How does a nurse navigate senior management to affect change within their organisation? It’s a gap that Australian College of Nursing is helping to fill with it’s Mid-Career Nurse Leadership Program that gives established nursing professional access to prominent leaders in nursing.
Launched in June 2019 and devised by Tania Dufty, Director of Strategy, the group of 22 nurses from acute, aged and primary health care have also been able to receive one-on-one coaching to help them complete a project for their workplace. Also within the cohort, the opportunity to network with peers has them given much broader insights into other areas outside of their own work.
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Australian Healthcare Week 2019: Pitch Fest Finalist Lumin
Startup company Lumin was a Pitch Fest Finalist at last week’s Australian Healthcare Week Expo in Sydney. The Lumin platform is used in aged care where loneliness and isolation can be a trigger for stroke and dementia. Lumin helps the connection to care providers, family members and duress monitoring services in a device that has been designed for those with dementia, vision impairment or find complex devices difficult to use.
Managing Director and Co-Founder Paul Wilson spoke at the Mepacs booth with Anne Dao from Australian Health Journal about the market they target and the design of the user experience, including the remote servicing and monitoring. The integration allows the monitoring team in the call centre see and hear the personal raising the alarm. Mepacs is a provider of personal duress alarms and have teamed up with Lumin.
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“Nurses can do more, should do more and now they will do more”, The Hon Minister Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health.
Advanced Practice Nurses comprise 9% of the total nursing workforce, with 26,000 clinicians Australia wide. However although highly skilled, they are under-utilised and constrained to the full scope of practice. The Australian College of Nursing believes this needs to change. Nurse led models of care in which Advanced Practice Nurses play a significant role in service provision, must feature in the future. ACN President Professor Christine Duffield FACN states, “It’s now widely acknowledged internationally that nurses can provide a clinical and very valuable service that’s better suited to the healthcare needs of some consumer groups.”
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Continuity of Care under COVID-19
Series 3, Episode 1
Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Healthcare system has handled the public health crisis by monitoring and responding to challenges in supply chains, testing & tracing of new infections and stock piling of essential equipment.
The public has largely responded by practising social distancing, understanding how hand hygiene can spread contagion and recently installing the COVIDSafe mobile application. Public health messaging has been largely effective and literacy improve, to combat the dangers of misinformation.
To open up access to medical advice during the pandemic, in March the Australian government issued MBS item codes for telehealth consultations, for advanced practice nurses as well as GPs and other specialists.
According to AMA President Dr Tony Bartone, as of mid-May 2020, around 10 million Medicare-funded telehealth services have been provided, either over the phone or via video, a significant majority of which have been provided by GPs and other specialists since the Medicare telehealth items were introduced in March.
However in recent months, the health system has mounting concerns on:
- a reduction in general practice visits for testing, investigation or immunisation
- lower rates of elective procedures resuming since being halted
- reduction in laboratory testing
- reduction in treatments and diagnosis of chronic and acute conditions
- access to, and continuing to take medications
Those with pre-existing conditions have been urged to keep appointments and routine treatments to maintain their health.
Industry has taken action such as the newly formed Continuity of Care Collaboration (CCC). The 15 health organisations forming CCC are an Australian first national communication collaboration of Peak Bodies, Industry and Healthcare Organisations coming together to stress the importance for people to continue monitoring their health and maintaining their regular care.
This Australian Health Journal episode on the continuity of care was produced with commentary from the following health industry associations and organisations: APNA – Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association, RACGP, Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), West Cessnock Medical Practice, Consumers Health Forum of Australia, Medicines Australia
