There aren’t enough nurses and predicted shortfalls but the government is determined to cut opportunities for foreign nurses.
Frontline nurses say their views on nursing policy is often overlooked because policymakers do not recognise the importance of their clinical experience.
Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
By pre-school children are already thinking about the career they will have when they grow up, and ruling out jobs that do not fit with their gender. We need to get in early to get rid of stereotypes.
We need to focus on the job in hand.
Nurses by Shutterstock
Having recently completed a 50-year career in nursing and health research and development I am often asked to talk to newly graduating students. At one such event recently, I shared with them some examples…
Assessment then more freedom to choose.
Nurse by Shutterstock
In mental health, a new approach to rehabilitating patients back into the community is gaining ground. Known as “the recovery movement,” it has been championed by American academics such as Bill Anthony…
Elderly patients increasingly have multiple illnesses and are much more difficult to care for.
Julian Rovagnati/Shutterstock
New medical technologies and treatments over the past few decades have led to remarkable improvements in treating older patients. The annual death rate for an 80-year-old male in 2011 was just 5.6%, compared…
When we think of nurses, we generally think of someone with high social motivation and a strong desire to help people. The nurturing, altruistically motivated individual – probably female – plays strongly…
Replacing registered and enrolled nurses with lower-skilled workers leads to poorer patient outcomes.
DIBP images
A shortage of qualified nursing staff and rising health costs have led to an increase in the employment of unregulated nursing workers. In 2012, the average weekly salary for full-time nursing professionals…
What would Florence Nightingale make of present-day healthcare? Like anyone else, she would probably find much to admire – even much to be in awe of – but just as much of which to disapprove and despair…
Australia already has a category of nurse specialists who can prescribe some medicines – nurse practitioners.
Burlingham/Shutterstock
We started the week with a new proposal by the Grattan Institute to shake up the hospital workforce and allow nurses to take on more roles traditionally performed by doctors. But should registered nurses…
Hospitals where nurses are qualified to bachelor’s degree level and have lower patient-to-nurse ratios have lower mortality rates. In a cross-European study published in The Lancet, researchers found every…
As I get out and about in the health service I never cease to be amazed by the quality of care that is provided every day. When we get it wrong, the implications can be catastrophic – and we need to understand…
It is no secret that mental health services are in a sorry state. Last year saw lots of stories about the increased pressures being placed on treating people in the community and on beds in mental health…
The Australian health care system wastes the contribution of nurse practitioners.
DIBP Images
Nurse practitioners provide a level of health services beyond that of registered nurses. They diagnose and treat health conditions, order and interpret blood and radiology tests, and prescribe medications…
It’s never easy when someone we’re close to is dying but there are things we can learn from the professionals who deal with this every day.
PA/David Cheskin
It’s not always easy to talk to someone who is dying. Conversations about future plans and wishes may appear insensitive and fuelled with great pain and distress when it’s somebody we love. For some, not…
David Cameron meets nurses during an NHS tour but the government doesn’t want to introduce mandatory staffing levels.
PA
Senior nurses warned this week that the number of patients looked after by nurses has become dangerously high in some hospitals. Quoting research from the University of Southampton, the Safe Staffing Alliance…
Nurses are providing many primary care services traditionally performed by doctors.
Image from shutterstock.com
With Australia’s population growing, living longer, and experiencing more disease and disability, there’s no doubt demand for health services will increase. But how are we going to pay for it? With this…
Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute