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.
Professor Sandy Middleton FACN, FAAN is a Professor of Nursing and Director of the Nursing Research Institute at St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Australian Catholic University. She focusses on stroke and the way research can improve care, particularly analysing the way nurses can initiate care to improve patient recovery.
Professor Middleton was the lead investigator on the landmark NHMRC-funded QASC cluster trial that demonstrated decreased death and dependency following implementation of nurse-initiated protocols to manage fever, hyperglycaemia and swallowing post-stroke, winning multiple national and international awards including ACU’s Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award, Excellence in Research and Research Partnerships in 2019. These protocols have been translated into 64 hospitals in 17 European countries and in adopted in 36 NSW hospitals. She has published in high impact journals including The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Professor Sandy Middleton on these significant achievements in nurse-led acute stroke care.
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Shared experiences in written blogs help early career nurses.
When Emerging Nurse Leader, Lucy Osborn MACN started her career in nursing, she knew the importance of continuing development and learning.
In 2017 she started to write “The Scrubs That Fit” blog series for the Australian College of Nursing blog NurseClick. Lucy first started to write to keep a journal of her experiences, and an opportunity to improve her writing skills. To date, over 50 articles have been written in all areas of interest for new nurses.
As students and early career nurses Carina Fernandes and Hayley Pollock both found the writing invaluable for their transition. Hayley comments, “I don’t feel alone in what I’m experiencing and there are helpful tips in being a student as well as transitioning to being a graduate. It answers the questions I don’t always feel I can ask face to face”.
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Entering The New Health Frontier
A new parliamentary report ‘The New Frontier: Delivering better health for all Australians’ is recommending significant reforms to the health care system to ensure Australians have better and faster access to the wave of new medicines and technologies.
The bipartisan report makes 31 recommendations to reform Australia’s system for the regulation and reimbursement with the hope that patients will receive faster access to the latest medicines and technologies.
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Bridging the orthodontic knowledge gap
In recent years, the orthodontic sector has been growing rapidly due to success in B2C marketing and companies like Invisalign reaching the consumer, but there has also been a lack of knowledge sharing among general dental practitioners and specialists.
General dentists require mentorship and guidance from orthodontists to feel confident in providing orthodontic treatment to their patients, ultimately improving the quality of care in the community.
