Welcome
to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 294 6 April 2016
From
NZ media this week
Young nurses not
dissuaded by high workloads and stressful environments
Nurses
experience "relentless pressure" in high-stress environments but
people are still keen to enter the profession, says Massey University's nursing
school head.
Read more here
Nursing union calls for funding overhaul as
graduates fall through cracks
Some graduate nurses are being pushed into employment with
limited support and too much responsibility, while the country is expected to
be about 15,000 nurses short by 2035.
Read more here
Southern DHB is encouraging its staff to
#ImmuniseYourSelfie
With flu season nearly upon
us Southern DHB is encouraging its staff to take up the offer of a free
influenza vaccination once again this year to protect themselves, their
patients and their families.
Read more here
Got
a job working with children? Time to learn Te Reo and diagnose rheumatic fever
Being fluent
in Maori, well-versed on the Privacy Act and diagnosing rheumatic
fever are just some of the things those working with children would
be expected to know under a new Government proposal.
Everyone from
a school rugby coach or bus driver to doctors,
nurses, teachers and senior managers will be given new
requirements, to be assessed against, once Government signs off its
Children's Workforce plan.
Read more here
Cancer
NZ falls behind in reducing melanoma rates
New Zealand must make a stronger commitment to
sun-protection policies as the country overtakes Australia for melanoma rates,
Melanoma New Zealand says.
Read more here
Invest now to prevent melanoma - dermatologist
As a country leading the world with its melanoma rates,
more investment into preventative treatment is needed, a Palmerston North
dermatologist says.
Read more here
Drugs,
alcohol, smoking, addictions
Smoking and Our Young People - Professor Janet Hoek
It could be the next
step in stopping young people smoking. Otago University researchers have found
that cigarette sticks with printed health warnings or unattractive colours,
could enhance the effects of plain packaging. In their paper published in the BMJ
journal Tobacco Control, the Otago researchers and colleagues in Australia
conducted an online survey of 313 New Zealand smokers. Professor Janet Hoek is
the co-director of ASPIRE 2025 from the university.
Read more here
Peter Dunne takes health, rather than criminal,
approach to drugs
How severely
people are dealt with for possession of illegal drugs or drug utensils is to be
reviewed - as a major international study says the punitive approach to drug
offending hasn't worked.
Associate
Health Minister Peter Dunne has this morning reiterated the Government's
commitment to review drug policy and make sure drug offending is primarily seen
as a health matter.
Read more here
Mental
health
Why are more children
and young people seeking help for serious mental health problems?
There's
a stack of yellow slips on school guidance counsellor Edmund Salem's desk and a
string of emails waiting. Those are just the self-referrals - the
teens voluntarily seeking help.
"The
work is very busy on the front line," the Tawa College counsellor says.
That's an understatement. Health Ministry statistics show demand
for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) has soared by 30
per cent in just five years.
Read more here
New suicide
prevention guidelines for EDs
Media release
from health minister Jonathan Coleman
Health
Minister Jonathan Coleman says new suicide prevention guidelines for hospital
emergency departments will help to further improve care for those at risk
Read more here
Obesity
Obesity a bigger
problem than world hunger, Lancet study says
Global
overeating has become a bigger problem than world hunger, with more people
now obese than underweight, the biggest ever study of worldwide trends in body
mass index has revealed.
Read more here
Calls for stronger action to fight obesity
A public health expert is calling for stronger
government leadership to combat obesity, with a new study revealing NZ has one
of the highest rates of overweight people in the world.
Read more here
Health
experts call for soft drink tax
Governmental
"delaying tactics" are getting in the way of addressing one of New
Zealand's biggest health issues - child obesity - a Massey
University professor says.
Eight Massey
University experts, part of a group of more than 70 health
academics, signed an open letter addressed to Health Minister
Jonathan Coleman, urging the uptake of a sugar tax.
Read more here
An open letter
to Cabinet Ministers from 74 health professors calling for a sugary drinks tax
In this Public
Health Expert blog, we reproduce a letter that appeared in the NZ Herald on 2
April. Boyd Swinburn, Rod Jackson, and Cliona Ni Mhurchu led the
writing.
Read more here
Government not
persuaded by health professors lobbying to introduce sugar tax
The
Government isn't fazed by a group of health professors lobbying to
introduce a tax on sugary drinks.
A
group of more than 70 health academics from various New Zealand
universities want more to be done about the country's high rate of
childhood obesity - the fourth highest in the world.
Read more here
Patient
safety
Falls prevention in hospital shows benefits as
broken hips reduced
New data from the Health
Quality & Safety Commission show the number of people falling in hospital
and breaking their hip is reducing. There were 64 falls in hospital leading to
a broken hip in the
12 months to December 2015 – down from 95 in the baseline
2012 year.
Read more here
Timaru
Hospital emergency department makes improvements
An audit
which picked up a issues in the way some triage patients were assessed has led
to improvements at the Timaru Hospital.
The hospital
last year discovered its Emergency Department staff wrongly assessed the severity
of some triage 4 patients' conditions.
Read more here
From International media this week
The future of nursing education in Wales is
outlined in new strategy by the Royal College of Nursing
Director Tina
Donnelly says it is essential that nurses and healthcare support workers are
supported through education and training
Read more here
Demand
for registered nurses is on the rise
There's an increasing interest in
registered nursing. Daemen College in Amherst is reporting waiting lists to get
into its program.
Read more here
Calls
for 'Gayle's Law' to protect outback nurses
More than 25,000 people have backed a petition calling for better safety
for nurses working in remote areas.
The push for
‘Gayle’s Law’ follows the murder of health worker, Gayle Woodford, in South
Australia’s far north.
Read more here
Hillman Cancer Center
respite room offers 'healing' for nurses
A room on the Hillman Cancer Center's third floor
offers something nurses say can be hard to find in the bustling building: a
little peace.
Read more here
Nebraska agency streamlines
licensing process for nurses
Nebraska
agency streamlines licensing process for nurses
Read article here
Nurses will turn away violent, drunk and
drug-affected patients in unprecedented bid to curb attacks on hospital
emergency staff
NURSES say they will turn away violent drunk
and drug-affected patients in an unprecedented attempt to curb attacks on
hospital emergency department staff.
Read item here
West Virginia
expanding prescribing power for nurses
CHARLESTON,
WV (WCHS/WVAH) — Some West Virginia nurses will soon have expanded
abilities to prescribe treatments.
Gov.
Earl Ray Tomblin signed the nursing bill Tuesday after the Republican-led
Legislature passed it. It takes effect in June.
Read more here
Pros and cons of nurse
reciprocity
Bill seen as
benefit by many, trouble by others
A bill on Beacon Hill that would allow nurses to
practice in other states would be a boon for the growing field of telehealth,
its backers say, but unions fear it would make it easier for out-of-state
nurses to swoop in during strikes.
Read more here
Nurse
practitioners vs. primary care physicians: Comparing cost of care
Increasing the use of nurse practitioners to
meet the growing demand for primary care services for Medicare beneficiaries
may actually reduce costs for the government program while still providing
beneficiaries with high-quality care, according to a study by Medscape.
Read more here
Articles
of interest
Improving cultural competence in end-of-life pain
management
Nursing2016
January 2016,
Volume 46 Number 1 , p 32 - 41 [FREE]
MANAGING PAIN
is a central component of end-of-life care, and nurses are in a prime position
to relieve pain and suffering throughout the dying process. But as the United
States continues to become more ethnically and culturally diverse, healthcare
providers face increasing challenges as they care for patients with different
cultural values.
Read article here
Newly
graduated nurses’ empowerment regarding professional competence and other
work-related factors
Kuokkanen
L, Leino-Kilpi H, Numminen O, Isoaho H, Flinkman M, Meretoja R
BMC
Nursing 2016, 15 :22 (24 March 2016)
Although both nurse empowerment and competence
are fundamental concepts of describing newly graduated nurses’ professional
development and job satisfaction, only few studies exist on the relationship
between these concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine
how newly graduated nurses assess their empowerment and to clarify professional
competence compared to other work-related factors.
Read full paper 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 April 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
For more up
to date news and information follow SNIPS at:
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