Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 379
Wednesday 20 December 2017
NATIONAL NEWS
Franklin Hospice Palliative Care Nursing team claims Community Worker of the Year award
Dedication towards nursing, comforting and caring for the community has earned the Franklin Hospice Palliative Care Nursing Team an accolade at this year's Franklin's Finest People of the Year Awards.
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Whanganui nursing students achieve 100 per cent pass rate
UCOL Whanganui nursing students achieved a 100 per cent pass rate this year and one has earned a place at Dunedin Medical School.
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AGED CARE
One in five elderly New Zealanders say they are lonely, study says
One in five frail elderly New Zealanders are lonely, according to a study conducted by the University of Otago.
The study surveyed about 72,000 elderly New Zealanders and found that more than 15,000 identified as lonely - just over 20 per cent of those surveyed.
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CANCER ISSUES
Up to 3000 Women to Benefit from PHARMAC Decision
Post-menopausal women with early breast cancer will soon be able to have funded zoledronic acid, to prevent the disease spreading into bones.
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DHBs
Value for money questioned in $1.2m spending by health board bosses
The country's 20 health board bosses have spent $1.2 million of taxpayer money on travel, training and meetings in three years, prompting concern the spending needs to be reined in.
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Health dollars sunk into stalled IT project
Health bosses of four of the country's district health boards (DHBs) have become entangled in a costly IT blowout.An inside source says at least $8.3 million has been spent on contractors in the Waikato DHB alone on a national project with little to show for it.
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DIABETES
A sweeter experience for patients with diabetes
New processes and guidelines mean patients with diabetes will recover faster from surgery and spend less time in hospital.
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EMERGENCY MEDICINE AND SERVICES
Binge drinking still a 'significant burden' on strained EDs
Extremely drunk people are putting a burden on New Zealand's strained emergency departments (EDs), despite a drop in numbers from last year's surge.
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ETHICAL ISSUES
Euthanasia bill passes first reading in Parliament
A bill to allow assisted dying in New Zealand has passed its first reading by a significant margin of 76 votes to 44.
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MENTAL HEALTH
Embedding cultural practices into mental health services
Despite growing evidence for the role of culturally-centred programmes in addressing mental health needs, few programmes have been embedded into practice, says one researcher who hopes to change all that.
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Police to pilot change to 111 system for mental health calls
Sending mental health workers on relevant 111 callouts is a necessary first step, but will not work without a wider approach to things like homelessness and addiction, mental health advocates say.
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PHARMACY
Wellington hospital creates new method to keep medicines from waterways
A Wellington hospital has found a way to stop liquid medicine going down the drain, keeping potentially hundreds of litres of drugs out of our waterways.
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Government downplays expectations on medicinal cannabis law reform
The Government appears to be bracing for a backdown on medicinal cannabis legislation, with the health minister at pains to manage expectations on how far it will go.
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PUBLIC HEALTH
Whooping Cough Outbreak: Babies And Infants Most at Risk If Not Immunised
Dr Andrew Lindsay, Medical Officer of Health with the Nelson Marlborough Public Health Service, urges parents and caregivers of young children, pregnant women and every person who has close contact with young children or pregnant women to check their whooping cough (pertussis) vaccination status and get vaccinated as soon as possible before heading off for holiday travel and family events.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Surgical staff wear their names on their caps to stop mix-ups and improve safety
Dr Rob Hackett was met with smirks and confused, occasionally derisive, looks when he started turning up to surgeries with his name and profession emblazoned in bold black typeface across his scrub cap.
"Rob … Anaesthetist", his forehead announced to colleagues and patients alike.
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Bucks New University 'one of first' to offer nursing apprenticeship
A south Bucks university is set to be one of the first in the country to deliver registered nurse degree apprenticeships.
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Ontario wants to extend PTSD coverage to frontline nurses
The Ontario Ministry of Labour wants to extend “presumptive” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) legislation to include up to 140,000 frontline nurses.
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
BMC Medicine is pleased to bring you the first articles in our collection on Migrant and refugee health. Guest edited by Professor Alimuddin Zumla and Professor Ibrahim Abubakar, the series covers recent advances in infectious and non-communicable disease research, tropical medicine, and global health policy that have both broad interest and high clinical and public health relevance due to their impact on migrant health.
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Weaving a culture of safety into the fabric of nursing
Echevarria, Ilia ; Thoman, Michele
Nursing Management: December 2017 - Volume 48 - Issue 12 - p 18–25
Culture—the beliefs, behaviors, and values of people within an organization—can have debilitating effects on organizational strategy.1,2 Every organization has its own distinct culture and may also contain subcultures that can vary by location and at the department level.2 Despite efforts to improve patient safety, the implementation and sustainment of a culture of safety remains a high priority. Healthcare workers—from clinicians to leaders—play a significant role in creating that culture.
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Nurses’ reports of staffing adequacy and surgical site infections: A cross-sectional multi-centre study
International Journal of Nursing Studies
Volume 75, October 2017, Pages 58-64
Background
It is indicated that healthcare personnel’s perceptions of the work environment may reflect the clinical outcomes for the patients they care for. However, the body of evidence is inconsistent when it comes to the association between work environment and surgical site infection.
Objectives
The aim of this study is to examine the associations between nurse-reported characteristics of the work environment and incidence of surgical site infections after total hip arthroplasty.
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
How do firearms, floods and flu impact public health?
Firearms and public health, impacts of New Zealand’s most common natural hazard - flooding, and lessons from the 1918 flu pandemic are just some of the courses and seminar talks being offered by the University of Otago, Wellington’s Public Health Summer School.
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 19 December 2017
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