In an effort to improve health outcomes for patients, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has released a new guide, Minimum Standards for Communicating between Health Services and General Practitioners and other Treating Doctors. The Guide was adapted from an AMA Victoria ...
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Brushing up on aseptic technique in wound care
Health professionals hoping to learn more about aseptic technique in wound care now have access to a new consensus document by Wounds Australia. Chief executive Anne Buck said the publication will help clinicians provide evidence-based wound care and meet infection ...
More »Pushing the envelope
Brisbane North PHN has recently rolled out two initiatives – Yellow Envelope and the Geriatric Outreach Assessment Service – to help or minimise the transition of aged care residents from facilities to hospitals.“The Yellow Envelope is a document in which ...
More »Gut reactions: how dietary fibre interacts with the microbiome
The food we eat, particularly plant-based fibre, influences the composition and metabolic activity of the dense and diverse microbial community living in our guts, called the microbiome. This in turn has an impact on a number of health conditions. The ...
More »Picking apart conscientious objection in healthcare
How much should healthcare be left up to a clinician’s own discretion? This question will be unpacked by Dr Doug McConnell, from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Humanities and Social Sciences, at a conference focused on conscientious objection. McConnell ...
More »Hospital uses emojis to better engage younger patients
Staff at the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick have broken out the happy, teary and angry emojis as a way to open up dialogue about treatment and enable younger patients and their families to communicate their feelings. A patient suggested ...
More »Monitoring nutritional status of cancer patients boosts outcomes
Malnutrition in cancer patients is often associated with loss of lean body mass and can be caused by a combination of factors such as inadequate food intake, decreased physical activity and metabolic derangements, often referred to as cancer cachexia. These ...
More »Stroke: a top ten cause of death for children
The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute has published the first ever study into the outcomes for children following an arterial ischaemic stroke, more commonly known as a stroke caused by a blood clot. Despite being more commonly associated with older people ...
More »ED nurse cautions against skipping vital check
A Queensland RN has urged fellow nurses to not let respiratory rate checks fall by the wayside. CQUniversity doctoral researcher Tracy Flenady said that while abnormal respiratory rates are accurate, early indicators of clinical decline, previous studies indicate that this ...
More »Health workers should take Aboriginal languages seriously: article
"He chucked his guts up." Writing in the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Robert Amery, head of linguistics at the University of Adelaide, said he’d used this term when teaching a short course in medical interpreting to a group of ...
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