Kylie Ward, CEO Australian College of Nursing spoke with Anne Dao from Australian Health Journal, at last week’s Australian Healthcare Week Expo on the vital role of the nursing professional.
Australian College of Nursing oversees 390,000 nurses in Australia and is the national leader in the nursing profession.
Changes in nursing policy are needed in areas of aged care, chronic disease and workforce sustainability. There are forecasts of shortages in nursing by the year 2025 of 80,000 and by 2030 the number growing by 125,000.
Kylie also mentioned the new Nursing Trailbrazers Award that has been recognised by Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt. The 4 finalists have been recognised for influencing models of care, and implementing game changing initiatives across the country. They will be presented at the Nursing Now Australia event held by the ACN on 9th April.
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Stroke care advances in translated research
New nurse-led protocols for stroke patients, based on ACU research, led by the Nursing Research Institute, have resulted in changes to policy, guidelines and clinical practice in Europe and Australia. The protocols were developed through the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) Trial (published in the Lancet, 2011) to manage fever, hyperglycaemia and swallowing (FeSS) post-stroke.
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Australian Teletrial Program reaches significant milestones in trials and participants
Launched in 2022, the Australian Teletrial Program is an initiative designed to improve access to clinical trials for people living in regional and remote areas of Australia. It uses telemedicine and digital technologies to enable patients to participate in clinical trials without needing to travel long distances to major metropolitan centres, which can often be a barrier to participation for those in rural and isolated locations.
Recently Australian Health Journal met with Kaye Hewson, Director, Australian Teletrials Program, who spoke about the program’s recent achievements.
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Dental and oral health care priorities for the elderly
In 2023, there are a number of changes occurring in dental services including the start of a new Senate inquiry and new registered nurses in residential aged care. Yet in the meantime there are gaps and delays in dental and oral health interventions for elderly Australians, unless training is more widely deployed.
Australian Health Journal spoke to Leonie Short, a dental therapist working for Seniors Dental Care Australia on what she considers are dental and oral health priorities for the elderly, based on her work in the aged, home and disability sectors.
