News bulletin 13 April

on 13 April

Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 295 13 April 2016

 

From NZ media this week

Labour's Damien O'Connor lodges a bill to broaden access to medicinal cannabis
Anyone with a terminal illness or suffering permanent "significant pain" could get their doctor to sign off on medicinal cannabis under a new Labour bill.
West Coast MP Damien O'Connor entered a member's bill in the ballot on Thursday, which would make it easier for patients like Nelson teenager Alex Renton, who died last year, to access cannabis products.

Missing out on organ donations
An organ donation campaigner says the latest data on the use of driver licences as an indicator of wishes confirms the system is broken and needs to be replaced.

Thousands missing out on surgery, funding boost fails to make dent in 'phantom waitlists'
About 170,000 people are being blocked from surgery as hospitals fail to make inroads in the level of "unmet need".
That's despite considerable funding injections from the Government and a lift to the number of surgeries performed. 

Drugs, alcohol, smoking, addictions

Drug users cost NZ $1.8B annually - MoH report
Each drug addict incurs a cost to society of tens of thousands of dollars every year, according to this year's edition of the Ministry of Health-commissioned Drug Harm Index (DHI).

Mental health

Canterbury mental health funding boost to help children - Ministry of Health
A funding boost for Canterbury's mental health system should help to address a rise in children and young people needing help, the Ministry of Health says.

Patient safety

The future of patient safety worldwide
The global patient safety movement started with the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report To Err is Human back in 1999.  Since then, patients in health systems all over the world are sill being harmed.
Now, the The NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC) in the UK (part of the NHS) has released its Patient Safety 2030 report.  "This paper and the Summit it informs are only small steps toward the goal of continuously reducing harm; the hope is that they spark increased energy to catalyse true change and provide an accessible summary of the challenges and most promising solutions in patient safety."
The authors of the report recommend a strategy that includes a systems approach, a culture of quality and safety based on positive reinforcement rather than blame, a partnership with patients and a bias towards action rather than inaction. There must also be a true effort to include middle and low-income countries in a global push.

Public health

Climate change 'biggest threat to health' - so what is the Government doing?
As climate change worsens, New Zealanders could face increasing melanoma rates and mosquito-borne diseases like Zika and Dengue Fever. 

From International media this week

Battle breaks out in Mich. on nursing degrees
Some Michigan communities could be voting whether to let local two-year colleges offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing.
The issue, under debate again in the Legislature, is among the most controversial in higher education since community colleges have historically offered two-year degrees, while universities offer four-year degrees.

Nurses’ Group Lobbies for Telemedicine Licensure
The compact, similar to an interstate licensing framework eyed for doctors, would give nurses the freedom to participate in multi-state telemedicine programs.
A licensing compact that would allow nurses to practice telemedicine across state lines has now been adopted by six states.

Nurses want in on PTSD bill for first responders
TORONTO - Ontario nurses face many of the same dangers and horrors as first responders but are excluded from new legislation designed to strengthen protections for workplace Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, their union says.

B.C. nurses' college warns about helping in assisted-dying cases
A B.C. Supreme Court ruling allowing a terminally-ill woman a medically-assisted death has not opened the door to participation by nurses, the College of Registered Nurses of B.C. said Monday.

Nurses face three times as many hand hygiene opportunities as physicians, study finds
Does how frequently a clinician needs to wash his hands affect hand hygiene compliance rates? A recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control examined the connection between hand hygiene burden and compliance among nurses and physicians.

New program aims to develop nurses locally
Like many other hospitals, CHI Health St. Francis is having trouble finding enough nurses. In order to increase the nursing supply, the Grand Island hospital decided to grow their own.

CRMC offers aid to patients through psychiatric nurses
CHEYENNE – The Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinic at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center has started a new service to help patients.
Since December, patients at the clinic can make appointments with skilled psychiatric nurses. This is the first time such appointments have occurred.

Articles of interest

Assessing DNP impact Using program evaluations to capture healthcare system change
Nurse Practitioner: 17 April 2016 - Volume 41 - Issue 4 - p 44–53
Abstract: The doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree was formalized in 2004. Data evaluating the impact of DNP-prepared nurses on individual patient care, population health, and healthcare system outcomes are limited. This article demonstrates how the DNP Essentials can be used to frame DNP program evaluation data.

What are the ‘necessary’ skills for a newly graduating RN? Results of an Australian survey
BMC NursingBMC series – open, inclusive and trusted201615:23
There appears to be a sense of disappointment with the product of contemporary nursing programs in Australia in that new graduate RNs are often referred to as not possessing appropriate skills by clinical colleagues. This work identifies the skills that the profession believes that newly graduating RN’s should possess at the point of registration.

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 12 April 2016.

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