5 foods to eat on night shift and why
Clinical nutritionist and founder of The Healthy Shift Worker website and podcast, Audra Starkey, focuses her attention on improving the sleep and diets of shift workers such as nurses. Ms Starkey spent two decades working for Qantas in the aviation industry before returning to university to study ways in which to help shift workers working […]
Homelessness Week: Nursing on the streets
Nurse Patricia Kennedy has delivered healthcare and support to homeless people for almost two decades. “It’s very rewarding,” she says of the challenging role. “Just the personal connections you make and the people on the whole are very appreciative. We’re meeting the faces behind the statistics that you see that are quite tragic. “It [working […]
Why awards and annual wage reviews still matter
For over a century, industrial awards have been an important part of the employment landscape of Australia. The Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 set the scene for the Commonwealth government to regulate industrial relations between employers and employees. In 2019, most ANMF members’ wages and conditions are covered by a collective agreement, either an enterprise […]
Meet the NT Nurse/Midwife of the Year
Registered nurse Jenny Messell completed her training in 1976 and was quickly drawn to a career in aged care. It’s little surprise, given that her mother, also an RN, used to work in a nursing home in Sydney and Jenny took on jobs in the kitchen and laundry while still at school. “Mum was working […]
Report: People with mental illness die up to 20 years earlier
People with mental illness experience a range of health disparities and face a gap in life expectancy of about 20 years in a plight classed as a “human rights scandal”, according to a new ground-breaking study. Led by Australian researchers, the report found a broad range of mental illnesses are connected to health problems including […]
Qld to mandate ratios in public aged care homes
The Queensland Government has pledged to legislate nurse-to-resident ratios across its 16 state-owned public aged care homes to ensure elderly residents receive the full care they need and deserve. Premier Annastacia Palasczuk made the announcement this morning at the annual conference of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU) in front of hundreds of delegates. […]
Maggie Beer tells Royal Commission $7 a day for meals in aged care not good enough
It would be impossible for aged care homes who spend just $7 a day on food for each resident to be able to provide a proper diet that the elderly need and deserve, celebrity chef Maggie Beer has told the Aged Care Royal Commission on the second day of hearings in Cairns today. “It’s not […]
NSW delegates urged to keep fighting for ratios
NSW nursing and midwifery delegates have been urged to take belief from the success of Victoria and Queensland in legislating public hospital nurse-to-patient ratios as the union’s campaign to make this a reality pushes ahead. Addressing delegates at the NSWNMA’s 74th Annual Conference in Sydney last Thursday, President O’Bray Smith implored nurses and midwives to […]
Nurses on the beat: What it’s like to be a custodial nurse
Registered nurse Hugo Chatwin-Smith was drawn to the diversity of Custodial Nursing and opportunity to deliver healthcare to Victorians experiencing the lowest point in their lives. Underneath the bustling Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on William Street, the Melbourne Custody Centre is a police jail, essentially a stopover used to hold prisoners attending court hearings, or those […]
Taking a stand on workplace violence
Hundreds of NSW nursing and midwifery delegates stood up in unison to send a message about the growing prevalence of workplace violence and urgent need for action to the state’s Health Minister Brad Hazzard at the 74th Annual Conference of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) in Sydney last Thursday. A recent series of […]