“How would you have gone if you had taken your mum to uni, Conor?” recent nursing graduate and mother Lorella McLatchey asks me. As I ponder this, I imagine sitting at the uni bar while my mother stares at me disapprovingly, ...
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Patients happy with ‘very good’ care in emergency departments
Almost 16,000 NSW emergency department patients were surveyed about their experiences during 2017–18, with 88 per cent or nearly nine in 10 patients rating their experience as ‘very good’ (59 per cent) or ‘good’ (29 per cent). This is down slightly from ...
More »New gerontology framework to ensure skills for nurses
In the wake of the aged care royal commission and a perceived skills shortage in the sector, the University of Wollongong, in partnership with the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, has released the Gerontological Nursing Competencies (GNCs) framework. The framework ...
More »Palliative care nurse blazing a trail to awards
The inaugural Health Minister’s award for nursing trailblazers has been awarded to a Canberra nurse for her work in improving the delivery of palliative care to Australians living in residential aged care. Nikki Johnston, a palliative care nurse practitioner based ...
More »Into the great unknown: voluntary assisted dying in Australia
“You don’t know.” Jac Mathieson, the chief nursing officer at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, found herself saying this a lot when talking about the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act, soon to be law in Victoria. In this instance she was asked, ...
More »Rock ‘n’ roll, push ‘n’ pull: avoiding nurse and patient injuries
Studies show that an average nurse lifts 1.8 tonnes per 12-hour shift, re-positions patients around 69 times a shift and often perform 4 transfers per day. That is a lot of lifting, pushing and pulling and can leave nurses battered ...
More »Economic outlook mixed, health sector wages up: conference
The 9th annual Australian Healthcare Week began in Sydney last week, and nursing and aged care were front and centre. Early in on the first day, the conference was given an economics rundown by Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan, and despite slow ...
More »Keeping our nurses engaged: combatting an ageing workforce
“My kids will kill me for this,” Dan Levitt told the nurses in the crowd at his Australian Healthcare Week talk. “DAY-OH” he sings. The tickled crowd responds in kind. “DAYYYY-OOOHHH,” he continues and goes on to complete the attempt ...
More »Looking to the year 2030: Australian Healthcare Week 2019
Embrace the change. Embrace technology. Be a leader. These are the messages from ACN chief executive Kylie Ward. Ward gave the opening address to the packed out Nursing Expo at Australian Healthcare Week. Entitled 'The Future and Nursing', she asked the ...
More »Predictable and preventable: pressure injuries need to stop
Pressure injuries are expensive for our health system, hugely distressing for patients and, most of all, preventable and predictable. That is according to UTS professor of nursing Debra Jackson. "They are so distressing," she said. "Once a person gets a ...
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