Pathway to politics: Why nurses have the right skills to lead change
Nurses turned politicians Dr Helen Haines and Ged Kearney have encouraged nurses to get political and consider utilising their unique skill-set to step into the political arena and advocate for change. The only nurses in Federal Parliament, the pair shared their pathway to politics and offered insights and advice to nursing and midwifery delegates at […]
Investment in nurses and midwives and health system makes sense, Vic Premier says
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has paid tribute to the valuable contributions made by nurses and midwives and the leadership and influence of the ANMF (Vic Branch) in driving policy development that helped achieve major reforms such as landmark legislated nurse and midwife-to-patient ratios across the state’s public hospitals back in 2015. Officially opening the Australian […]
Albanese fails to guarantee mandated aged care ratios
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has committed to implementing all recommendations set to be handed down at the conclusion of the Aged Care Royal Commission in November next year but stopped short of guaranteeing mandated ratios across the embattled sector. Speaking at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s (ANMF) 14th Biennial National Conference in Melbourne last […]
Aged care workers underpaid, undervalued and short-staffed, Royal Commission told
Many personal care workers (PCWs) in aged care believe they would be better off financially working as supermarket checkout operators, the Aged Care Royal Commission heard on Day 3 of this week’s Melbourne hearing examining workforce issues. Giving evidence as part of a panel made up of employer and union representatives, Australian Nursing and Midwifery […]
Government accused of ignoring actions to fix aged care
The federal government has failed to provide a detailed response to recommended strategic actions outlined in a report delivered by its own Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce review, the Aged Care Royal Commission heard on the opening day of this week’s Melbourne hearing. Professor John Pollaers, Chair of the Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce, developed […]
First nurse awarded Bridges-Webb Medal for research
Since the establishment of the Bridges-Webb Medal in 2008, an annual award presented by the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care that recognises members who have made an outstanding contribution to primary care teaching and/or research, GPs have dominated honours. That was up until earlier this year, when Professor Liz Halcomb, the inaugural Professor of […]
Freeze Frame : The portrayal of nurses in popular culture
The portrayal of nurses in pop culture has seen the profession predominantly stereotyped as self-sacrificing caregivers, sex objects, doctors’ helpers or villains. But what effect does this misrepresentation on screen have on the profession and how it is broadly perceived? Local TV series The Young Doctors was the first time Victorian Nurse Tara Nipe encountered […]
How nurse practitioners are filling the gaps in aged care
An elderly woman living in residential aged care who had just returned from hospital after having her fractured hip repaired lay screaming in agony. Carers did their best to assist but without an RN on site, appropriate pain relief was unable to be provided. “There was no registered nurse to provide any pain relief. She […]
Mannikins help nursing students gain experience
As part of their education, nursing students at the University of Adelaide gain hands-on experience through life-like mannikins that display all the signs and responses of real people and actors employed as standardised patients who portray health problems. The university’s state-of-the-art simulation lab, Adelaide Health Simulation (AHS), replicates hospital suites with resuscitation, neonatal and anaesthetic […]
Seizing opportunities of Nursing Now
Australia’s nursing organisations must work together if they are to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by the unfolding global Nursing Now campaign and fast-approaching 2020 Year of the Nurse and Midwife to raise the profile of the profession and improve healthcare, according to campaign board member Professor Jill White. Addressing delegates at the Australian College […]