Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 377
Wednesday 6 December 2017
NATIONAL NEWS
Nelson Tasman Hospice nurse leader's varied role
As part of a series talking to Nelson Tasman Hospice staff in the build-up to their new facility in Stoke we meet clinical nurse leader Heather Lewis, who manages a team of more than 30.
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Saving lives on the Africa Mercy
New Zealand nurse Deborah Adesanya had her life transformed by a five-month stint caring for children recovering from major surgery on the world's largest civilian hospital ship.
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Nurses Often Cyberbullied by Patients And Families
Research by a Massey University PhD candidate into workplace cyberbullying has found that nurses not only experience bullying by other staff, but also by patients and their families.
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Nurse suspended, fined after accepting patient's money and buying a car
A female nurse has been suspended and fined after opening a joint bank account with a male patient, accepting close to $10,000 from him and using this to buy a new car.
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EngAGE Intermediate acknowledged for work
Helping elderly people in the region avoid going into residential or hospital care before they need to by providing temporary care options is an initiative which has received high praise at the recent Hawke's Bay Health Awards.
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Nelson Hospital is 'running out of beds'
Nelson Hospital is "running out of beds" due to the demands of an ageing population and patients with complex illnesses, its chief executive says.
Nelson Marlborough Health chief executive Peter Bramley told a board meeting Nelson Hospital's Emergency Department was under pressure similar to other emergency departments around the country.
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Health Minister David Clark on director-general's resignation
The Health Minister today unveiled a new advisory group which he says will deliver better value from a more unified health system.
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National leader Bill English: 'unreasonable expectations' await next health boss
National leader Bill English has issued a warning to the next Director-General of Health that they will have to deliver on some "unreasonable expectations".
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AGED CARE
Aged-care sector warns of workforce crisis
The Salvation Army is warning New Zealand is teetering on the edge of an elder care crisis and the industry will need at least 18,000 workers to cater for the ageing population.
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ASTHMA AND ALLERGIES
Research shows new asthma medicine is more effective
A new study title the 2017 Salford Lung Study has found a recently funded asthma medicine called Breo Ellipta is more than twice as effective as the usual medication is taken by Māori suffering from asthma.
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New guidelines aim to reduce asthma disparities in children and adolescents
“The new guidelines are an important step in reducing disparities and improving outcomes for children with asthma and their whānau,” says David McNamara, Respiratory Paediatrician at Starship Children’s Health.
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DHBs
High salaries don't guarantee success, but oversight key
The Waikato DHB chief executive Nigel Murray saga highlights a perceived gap between pay and performance.
And while overseas research shows little correlation between big money and competence, New Zealand experts say pay isn't the issue.
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DISABILITY
Health of deaf Kiwis hindered by lack of interpreters, study finds
A lack of interpreters means deaf Kiwis can be at risk of invasive and unnecessary procedures, longer hospital stays and higher health costs, a study has found.
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EMERGENCY MEDICINE AND SERVICES
St John extends triage system New Zealand-wide
More patients will be diverted from the ambulance service when a new triage model starts in the lower South Island.
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MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health advocates: Police wrong to use Tasers on mentally ill
The police are wrong to use Tasers on people with mental health issues, mental health advocates say.
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OBESITY / SUGAR TAX
Government reluctant to commit to obesity target
Despite slamming the previous Government's approach to reducing obesity, new Health Minister David Clark is reluctant to commit to an initiative he threw his weight behind before the election.
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PATIENT SAFETY
Without warning, Australia bans surgical mesh products for pelvic organ prolapse
Australia's therapeutic goods watchdog has banned surgical mesh implants for pelvic organ prolapse – and New Zealand advocates are demanding Medsafe follows suit immediately.
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PHARMACY
Pharmac warns minister of the impact of interim drug fund and the motives of Big Pharma
The health budget could blow out by up to $90 million a year if frequent work wasn't being undertaken by Pharmac to reduce costs, the national drug purchaser has warned the Government.
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PUBLIC HEALTH
National outbreak of whooping cough declared
The Ministry of Heath has declared a national outbreak of whooping cough, as a total of 1,315 cases have been reported since the beginning of 2017.
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Is NZ ready for the next big pandemic?
New Zealand isn't prepared enough for a major pandemic, which could strike as swiftly as an earthquake and bring the country to its knees, researchers argue.
The Ministry of Health recently updated its strategy and is now reviewing its readiness plans in the run-up to the centenary of the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed more than 8600 New Zealanders and 500 million people around the world.
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New research into rheumatic fever treatment for Pasifika
New research led by a New Zealand university will look at how the present treatment for rheumatic fever affects different ethnic groups particularly Pacific and Māori people.
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SOCIAL HEALTH
Government passes Healthy Homes bill, requiring all rentals to be warm and dry
After several tries in opposition, the new Government have passed a law requiring rentals to be warm, dry, and well ventilated.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
NHS to hire more than 5,000 nurses from India and the Philippines
The NHS is to hire 5,500 nurses from India and the Philippines in a desperate bid to plug staff shortages, health officials have said.
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Gayle's Law: Better protection for remote nurses passes SA's Parliament
A law named for murdered nurse Gayle Woodford has passed South Australia's Parliament, meaning health workers will no longer be permitted to work alone in remote areas.
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Two Michiana nurses establish 'Diabetes Coaches' to help fellow diabetics
(WNDU) - If you are a diabetic struggling to control your blood sugar levels, there is new help in Michiana that has been created by two nurses who want you to know you are not alone.
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Unconscious patient's 'Do Not Resuscitate' tattoo creates ethical dilemma for ER staff
Emergency room staff at a Florida hospital found an unconscious patient with "do not resuscitate" tattooed on his chest, prompting confusion and ethical concern, according to a case report in The New England Journal of Medicine.
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Judge rules nurses at Brigham must get flu vaccines
A Suffolk Superior Court judge has ruled that unionized nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital must follow the hospital’s flu vaccination policy.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association sued the Brigham in September over the policy, which requires all workers be vaccinated annually, with exceptions for medical or religious reasons. The union argued that the policy represented corporate overreach and would unfairly punish nurses — even result in their firing — if they chose not to get vaccinated.
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Empowering Nurses To Innovate At The Bedside, Then Spread Their Innovations
Professional associations play an important role in stimulating and diffusing clinical innovation in health care by influencing quality, safety, and patient outcomes. Nurses—the largest group of health professionals in the U.S. at 3.2 million—are ideally positioned to identify, create, and sustain innovative improvements in patient care. By partnering with professional associations, health care organizations gain an ally in leveraging the power of the staff nurse.
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WELLBEING
Nurses Under Stress: Top Ways to Cope
Let’s face it; nursing can be a stressful profession. The life-and-death decisions, the hours, the families, the workloads—they all contribute to nursing stress.
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Predictors of burnout, work engagement and nurse reported job outcomes and quality of care: a mixed method study
Van Bogaert et al. BMC Nursing (2017) 16:5
Background: High levels of work-related stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction, and poor health are common within the nursing profession. A comprehensive understanding of nurses’ psychosocial work environment is necessary to respond to complex patients’ needs. The aims of this study were threefold: (1) To retest and confirm two structural equation models exploring associations between practice environment and work characteristics as predictors of burnout (model 1) and engagement (model 2) as well as nurse-reported job outcome and quality of care; (2) To study staff nurses’ and nurse managers’ perceptions and experiences of staff nurses’ workload; (3) To explain and interpret the two models by using the qualitative study findings.
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Implementation and feasibility of the stroke nursing guideline in the care of patients with stroke: a mixed methods study
BMC NursingBMC series – open, inclusive and trusted2017
Nurses often have difficulties with using interdisciplinary stroke guidelines for patients with stroke as they do not focus sufficiently on nursing. Therefore, the Stroke Nursing Guideline (SNG) was developed and implemented. The aim of this study was to determine the implementation and feasibility of the SNG in terms of changes in documentation and use of the guideline in the care of stroke patients on Neurological and Rehabilitation wards, barriers and facilitators, and nurses’ and auxiliary nurses’ view of the implementation
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Adubi IO, Olaogun AA, Adejumo PO. Effect of standardized nursing language continuing education programme on nurses' documentation of care at University College Hospital, Ibadan. Nursing Open. 2017;00:1–8.
The study assessed the documentation of nursing care before, during and after the Standardized Nursing Language Continuing Education Programme (SNLCEP). It evaluates the differences in documentation of nursing care in different nursing specialty areas and assessed the influence of work experience on the quality of documentation of nursing care with a view to provide information on documentation of nursing care. The instrument used was an adapted scoring guide for nursing diagnosis, nursing intervention and nursing outcome (Q-DIO).
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FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Suicide Facts: 2015 data
This page provides high level suicide information for 2015.
In New Zealand, a death is only officially classified as suicide by the coroner on completion of the coroner’s inquiry. Only those deaths determined as ‘intentionally self-inflicted’ after the inquiry will receive a final verdict of suicide.
This 2015 data is provisional. The Ministry of Health publishes the number of suicides that have been confirmed by the coroner and also those provisionally coded as suicide where there is enough information to suggest the coroner will find the cause of death to be suicide. At the time of data extraction (29 September 2017), there were 10 deaths registered in 2015 that were still subject to coroners’ findings and where the cause of death was not known. Although these deaths are not included in the following data, some may later be classified as suicide.
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Clinical Guidelines for Weight Management in New Zealand Adults
This publication provides updated clinical guidance for primary health care practitioners and others who provide advice on weight management for New Zealand adults.
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RESOURCES ONLINE
Presentations from the 2017 quality improvement scientific symposium
Presentations are now online from the Commission's third annual scientific symposium. This is the only scientific symposium in New Zealand that specifically focuses on the science of health and disability care improvement by highlighting research and methods.
The keynote speaker was Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, professor and foundation director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, and professor and director of the Centre for Health Care Resilience and Implementation Science, both based in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University, Australia. Source: HQSC
Access presentations 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 December 2017
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