News bulletin 25 May 2016

on 25 May

 

Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 301 25 May 2016

 

 

From NZ media this week

Whanganui UCOL celebrates 10 years of Nursing
Whanganui UCOL has celebrated the 10 year anniversary of its first graduation for Bachelor of Nursing and Diploma in Enrolled Nursing students.
Read more here

Top nursing award to former Gisborne woman
Ellyn Proffit takes out top award at Waikato District Health Board’s 2016 International Nurse’s Day celebration.
Read more here

School nurse rewarded for efforts
John Paul College's school nurse is stoked after being recognised for a job she adores going to every day.
Cathy Flavell has been announced the recipient of the Enrolled Nurse of the Year award. The award was part of this year's Nursing and Midwifery Awards for the Lakes DHB area with a ceremony
last week at Rotorua Hospital.
Read more here

Alfriston woman makes three generations of nurses to graduate from MIT
Nursing runs in Georga Brinkman's blood.
The Alfriston woman will follow in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother when she graduates with a bachelor of nursing from Manukau Institute of Technology on May 28.
Read more here

Budget 2016

Budget 2016: The pressure points - mental health in New Zealand
As all Governments grapple with the balancing act of accounting for fattening and ageing populations, as well as keeping an insatiable vacuum of funds in check, Political Reporter Stacey Kirk takes
a look at the pressure points threatening to weaken New Zealand's public health system. 
Read more here

Budget 2016: A health system under pressure - cancer in New Zealand
As all Governments grapple with the balancing act of accounting for fattening and ageing populations, as well as keeping an insatiable vacuum of funds in check, Political Reporter Stacey Kirk takes a look at the pressure points threatening to weaken New Zealand's public health system. 
Read more here

Health budget 'should be doubled'
Senior doctors and unions say health spending needs to rise by $700 million in this week's Budget.
Read more here

Cancer

Call for Māori staff to curb cancer rates
They said there was a breakdown in care and communication with Māori with cancer, and services were fragmented.
Read more here

Call for more Maori in hospice care
Hospice New Zealand is calling for an increase in the number of Māori working in palliative care, saying there is a great deal of room for improvement with very few working in the field.
Read more here

Homeless cancer patients referred to emergency housing providers
Cancer patients have been referred to emergency housing because they have nowhere else to go.
It's the reality for homeless families in New Zealand, says Monte Cecilia Trust CEO Bernie Smith.
Read more here

DHBs and PHOs

Pain threshold on increase as hundreds await ops
No DHB manages to treat all patients promised elective surgery within required four months.
Read more here

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board moves to stop workplace bullying
A project to stop bullying and improve communication is in the works at the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board.
Health board general surgery head of department Ros Pochin wants to set up a project similar to one trialled at Middlemore Hospital, in Auckland, that involves informal avenues for reporting bullying
and harassment. 
Read more here

Drugs, alcohol, smoking, addictions

MidCentral pharmacies and Central PHO team up to help others quit
Soon-to-be ex-smokers will be able to make the most of a country-first, as they get a free week of nicotine replacement therapy. 
Pharmacies and primary health groups across the region have joined together to help people quit smoking on the spot. 
Read more here

Ethical issues

Euthanasia may be answer to incurable pain, says pain expert
A South Island pain specialist says euthanasia should be available for some people suffering from incurable pain. 
Christchurch psychologist Dr Mark Ottley, who leads psychological pain management services at Southern Rehab, said the best medications, psychological help and palliative care did not always work
for patients.
Read more here

Health research

Step change funding boost for health research
Media Release - University of Auckland - 18 May 2017
Medical research in New Zealand had a major boost this week with an extra $97 million funding over four years committed to the Health Research Council (HRC).
Read more here

Shedding light on Māori health
Why is it that diabetes is more common in Māori and Pasifika people, while diseases such as cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis are almost unheard of? Geoff Chambers, a molecular geneticist at Victoria University, tells Veronika Meduna that genes linked to the immune systems of Māori and Pasifika people are very different from those of Europeans, which partly explains why certain medical conditions are more prevalent in some groups and why some medications may not work effectively for everybody.
Read more here


Mental health

New Zealand suicide reporting laws due to change, here's what you need to know
Suicide is often treated as a taboo subject, people don't want to talk about it, and sometimes they can't.
Unlike other countries, New Zealand has criminal laws governing what can and can't be said when it comes to suicide, or suspected suicide.
Read more here

CDHB redirected $30 million to mental health to prevent service 'imploding'
Almost $30 million was redirected to mental health from other Canterbury health services post-earthquake to stop it "imploding", documents show.
Emails between Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) chief executive David Meates and Ministry of Health officials, obtained by Stuff under the Official Information Act, show a health system still
struggling despite a $20m Government bail-out.
Read more here

Obesity/ sugar

Obesity screening to pick up 1000 SI kids
More than 1000 obese pre-schoolers will be offered help to manage their weight in a new government-directed initiative.
Under the new health target, obese children will be identified at before school health checks (B4SC) and District Health Boards (DHBs) will be responsible for referrals to treatment from July 1.
Read more here

Patient safety

District health boards spent $25 million fixing surgery botch-ups in last year
Botched surgeries at publicly-funded treatment clinics or hospitals cost the country more than $25 million in the last financial year.
Read more here

Primary Health care

GPs criticise 'chronic' under-funding of practices
Millions of dollars in extra funding are urgently needed in general practice if fees are to remain affordable for patients, family doctors say.
Read more here

 

Public health

Crohn's disease and Colitis rising in Canterbury
Already high rates of a serious and incurable disease that targets young people are continuing to climb in Canterbury.
Read more here

Superbugs will 'kill every three seconds'
Superbugs will kill someone every three seconds by 2050 unless the world acts now, a hugely influential report says.
Read more here

Measles outbreaks due to 80s and 90s kids
Health officials dealing with measles outbreaks say low immunisation rates of people born in the 1980s and 90s may be to blame.
Read more here

Measles forces families to re-think vaccination status
Previously staunch anti-vaccination families have changed their tune after several people have been infected with measles following an outbreak in the Waikato.
Read more here

High level of HIV diagnoses in New Zealand persists in 2015
224 people were diagnosed with HIV in New Zealand in 2015 — a similarly high figure to last year — according to data released today by the AIDS Epidemiology Group based at the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago.
Read more here

Telemedicine

Midland Trauma present new information sharing system at Claudelands
A new system to track details of trauma, which can be shared by all emergency and health services, could be up and running for the Midlands health region by the end of the year.
The idea was presented at the Midland Trauma Symposium at Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton on Friday.
Read more here

From International media this week

Nurses filling in for doctors 'is a cheap fix for staff crisis': Warning plans to allow senior nurses to perform some junior medics' tasks will lead to poorer care
Training nurses to cover for doctors is ‘cheap fix’ - may lead to poorer care
Measures put forward by NHS bosses in an attempt to avert a staffing crisis
Hospitals desperate as they deal with rising numbers of older patients
But experts say nurses and paramedics are being seen as a ‘cheaper alternative to highly qualified staff’
Read more here

Tonga's head of health says nurses exceed expectation
The Director of Health in Tonga says nurses are doing a great job despite an earlier report that 70 percent had not reached national professional standards.
Read more here

Nurses to stand in for junior doctors amid staff shortages 
Senior nurses are to stand in for doctors, performing tests and giving drugs to patients, under plans designed to ease staff shortages.
Read more here

Emotional intelligence may not make you a better nurse says report
The death of hundreds of NHS patients in two English hospitals in Mid Staffordshire in the 2000s led to the Francis report of 2013 which found that poor care was endemic in the region. The report made 290 recommendations covering everything from culture change to improved audit. This has driven much of the thinking around how standards in healthcare in the UK should improve.
Read item here

Articles of interest

The Construction of a Clinical Case for Publication
Advances in Skin & Wound Care:
May 2016 - Volume 29 - Issue 5 - p 199
Since its inception as Decubitus under the direction of Roberta S. Abruzzese, EdD, RN, FAAN, founding editor, Advances in Skin & Wound Care has morphed into a highly recognized biomedical journal in the specialty of wound care. Our editorial calendar and genre are diverse, including editorial thought and content encompassing qualitative and quantitative health services research, clinical trials, professional issues, and basic research using various wound models, including animals and human-based clinical cases. The intention of this editorial is to encourage the submission of cogent clinical case reports and case series to the journal. We need novel and interesting cases seen by wound care clinicians at the point of service that involve the patient perspective.1
Read more here

From the Ministry of Health

Mental Health and Addiction: Service use 2012/13
Published online: 12 May 2016
Summary
These tables are the latest release of routine mental health and addiction data. The information is broken down by age (including youth), sex, ethnicity, DHB of domicile and deprivation. Key findings are as follows:
Demographics
Clients seen by organisation
Activity type
Team details
Activity setting
Referrals
Deprivation
Long-term clients
Legal status
Seclusion
Electroconvulsive therapy
Outcomes
http://www.health.govt.nz/publication/mental-health-and-addiction-service-use-2012-13

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 24 May 2016.

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