Welcome
to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 284 20 January 2016
From NZ media this week
Medical cannabis worthwhile as a palliative but
not a treatment, report suggests
Medical cannabis helped ease the suffering of a
terminally ill teenager but did nothing to treat his epilepsy, a medical report
says.
Maori women viewed as 'inferior' by settlers
The way early settlers documented Māori women
is disturbing and has had a damaging impact on how wahine are viewed today, an
emerging health researcher says.
Better Information Sharing Leads to Healthier
Kids
Fewer children are missing
critical health checks thanks to an innovative online tool and coordination
service from Pinnacle Midland Health Network.
Nelson Hospital's emergency department
increasingly busy after hours
Alcohol-related
incidents, complex illnesses and an increase in people seeking help late at
night is putting pressure on the Nelson Hospital emergency department.
Head of the
emergency department Dr Andrew Munro said more people were using the emergency
department and the biggest difficulty hospital staff faced was dealing with the
increase of people turning up between 11pm and 8am.
Kiwi hepatitis C patients getting treatment
from Australian drug buyers club
New
Zealanders unable to afford the $100,000 price for hepatitis C medication have been offered a lifeline
from an Australian Dallas Buyers Club-style operation.
Dozens of
Kiwis facing liver disease and a shortened life as a result of the virus
have travelled to Australia to pick up wonder drugs with the help of Tasmanian
doctor James Freeman.
Drugs, alcohol and smoking
Academic 'tussle' over alcohol report
An academic tussle about alcohol and
whether it causes violence has morphed into an unholy scrap over
"religious temperance" and conflicts of interest.
British anthropologist Anne Fox's
research group was paid by the brewer Lion to produce a 99-page report last
year on the drinking, culture and violence in Australia and New Zealand.
Ethical issues
Health ethics - designer babies
Should parents be able to determine
their baby's gender? Or choose its genetic makeup so it can be a donor for
another child? Lynn Freeman spoke to Dr Jeanne Snelling who's
an academic lawyer, and the Director of The Bioethics Centre in Dunedin, Professor John McMillan.
Mental health
Seclusion rates at Nelson Marlborough District
Health Board highest in New Zealand
Mental
health patients in Marlborough and Nelson are placed in seclusion more often
than anywhere else in the country, a new report shows.
Mental Health Foundation launches project to
help young people end mental illness discrimination
Young people who experience
moderate and severe mental illness often experience isolation and rejection
from their peers and at home. A new project will help young people develop
creative projects to end mental illness discrimination in NZ.
Obesity
Soft drinks have devastating impact on public
health
How did soft drinks that
contain inexpensive ingredients, become the basis of multi-billion dollar
industries and international brand icons, while also having a devastating
impact on our health?
Anti-obesity initiative for comes under fire
for lack of results
An anti-obesity programme
in Christchurch's south-west suburbs has come under fire for a lack of results
in the year since it was launched.
Healthy Families New
Zealand, the Government's flagship anti-obesity initiative, was launched in the Spreydon-Heathcote ward in 2014 – one
of 10 communities to share $40 million of funding.
From International media this week
The rate and cost of nurse turnover in
Australia
Nurse turnover is a critical issue facing workforce
planners across the globe, particularly in light of protracted and continuing
workforce shortages. An ageing population coupled with the rise in complex and
chronic diseases, have contributed to increased demands placed on the health
system and importantly, nurses who themselves are ageing. Costs associated with
nurse turnover are attracting more attention; however, existing measurements of
turnover show inconsistent findings, which can be attributed to differences in
study design, metrics used to calculate turnover and variations in definitions
for turnover. This paper will report the rates and costs of nurse turnover
across three States in Australia.
New guidelines for care of the perioperative
geriatric patient
This
best practices document provides guidance on managing the older adult in the
perioperative period. It is organized into sections corresponding to the
immediate preoperative period, the intraoperative period, and the postoperative
period. This document is designed to help clinicians, it is not a substitute
for clinical judgment and experience.
These
consensus based recommendations have been developed by the American College of
Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) and the
American Geriatrics Society’s (AGS) Geriatrics for Specialists Initiative, with
support from the John A. Hartford Foundation.
Overseas nurses denied NHS jobs
Thousands of nurses
were denied permission to work in England last year, despite hospitals facing
staff shortages, new figures show.
Work and management
Compassionate care means supporting staff as
well as patients
One thing I was
pleased to tick off the ‘to-do’ list last week was completing The King’s Fund
staff satisfaction survey. It’s nice to be asked how you feel about your job
and encouragingly here at the Fund, staff have reported relatively high levels
of engagement over the past three survey rounds.
Decreasing workplace incivility
A problem in many healthcare institutions, workplace
incivility is often referred to as bullying, lateral/horizontal violence, or
harassment.1-3 It can be defined as “repeated offensive,
abusive, intimidating, or insulting behavior, abuse of power, or unfair
sanctions that make recipients upset and feel humiliated, vulnerable, or
threatened, creating stress and undermining their self-confidence.”4 Uncivil behaviors can range from lack of
support to rude or humiliating comments, and may even include verbal threats.5 Determining the actual incidence and
prevalence of workplace incivility is difficult because it's often unrecognized
and underreported.6 However, studies examining workplace
incivility assert that the percentage of nurses experiencing some form of
incivility ranges from 27% to 85%.6,7
Be a thought leader
Did you know that Argentina has an official government
position called the Secretary for Strategic Coordination of National Thought?
The concept behind the position is to build networks among academics and
intellectuals. You're probably considering this as yet another example of
typical governmental excess, and there's plenty of Argentinians who feel the
same. But how does this job title relate to nursing leadership? After listening
to and interacting with amazing nurse leaders, one can't help but be awestruck
by the depth of national nursing thought and action. We have so much to be
proud of in nursing that using the position of Strategic Coordinator of Nursing
Thought as a metaphor seems appropriate.
Articles of interest
Approaches to improving the contribution of the nursing and midwifery
workforce to increasing universal access to primary health care for vulnerable
populations: a systematic review
A. J. Dawson,
A. M. Nkowane, and A. Whelan
Despite considerable evidence
showing the importance of the nursing and midwifery workforce, there are no
systematic reviews outlining how these cadres are best supported to provide
universal access and reduce health care disparities at the primary health care
(PHC) level. This review aims to identify nursing and midwifery policy,
staffing, education and training interventions, collaborative efforts and
strategies that have improved the quantity, quality and relevance of the
nursing and midwifery workforce leading to health improvements for vulnerable
populations.
Nurse staffing and patient experience outcomes:
A close connection
As healthcare providers set and refine their
strategies for staying competitive in a value-based delivery and payment
system, a sharper understanding of the interplay between inputs and
outputs becomes a strategic imperative. Nurse staffing is a key input for
acute-care hospitals—key both for its impact on care and its budget prominence.
This puts it squarely at the center of hospitals’ efforts to deliver on their
value promise.
Cultural Safety in University Teaching and
Learning
Procedia - Social and
Behavioral Sciences
Volume 106, 10 December 2013, Pages 767–776
4th International Conference on New Horizons in
Education
World population mobility as well as distance learning has
led to increased multiculturalism on campuses and virtual classrooms.
Immigration and travel calls for more accurate knowledge of cultural health and
safety. This paper explores cultural safety, stereotyping and possible actions
in the direction of raising awareness in a multicultural teaching and learning
environment. The example of Nursing Education is used.
Online resources
Managing a Deteriorating Patient
Clinical Communiqué is
a newsletter written by clinicians, using a case-study approach to report on
lessons learned from deaths investigated by the Coroners’ Court of
Victoria. This edition explores the “challenging scenarios of managing a
deteriorating patient in a rural or regional setting, and the obstacles that
are faced when attempting to transfer a critically ill patient for ongoing
treatment.”
When cases of patient deaths in hospital are reviewed at mortality
case review meetings or coronial inquests, there are common themes that
frequently emerge. These themes are the critical elements that need to be present,
or performed well, in order to provide safe and effective patient care. They
include communication, documentation, awareness of one’s skills and
limitations, recognising the deteriorating patient, and following guidelines,
to name but a few. Failure or sub-optimal provision of even one element,
inevitably leads to a failure in a system and the potential for patients to
suffer preventable harm.
Clinical Communiqué. Victorian
Institute of Forensic Medicine
Volume 2 Issue 4 December 2015
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 January 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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