Nursing Post - Issue 24: End of Year Christmas Special

theNursingPost www.nursingpost.com.au

The Career and Education magazine for Nurses and Health Professionals

Final issue for 2011:

CHRISTMAS

Special!

12 December 2011 - Issue 24

Visit us online for the latest jobs and articles

N LIA ME A E R ST CH AU NT S W E NE RNM E V GO

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Welcome to Issue 24 From the Editor...

Here we are readers - the very last issue for 2011!

Where did this year go? This issue, we take a little trip down memory lane as we bring you our special Christmas Feature, where we revisit some of the best and worst events of 2011. We also included a couple of our staff picks for our favourite front cover competition winner photographs. Speaking of front cover winners, a big congratulations goes to Imelda Tolentino for her second submission win!

Here’s what Imelda had to say; “Although we didn’t win the recent “best decoration competition”, the staff of ward 8AN at The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital were just happy and united as one for the campaign of breast cancer research.

Surely our efforts and messages were not in vain.

The ward was dressed in pink and the staff turned to work wearing pink!”

Inside this Issue Christmas Special

What another splendid submission Imelda, top effort! And keep the submissions coming readers!

Finally, I would like to thank all our readers and advertisers for what was a truly wonderful year for The Nursing Post. We have enjoyed every minute bringing you the latest jobs and news articles. We cannot wait to come back next year with a bang!

Stay tuned readers, and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

ABN: 28 105 044 282 | PO BOX 6213, East Perth, WA, 6892 Ph: +(618) 9325 3917 | Fax: +(618) 9325 4037 E: admin@nursingpost.com.au | W: www.nursingpost.com.au Next Publication Details: Issue 24: 12 December 2011 Material Deadline: 5 December 2011 Editor / Artwork: Amrit Bhabra For media-kits, deadlines or advertising queries, please contact Amrit Bhabra.

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Next Issue New Year - New Career

Merry Christmas!

CONTENTS NAHRLS (Inside Front Cover) ...................................00 Ausmed ..................................................................01 Mediserve Nursing Agency .....................................03,BC CCM Recruitment International ...............................04 Mercy Health and Aged Care Central QLD ...............05 CQ Nurse.................................................................06 Medibank Health Solutions......................................07 ENA Work UK...........................................................08 Medacs Healthcare..................................................09 Nursecare Personnel................................................10 Oak Valley Clinic......................................................11 Smart Salary............................................................12 Hays Healthcare.......................................................13 Continental Travelnurse............................................14 Quick N Easy Finance..............................................15 Australian Recruiting Group......................................16

2

WA Country Health Service......................................17 FEATURE: Christmas Special....................................18 Article: The Year That Was.......................................19-22 Healthcare Australia.................................................23 Reader Story: NURSES PLEASE TAKE NOTE; Our working conditions have improved immensely.....................24-25 Educational Courses,Conferences & Events..............26 Ausmed Article: The Bitter Taste of Medicine:..........28+29 Wish Education and Training....................................30 Australian Wound Management Association Conference 2012.....................................................31 Oceania University of Medecine ..............................31 Inaugural Commonwealth Nurses Conference for 2012..................................................................33 Pulse International...................................................37

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This clinic is currently undergoing accreditation and you will be required to assist in this process. There are generous salary and leave conditions. A furnished house is provided.

For application information please call Susan Twining 08 8670 4207 or email: ovclinic@maralinga.com.au 11

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NEXT

ISSUE

New year, New CAREER!

Publication Date: 23rd January, 2012

9/09/2011 8:55:20 AM

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Issue 24 Feature Special

r

ou o t e m Welco

S A M T S I R CH

! ! ! l a i c e Sp

// CONTENTS The Year that WAS.....................................................19-22 READER STORY: Nurses Please take Note...............24

the year that was...

Well readers, here we are; our final issue for 2011, and my, how time has flown! It’s been another battle, another challenge, another strike, another accomplishment for the field, another year. We take a quick walk down memory lane here at the Nursing Post, as we highlight what have been some of the best, and worst, memories of 2011.

1. 20 student nurses from five WA universities were given the opportunity to complete their clinical placement in community health centres and hospitals in TANZANIA! One of the participating student nurses, Thomas Coffey stated that

2. NSW Nurses went on strike earlier

“this has been two weeks I will never forget. I was able to see first-hand how we were making a difference. From here I think I will do some more volunteer work or work in a remote community,” he said.

3. Statistics were released for the

this year led by the NSW Nurses Union in a bid for high staffing levels and nurse to patient ratios.

The strikes paid off, as the Government and Union reached an agreement!

very first time earlier this year by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), which stated that there was a total of 288,861 RNS in Australia. Not bad Australia!

4. We celebrated International Nurses

Day on May 12th! The main issues that the event aimed to shed light on by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals included infant mortality, maternal health and the fight against HIV / AIDS, malaria and other life-threatening diseases.

5. Front Cover Competition STAFF

FAVOURITE: Issue 7 - Myleth Satane submitted the winning photo for this issue. According to Myleth, “this is our photo of my workmates and volunteers celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at Geriatric

Issue 24 Feature Special

Evaluation Management Uni (Gem Unit) in Modbury Hospital, South Australia.” Looks like everyone had a good time celebrating in green that day, we kind of wished we were there celebrating with them too!

decided to have a photo of our nursing mob. We are a great team and work well within the confines and restrictions of remote nursing. A fantastic challenge.

It was during our ‘posing’ that we all shouted out that this would be a great photo for the front page of the Nursing Post. We hope you agree”.

6. The top international nursing prize was awarded to an Australian Nurse!

The very prestigious Florence Nightingale medal was awarded to local Queenslander Noela Davies for her commitment to care and her demonstration and understanding of her profession.

Ms Davies has worked for the Red Cross in severely impoverished nations including Africa and the Middle East. She dedicated the award to her fellow co-workers stating that, “I’m no better or no more interesting than my other colleagues out there and a lot of my Red Cross mates.”

7. Front Cover Competition STAFF

FAVOURITE: Issue 2 - Moira Senini from Aurukun Primary Health Care Centre in Queensland submitted the winning photo for the second issue of The Nursing Post.

Moira is a Clinical Nurse and she says that her “mob regularly reads your magazine and is often utilised as a guide for where some of us work next. Recently we had a BBQ down at the Aurukun landing and

This statement made us feel like quite the celebrities at The NP headquarters! It’s something that makes those long shifts and rough work experiences bearable; when you have a supportive team there for you, and that’s what this picture reminded us of.

8. Fiona Stanley Hospital underway!

The new flagship healthcare facility currently being built in Perth, Western Australia, is said to become the leading facility in Australia.

The Fiona Stanley Hospital, named after Australian of The Year and well renowned Professor Fiona Stanley, is expected to open in May 2014, with positive reports stating that this huge project is on top their time and budget goals.

9. A Sydney emergency nurse was

stabbed repeatedly by a patient during her shift. This story was a real shocker, but not too uncommon. It is a reminder that nurses have an incredibly dangerous job, and it is most important to keep an eye out and be cautious at all times, from the moment you start your shift, to the moment to clock off.

day Thursday” and we encourage staff to dress as nerds for fun and staff morale.

Also next month we plan to ask for a gold coin donation from everyone who dresses up and send the proceeds to a hospital in Somalia in which I volunteered last year.

This is a photo of some of us last nerds day Thursday and we tried to make it look like an old school photo.”

10. Nurse practitioners celebrate their one year anniversary for their recognition! It was only a year ago that nurse practitioners and eligible midwives were finally given authority to offer clients rebates on services provided under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and to write prescriptions that qualify for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) subsidies.

11. Nurse Practitioner run clinics open in Brisbane! The new nurse practitionerrun clinic titled SmartClinics have opened in Brisbane, where patients can book online and will only have to wait 5 minutes before being seen for a 20minute consultation priced at $28!

12. Front Cover Competition STAFF

FAVOURITE: Issue 20 - Remote and Indigenous Nursing. Congratulations to Michelle Grant from Redcliffe Hospital for such a superb and hilarious front cover photo submission! - “My friend Karin Farrell and I work in the stroke ward 4E at Redcliffe Hospital...The first Thursday of every month is “nerds

This photo was another classic reminder for us here at The Nursing Post that we should have fun and enjoy our work! And it certainly made us laugh!

13. Reader story: Aussie Bangla

Smile. Staff from a theatre suite at a teaching hospital, Western Sydney, headed to Bangladesh last month as part of their mission to raise funds and pay for surgical supplies and treat patients, including children.

The mission, titled ‘The Aussi Bangla Smile Appeal’ is made up of nurses and doctors who have taken the time out of their annual leave, as well as paying

Issue 24 Feature Special

for themselves to make the mission possible. This was such an inspirational story to us all! We cannot wait to hear back from them when they get back!

and were able to assist the woman pictured during her labour / birth and we were able to see her the next day postnatally. A life changing moment in both our lives.”

This photo captured such a rare moment in these two young individuals’ lives that they will be able to treasure forever. We thought this inspiring photo deserved another opportunity to be viewed!

It’s been an eventful year to say the least. We wonder 14. Front Cover Competition STAFF

FAVOURITE: Issue 19 - Denelle Morrison

submitted such a wonderful and joyous photo submission; “I would like to share with you a photo of myself and a colleague / friend of mine Emily Solomon when we went to Nepal in November 2010.

We went as registered nurses / student midwives

what next year will bring for nurses in Australia and across the globe.

Here at The Nursing Post, we cannot wait to see how the year will unfold, as we continue to bring you the latest and best in nursing news, stories and education. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year readers; stay safe!

NURSES

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Reader Story

NURSES PLEASE TAKE NOTE;

Our working conditions have improved immensely, don’t you think?

by Carol Kendall

Nursing has been receiving a lot of criticism from people about waiting times etc in hospitals. They cannot understand why nurses can’t comment publicly on issues involving the hospital system. Nursing today is totally advanced in technology, a real profession with lots of career advancement.

I started nursing 40 years ago as an EN in a small country hospital. Looking back it seemed to be a simple life – as a senior EN I was sometimes in charge of a ward with 20 patients and an RN hovering nearby. Now nurses are allotted 4-6 patients and feel sometimes that this is too many.

Death of a patient in those days seemed to have little impact on me as they were mostly elderly.

Today my feelings have changed as I have grown older; I look at myself and my partner and wonder what our time limit is.

Over the past 7 years I have been working in a major city hospital and now see young children and young adults die too frequently through accidents.

24

In the 80’s, I left nursing to have children and since the local hospital had no part time work I had to work in aged care.

In early 2000 I came back to nursing through a reconnect system along with a lot of other nurses that had left the profession many years back. It was in this course that I realised how out-dated my nursing skills were.

My first position back in the hospital system was in a job that nobody else wanted, that was in an emergency department. Possibly it was the RN I had to work with that nobody wanted to be with, I found her straight to the point, hard working person who got the job done.

I started with a lot of in-trepidation but now I am working large hospitals and I look back and think it was not so bad after all.

Below is an article by an unknown author I found in my workplace. Nurses please take note, our working conditions have improved immensely don’t you think:

1887 Nurses Duties 1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust patients furniture and window sills. (Wow they must have had a lot of time on their hands) 2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the days business 3. Light is important to observe the patient’s condition. Therefore, each day fill the kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks. Wash the windows once a week.

4. The nurse’s notes are important in aiding the physicians work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to individual taste.

off each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if you regularly go to Church.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each payday a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years so that she will not become a burden.

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nursing good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7am and leave at 8pm except on the Sabbath on which day you will be off from 12 noon to 2pm.

9. The nurse who performs her labours and serves her patients and doctors without fault for five years will be given an increase of five cents a day, providing there are no hospital debts outstanding.

6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening

Nurses, what do you think?

Email us what you think on Facebook

Educational Courses, Conferences & Events

Educational Courses,Conferences & Events

// CONTENTS Ausmed Online: Article - The Bitter Taste of Medicine..................28+29 Wish Education and Training......................................................... 30 Australian Wound Management Association Conference 2012.... 31 Oceania University of Medicine.....................................................31 Inaugural Commonwealth Nurses Conference 2012.....................33

26

// 2012 The Early Years Conference 2012 The Development of Children’s Mental Health: How Do We Become Who We Are?

Harbouring wound care The AWMA 18-22 March 2012, Sydney www.awma2012.com

Commonwealth Nurses Federation Inaugural Nurses Conference

2nd National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Conference

Our health: our common wealth

Beyond 2012: Leading the Way to Action

Commonwealth Nurses Federation 10-11 March 2012, London, UK. www.commonwealthnurses.org

6-8 June 2012, Fremantle, WA www.nidacconference.com.au

Australian College of Operating Room Nurses 15th National Conference Territorial boundaries: Dare to be diverse Australian College of Operating Room Nurses 22-26 May 2012, Darwin, NT www.acorn.org.au

International Nursing Conference Nursing: Caring to Know, Knowing to Care Nursing Division of Hadassah University Medical Centre 4-7 June 2012, Jerusalem, Israel www.israel.rnao.ca

4th Congress of the Wound Union of Wound Healing Societies Better care - Better life Wound Union of Wound Healing Societies 2-6 September 2012, Yokohama, Japan www.wuwhs2012.com

National Association of Childbirth Educators’ Biennial Conference Generation Now - the fears, the fantasy and finding the balance National Association of Childbirth Educators 16-18 October 2012, Luna Park, Sydney www.nace.org.au

11th Global Conference on Ageing

16th South Pacific Nurses Forum 2012

Ageing Connects

South Pacific Nurses Forum 19-22 November 2012, Melbourne, Leonda by the Yarra. www.spnf.org.au

IFA-FIV 28 May-1 June 2012, Prague Czech Republic www.ifa-fiv.org

27

Educational Courses, Conferences & Events

The University of British Columbia 2-4 February 2012, Sydney http://interprofessional.ubc.ca/Early_Years.htm

Australian Wound Management Association Conference

Educational Courses, Conferences & Events

The Bitter Taste of Medicine: The Importance of Palatability in Children’s Medication

Antibiotic adherence is an important issue in all patients, but specifically so in children. There are usually a number of factors influencing a doctor’s choice of antibiotic, however taste is not usually one of them.

unsuitable for consumption. Unfortunately it is fairly difficult to measure palatability in children, especially in those below 5 years.

Research has indicated the importance of palatability when selecting drugs for paediatrics, so we are going to take a closer look at its influence, and what we can do to help.

As mentioned, our ability to taste bitter substances is believed to have evolved so we can recognise compounds that may be harmful to us. Unsurprisingly, it can therefore be quite difficult for parents to persuade their children to take bitter medicines.

PALATABILITY The tongue can distinguish five different components of taste: bitter, salty, sour, sweet and umami. Each of these excite a specific neural pathway and are processed along with other olfactory, visual and somatosensory inputs, as well as those from memory. It has been proposed that our ability to taste has evolved over time as a way to recognise foods that are helpful or harmful to us.

For example being able to taste sweet helps us to recognise energy-rich foodstuffs, while bitter tastes may indicate substances that are 28

ADHERENCE AND TASTE

Studies undertaken in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Israel have all identified palatability as a significant contributor of noncompliance to an antibiotic prescription in children. Traditionally unpalatable drugs have been disguised with sugar, however regulatory agencies in both Europe and the USA have recommended avoidance of sugar in paediatric medicines.

Artificial sweeteners are being used as a substitute, but these have their own adverse effects. Palatability should therefore be considered when doctors are prescribing antibiotics.

IMPROVING ADHERENCE

Drug companies are certainly aware of the challenges in providing palatable drugs and are working on methods to improve tastes in children’s medication. Unfortunately the lack of stability in certain drugs such as erythromycin, a particularly grimace-inducing medicine, are limiting positive results. Health professionals however can play an active role in improving paediatric compliance to an antibiotic schedule through both taste testing and introducing a “pill school” to parents.

In a hospital setting, the parent should be observed giving all doses of oral medication to the child prior to discharge. If it is possible for a repeat dose to be given should the medication be spat or vomited out, this should also be clearly explained.

In a community setting, where the drug is available, the practice nurse should observe the dose being given prior to a prescription being written. “Pill school” is a method that parents

Widely available confectionary is used, along with water or some diluted juice. Children can practice swallowing small pills (tic tacs), medium pills (Smarties) and even large pills (chocolate or yoghurt covered raisins). It is important to emphasise that this should be fun, and should not be a forced issue.

Practicing a little bit each day can make a big difference for children when it comes to swallowing proper medication.

Palatability correlates so strongly with adherence to a paediatric drug regime that it is of absolute importance for doctors to consider it when prescribing medication.

Where possible the child should be witnessed swallowing the medication before a full prescription is given. Nursing professionals can help through properly educating parents on the medicine and through teaching methods such as the “pill school” to aid with compliance.

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The palatability of certain drugs is so poor that literature suggests that these drugs not be prescribed to children in suspension form at all, unless the child has been observed swallowing it prior to full prescription. For example flucloxacillin and clindamycin are rarely tolerated with good adherence, while Augmentin Duo, cefeclor, cefalexin and co-trimoxazole are usually well tolerated.

can use to help children (older than six) practice swallowing medicines.

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