Upper Hutt woman was helping a young African girl take shaky steps across the deck of a ship.
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Scorecard full of failure in scathing Health Ministry review by public service watchdog
A damning new report card into the performance of the Health Ministry has found the agency wanting across a number of areas, including financial sustainability, behaviour and culture and the management of its people.
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South Islanders, nurses missing from Clark's health advisory group
Not a single South Island member has been included in Health Minister David Clark's new top-level advisory group.
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DHBs
DHB deficits have leapt by $100m since May, Health Minister David Clark claims
The country's 20 district health boards have been catapulted deeper into the red, with debt levels rising by almost $100 million since May.
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ETHICAL ISSUES
Assisted dying developments across Australasia (Buddle Findlay)
It is hard to think of any medico-legal issue that attracts as much controversy as assisted dying. Whether, and in what circumstances, people should be able to choose to die raises difficult moral and legal questions, and these questions are currently the subject of hot debate both in New Zealand and across the Tasman.
This update discusses recent developments in Australia, including the very recent passing of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 in Victoria and the almost simultaneous failure of a similar Bill of the same name in New South Wales. The update also touches on where things are at in New Zealand, particularly in light of our recent change of Government.
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MENTAL HEALTH
Director of Mental Health's annual report for 2016 released
The 12th annual report of the Office of the Director of Mental Health has been released today by the Ministry of Health. The report, covering the 2016 year, records the work of the Office of the Director of Mental Health and reports on some of the activities of the Office’s legally assigned officers. It forms part of the Office’s accountability to the sector and provides information indicative of the quality of New Zealand’s mental health services.
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Mental health seclusion rates increase, despite efforts to eliminate the practice
More than 800 mental health patients were held in seclusion at some point last year, despite a government policy to phase out the practice, according to a new report.
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PUBLIC HEALTH
Inquiry: More than 700,000 Kiwis may be drinking unsafe water
The Health Ministry and local authorities are being slammed for "widespread systemic failure" in their duty to ensure safe drinking water, with a new report showing at least 721,000 New Zealanders and countless tourists are drinking water that may not be safe.
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At a glance: The main recommendations for changes to our water supply
A report into Havelock North's water contamination has criticised the country's drinking water laws. Its main recommendations for changes are:
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TOBACCO, DRUGS AND ALCOHOL
Better drug and alcohol treatment key to new HNZ policy
A properly resourced mental health system will be crucial to a number of reforms the government hopes to get underway, the Drug Foundation says.
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Cost of smoking going up, cost of quitting free - DHB
Every year thousands of kiwis escape their working lives for a few weeks for a summer holiday - epitomised by journeys to the beach, families and feasting, and of course the time-honoured tradition of New Year’s resolutions. Stopping smoking is consistently at the top of the list for New Year’s resolutions.
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Hapai Te Hauora urges action on smoking in cars
HÄ?pai Te Hauora supports the recommendations from a study into New Zealanders’ attitudes towards banning smoking in cars carrying children. The authors are researchers from the University of Otago and the University of Auckland. They state that, by not introducing legislation to make cars carrying children smokefree, the Government is failing in their obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC).
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Concern over number of obese nurses
One in four of the nation’s nurses is obese, a new study suggests.With almost half of English nurses over the age of 45, this “poses a likely future burden of ill health for the healthcare workforce”, researchers said.
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Why P.E.I. nursing students are learning about cultural sensitivity
UPEI nursing students Bernadette Cheverie, left, and Julia Johnson play a game during their cultural inclusion class. Nancy Ramsay is trying to explain to her classmate what she did this morning.
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Near-record number of nurses start training despite drop in applicants
A near-record number of aspiring nurses were accepted onto training courses this year despite falls in applications,
suggesting entry requirements have eased, it has emerged.
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New methods of tracking hospital nurses could help make workflow more efficient, study finds
Previous studies about nurse workflow have used time-motion study methods, which involve manually observing nurses in person or on video and then clocking how much time they spend on each task. Now, a University of Missouri engineer has developed a method for better tracking how nurses in an intensive care unit (ICU) spend their workday. The method uses a combination of manual observation and non-intrusive tracking sensors that allow researchers to track nurses in real time. Findings could help improve the health care delivery process in the ICU and could also be applied to other health care procedures.
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WORKPLACE
Bullying in health sector takes turn for the worse
The prognosis for the health sector appears to have just taken a rather bad turn for the worse with the release of a troubling new survey into workplace bullying.
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Brownie, S. M. (), The Economic Impact of Nursing. J Clin Nurs. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1111/jocn.14182
Economics includes ‘the condition of a region or group as regards material prosperity’ (Oxford Dictionaries, 2017). The links between material prosperity versus poverty, health status and quality of life are well documented as are the devastating impacts of population disparities on the aforementioned indicators (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, 2012). Poor health affects the ability of people to work, generate income and care for their families- a widely understood conundrum. In short, economic position impacts health status and health status impacts economic prosperity.
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Darbyshire, P. (2017), How not to argue against nursing associates. J Clin Nurs. doi:10.1111/jocn.14104
Some issues in nursing are almost guaranteed to generate more heat than light. The passion level in these discussions often needs the mythical amp setting of “11” from Spinal Tap. How should the curriculum be reformed? 11. Great nurses are made not born, 11. Things were better or worse in the “old days,” 11 and more. Added to this list is the whole vexed question of the “second level nurse,” nursing assistant or associate. I trained (if you can still use that word), back in the mists of time that were the 1970s in an “Institution” where nursing assistants were plentiful and some would say, where they ruled the roost by virtue of what seemed no more than their longevity and ubiquity. If you want to bring an old school nurse out in hives, just let them hear that oft-whined phrase, “I've worked here for 25 years, there's nothing you can tell me,” or “It's me who does all the REAL work around here, not those book-larned nurses with their paper qualifications” and so on ad nauseam.
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Recio-Saucedo A, Dall'Ora C, Maruotti A, et al. What impact does nursing care left undone have on patient outcomes? Review of the literature. J Clin Nurs. 2017;00:1–12
Aims and objectives
Systematic review of the impact of missed nursing care on outcomes in adults, on acute hospital wards and in nursing homes.
Background
A considerable body of evidence supports the hypothesis that lower levels of registered nurses on duty increase the likelihood of patients dying on hospital wards, and the risk of many aspects of care being either delayed or left undone (missed). However, the direct consequence of missed care remains unclear.
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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 11 December 2017
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