Aged Care/Rehabilitation

Specialties

  • wheelchair

    Aged care equal pay: a win for caregivers and a loss for nurses?

    22 June 2017

    From 1 July some caregivers will be earning the same as the nurses who supervise them. How will this impact on aged care nursing? FIONA CASSIE reports in this sneak preview from the next print edition of Nursing Review.

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    Differing views on aged care nursing shortage

    24 May 2017

    Associate Health Minister Nicky Wagner yesterday contradicted concerns about future shortfalls in aged care nursing numbers saying nursing numbers "were more than keeping pace" with growing aged care needs.

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    Aged care survey finds pay and stress key issues for nurses

    23 May 2017

    Nearly 70 per cent of aged care nurses are dissatisfied with their pay according to the New Zealand Aged Care Workforce Survey. And stress was the most common cause of work-related illnesses reported by both nurses and their managers.

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    Decline in new nurses in mentored rest home programmes

    28 March 2017

    The number of new nurses being employed by rest homes and aged care hospitals through mentored new graduate programmes has fallen this year, despite keen applicants still job-hunting.

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    Patients: the special kind of teacher

    2 September 2016

    Recent nurse graduate ROSALIE DAVIS shares a poignant nursing and life lesson she learnt from a wise healthcare assistant and a frail dementia patient.

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    I don’t need an advance care plan yet... yeah right.

    6 August 2016

    A year ago Tairāwhiti nursing leader Dr Heather Robertson had started work on a draft advanced care plan when she had a traumatic car accident. She shares some hard won advice and thoughts on advanced care planning.

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    Risk of too many unsupported new graduates in rest homes a 'concern'

    25 May 2016

    A survey confirming rest homes are employing high numbers of new graduates with no guaranteed mentoring is an "ongoing concern", says the nurses union NZNO.

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    Missing out on the 'conversations that count'

    14 April 2016

    After nursing patients with chronic kidney disease for more than two decades, Suzanne Joynt has seen the comfort and support that advance care planning (ACP) about end-of-life care can provide for patients and their families. So when her stepfather was diagnosed with a terminal illness, she hoped other nurses would be aware of its benefits too.

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    About 40 per cent of new grads still job-hunting

    24 March 2016

    The summer is ending with 852 new graduate nurses in work but 547 remain in the talent pool still hoping for a new graduate placement.

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    Pressure injuries: not just a nursing problem

    24 February 2016

    Investing in a national prevention programme could save 30,000 New Zealanders suffering a pressure injury each year, recommends a major report. The KPMG report, The Case for investment in: A quality improvement programme to reduce pressure injuries in New Zealand, was released recently by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, ACC and the Ministry of Health.

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    Government enters 'equal' pay rate talks

    20 October 2015

    Nurses' union NZNO is welcoming today's announcement that the Government will enter into pay talks for caregivers and support workers as a move towards fairer pay. Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the Government was committed to seeing caregivers and support workers recognised for their valuable work. The announcement follows the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal last year backing an Employment Court decision to go ahead with Kristine Bartlett's Equal Pay Act test case.

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    Nursing, death and the cycle of life

    30 June 2015

    Cardiology NP ANDY McLACHLAN shares his career-changing first experience of death and contemplates nursing, humanity and the ‘great circle of life-death’.

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    Palliative nurses welcome funding boost

    25 May 2015

    A funding boost for palliative care is warmly welcomed to help attract young nurses onto the palliative care nurse specialist pathway, says the Palliative Care Nurses New Zealand chair.

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    ACP nursing: being brave, being open and really listening to patients

    16 April 2015

    JANE HANNAH, a heart failure nurse specialist, says some families expect her to arrive in 'black robes and carrying a sickle' when referred for an 'end of life' discussion.  But she says anxiety falls and patients are more satisfied with their care after having a 'conversation that counts

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    Advance Care Planning: moving from telling to asking people

    16 April 2015

    Becoming a facilitator rather than a dictator of care…CHERYL CALVERT, a gerontology nurse specialist, shares the profound difference becoming an Advanced Care Planning facilitator has made to her practice

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    Conversations that Count Day

    15 April 2014

    Initiating difficult conversations with the elderly or very ill about end-of-life care is very much the “bread and butter” of patient-centred nursing care.  April 16 is designated Conversations that Count Day to promote advance care planning (ACP) read on... 

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    NZ tightens migration criteria for some overseas nurses

    18 December 2014

    A review to consider closing New Zealand doors to overseas nurses  – because of homegrown new graduates struggling to find work  – has come out against taking that step.

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    To feed or not to feed: that is the question?

    26 November 2014

    Palliative care nurse advisor ANNE MORGAN asks whether feeding the dying is the right thing to do or simply the easiest option when faced with families who see withdrawing nutrition as "cruel" or "starving the person to death".

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    Nursing Survey: what DO you do everyday?

    2 October 2014

    Nurses nationwide are invited to take part in a major online survey hoping to pinpoint the real differences between a staff nurse and a specialist nurse’s daily work.

April 2017 VOL. 15 (2)

  • Filipino nurses: our fastest-growing nursing workforce

    Filipino nurses are fast becoming a mainstay of the New Zealand health and aged care sector. FIONA CASSIE gained some insights into the nursing culture in the Philippines – a country estimated to have up to a staggering 200,000 unemployed nurses – during a brief visit to Manila, including why we shouldn’t take this workforce for granted.

February 2017 Vol. 15 (1)

October 2016 Vol. 16 (5)

  • In the water

    Something in the water

    Hawke’s Bay nurses were recently tested when Havelock North was hit by what’s believed to be the country’s worst ever waterborne disease outbreak – more than 5,000 people brought down with gastric illness. FIONA CASSIE shares the stories of some of the nurses involved and some of the lessons they learned.

June 2016 Vol. 16 (3)

  • King

    A day in the life of ... a clinical nurse specialist (older persons)

    Michele King shares a day of juggling finding respite beds, ward visits lunchtime meetings and working with frail older people and their sometimes tearful but grateful children.

  • McClunie Trust

    Caring for family with an LTC: when the personal and professional intersect

    A nurse is naturally often the ‘go to’ person when someone in the family or whānau is diagnosed with a long-term or chronic condition. PATRICIA McCLUNIE-TRUST explores the issues involved. 

  • Lonely

    Loneliness and being alone

    Loneliness can be a precursor to depression in older people. NICKY DAVIES for her PhD thesis asked older people what they think loneliness actually is. FIONA CASSIE reports on the findings and the take-home messages for nurses working with older people who may be lonely… or just alone.

  • Stroke nursing

    Stroke nursing: the cinderella speciality no longer

    Every day around 24 New Zealanders –75 per cent of them aged over 65 – have a stroke. These 9,000 or so ‘brain attacks’ a year are the major cause of serious adult disability in the country, but stroke nursing is a specialty still relatively in its infancy in New Zealand. FIONA CASSIE finds out more from nurses working in the field.

  • Jenny Carryer

    Ageing Dutch-style

    Nursing Review reports on Professor Jenny Carryer’s recent study trip to the Netherlands to find out more about the Dutch approach to caring for older people – including the acclaimed De Hogeweyk dementia care village.

  • Brain Food

    Brain food: does omega-3 each day keep dementia at bay?

    Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) looks at whether taking extra omega-3 makes a difference in slowing the progression of dementia.

April 2016 Vol 16 (2)

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    Nurse-led drug trial for 'orphan disease'

    Venous leg ulcers (VLU) are an ‘orphan disease’ in which nurse researcher Dr Andrew Jull has a longstanding interest. He talks to Nursing Review about his team’s latest VLU research project – Asprin4VLU – his first, and one of New Zealand’s first ever nurse-led, randomised, controlled trials of a drug treatment.

  • heart

    Does stepping-up exercise step down risk for heart patients?

    This Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) looks at whether getting on a bike or lacing up walking shoes improves the life, and life span, of people with coronary heart disease.

February 2016 Vol 16 (1)

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    Are you match fit for nursing?

    LYNDA LOVATT – a nurse turned personal trainer – shares tips on being ‘match fit’ for the physical demands of nursing.

October 2015 Vol 15 (5)

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    Pressure injuries: reporting brings results

    Attempts to have pressure injury data regularly collected and reported as a nationwide quality indicator have been unsuccessful to date. But four district health boards decided not to wait for the rest of the country. FIONA CASSIE finds out about the Northern Region’s successful campaign to reduce harm from pressure injuries. 

August 2015 Vol 15 (4)

June 2015 Vol 15 (3)

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    InterRAI - the tight and tiring race to meet mandatory deadline

    From 1 July – after a somewhat hurried and harried introduction – interRAI will be the mandatory clinical assessment tool for nurses to use in residential aged care facilities nationwide. FIONA CASSIE catches up with some nursing leaders as facilities head down the home straight in a race to meet the deadline to train nurses in an already time and resource-stretched sector.

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    InterRAI - convert says it’s worth the effort

    While interRAI is still the new, and sometimes unpopular, kid on the block in residential aged care, it is already well established in the DHBs’ Health of Older People community sector. FIONA CASSIE talks to a Nelson gerontology nurse and interRAI lead practitioner GABRIELLE STENT about why she thinks interRAI is worth getting to know.

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    Research focus on Ageing Well

    Nursing-led research projects are being recommended for a share of the $14.6 million Ageing Well research challenge launched earlier this year.

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    ‘Job swap’ scheme filling GAP in aged care training

    Two years on, Canterbury’s Gerontology Acceleration Programme (GAP) is seen as having a positive impact directly and indirectly on the aged care nursing workforces involved.

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    'Just a rest home nurse': helping make aged care nurses more visible and valued

    Professional isolation was highlighted as an issue for the aged residential care sector in Waikato back in 2011.

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    LARK leadership and catheters recharge career

    After two decades in aged care without any study, Sabya Mohan is now enrolled for not one but two diplomas and is on the clinical nurse specialist pathway. She tells FIONA CASSIE how Waikato’s LARK leadership programme, and her change project on catheterisation, reinvigorated her career.

April 2015 Vol 15 (2)

February 2015 Vol 15 (1)

  • Shiftwork

    Coping with shiftwork: is there a perfect roster?

    Shiftwork isn’t natural, and long-term it isn’t healthy – but it is essential for modern health care. So the challenge is to minimise the risks and maximise any lifestyle benefits. FIONA CASSIE talks to a sleep physiologist and nurse leaders to find out how to do just that.

August 2014 Vol 14 (4)

June 2014 Vol 14 (3)

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    Are aged care facilities becoming de facto hospices?

    New Zealanders are more likely to die in residential aged care than most countries around the world. Some say our rest homes and hospitals could be called “de facto hospices” but without the resourcing or recognition to offer palliative care at the same level. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

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    Faith, duty, and foot pampering wins nurse QSM

    One of faith community nurse Noreen Wright’s flock jokingly calls her the “toe pruner”.

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    Do we care about carers?

    The frustration and isolation of suddenly becoming a 24/7 carer for her husband in an “ad hoc” and “failing” health system prompted long-standing Wellington local politician HELENE RITCHIE to tell her story and call for a Royal Commission inquiry into carer issues.

March 2014 Vol 14 (1)

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    The rise (of exercise) and fall (of injuries)

    Do community exercise programmes for the elderly reduce injuries as well as falls?

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    NEWS BRIEFS

    NEWS BRIEFS including:Mid-year graduating nurses still job-hunting at year’s end/ interRAI funding/ Greens up ‘nurses in schools’ policy/ Registration medal shortage/Nursing Appointments

January 2014 Vol 13 (8)

November 2013 Vol 13 (7)

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    Vaccinated against whooping cough yet?

    More than 150 children have been hospitalised this year with pertussis (whooping cough) and three babies in all have died since the outbreak began in August 2011. TRISH WELLS-MORRIS, education facilitator for the Immunisation Advisory Centre* puts the argument for all those caring for infants – be it as nurses, parents, or grandparents ­­– to be immunised against the disease.

  • gurney nurse

    Taking action on Stop Pressure Injury Day

    PAULA MCKINNEL of the New Zealand Wound Care Society sets the scene for November 21’s worldwide Stop Pressure Injury Day.

September 2013 Vol 13 (6)

  • AmioIkihele

    Career paths: the short, sweet, and roundabout

    We look to nurses as learners, educators, and leaders in this edition. Read on about teaching fledgling nurses in the classroom and on the ward, fostering leadership skills, nurses sharing their career tales, and milestones past and future in the recognition of competence and professional development.

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    Horowhenua NP making a difference in rest homes

    The first NP employed by the residential aged care sector led to far fewer hospital admissions and reduced GP workloads, says an evaluation report. But in a sector always plagued by funding issues, the report also raises questions over the sustainability of the current funding model. FIONA CASSIE reports.

July 2013 Vol 13 (5)

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    New blood for aged care

    Aged care has one of the fastest ageing workforces. Getting new blood into the workforce is an obvious need and a pilot underway of providing extra support for new graduates entering residential aged care is one step being taken. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

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    ‘Job swap’ to fast track aged care nursing career

    With a workforce crisis looming in aged care nursing, Christchurch is headhunting and helping the new generation of aged care nurses to fast track their careers. Fiona Cassie finds out more about the Gerontology Acceleration Programme (GAP).

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    Rest home in the home

    Canterbury quakes saw Christchurch lose more than 650 residential care beds. One response was TotalCare – a collaborative approach led by community-based Nurse Maude to offer residential care in the home. Nursing Review reports on Sheree East’s recent presentation on the scheme to the Home Health Association conference.

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    Push to reduce falls

    In the last two years, 170 patients fell while in public hospital care and broke their hips, and 22 of those people died earlier than expected. FIONA CASSIE talks to Sandy Blake about the new national drive to reduce falls and her pilot of a bedside electronic falls risk assessment tool using TrendCare.

April 2013 Vol 13 (4)

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    International Nurses Day Heroes

    To celebrate International Nurses Day this year Nursing Review invited district health boards across the country to contribute stories on nursing ‘heroes’ in their region. We got stories back on just some of the unsung, innovative, compassionate, high achievers and dedicated nurses that make up the New Zealand nursing workforce.

December 2012

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    Rehabilitation: stopping the dominos toppling

    Timely phone calls after discharge can help the frail elderly stay well and stay home. FIONA CASSIE reports on Dr Claire Heppenstall’s PhD research into the frail elderly recently presented to the College of Nurses symposium.

November 2012

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    New scheme trialled for new grads in aged care

    Extra support is to be offered to 24 new graduates entering the aged care workforce in 2013 in the trial of a new style graduate programme.

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    Elderly resilience following Canterbury quakes

    How the elderly fared in the Christchurch quakes was the focus for several presentations at the recent Baby Boomers & Beyond symposium held in the shaky city. FIONA CASSIE reports on a presentations by PhD student Michael Annear:

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    Mass rest home evacuations: how did the elderly fare?

    FIONA CASSIE reports on  Canterbury DHB nurse leader, Becky Hickmott's and researcher Dr Claire Heppenstall's presentations (to the Baby Boomers & Beyond Symposium) on how  elderly evacuees fared after the mass rest home evacuations that followed the  February 2011 quakes in Christchurch.

September 2012

July 2012

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    NEWS BRIEFS

    News briefs including: Nurse researchers seek more dementia carers/ Online cultural competency training/ Dementia Co-operative in action/ Nurse heads new Health Promotion Agency/Correction / Auckland DHB nurse shortages

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    Green thumb wins EN award

    Creating a veggie patch to encourage dementia facility residents to get gardening was a winner for enrolled nurse Pauline Anderson.

May 2012

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    Reducing rest home admissions to ED

    The Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) District Nursing Hospital Admission Prevention Project can now add to its list of achievements a reduction in rest home patients needing to be admitted to Wellington ED.

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    Successful ‘joint’ effort by elective surgery team

    A joint care clinic launched last year at Palmerston North Hospital for patients scheduled for hip and knee joint replacement surgery has proved so successful that it has been extended to include shoulder joint patients, as well.

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    News Briefs

    News briefs including: More nurses in schools/ Oz aged care package get nurses’ backing/  Innovative RNFSA and HCA training underway/ NZ hospital productivity ‘bucks trend’/ Toolkit to improve elective patient flow/  New ACC patient handling guidelines/ Strong cultural life enhances Māori elders

March 2012

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    Quake anniversary:Farewell to Radius St Ives

    February 22 marked not only the first anniversary of Christchurch’s most devastating quake but also a farewell party for the red-zoned Radius St Ives rest home, which is being forced to close.

November 2010 Vol 11 Issue 7

  • Easing transition back home

    web 88852494 Taking practice nursing into the home – to ease the rehab of elderly patients – was the aim of a Nurse Practitioner Facilitation project by Rotorua NP-in-the-making Vicky Gaunt. Fiona Cassie reports.

  • Stroke initiatives dubbed by Roundtable

    web 103922163 Stroke is one of the first focuses for The Health Roundtable. Hilary Boyd, a consultant for the Australasian organisation which all our district health boards are signed up to, outlines the stroke initiatives and the Roundtable’s role.

July 2010

  • Aged-Care contract recognises NPs

    Writing nurse practitioners into the residential aged-care services contract is being welcomed as a positive step forward.

  • Nurses stroke forum

    More than 60 stroke nurse leaders from across the country attended the Ministry of Health’s stroke forum held in June. The ministry said nearly all 20 district health boards were represented, plus a number of aged-care facilities and organisations, and it was good to see nurses connecting and developing a strong stroke nursing network.

May 2010

  • Aged-care nurses surveyed

    Registered nurses in aged-care struggle to deliver quality care as patients' needs get more complex, GP services decrease and education options remain limited, a recently-studied research paper found.

March 2010

  • Briefs

    Standing orders consultation

  • An NP in the community

    FIONA CASSIE talks to DEB GILLON, one of the country’s newest NPs in one of the rarest roles – an aged care NP in the community

February 2010

  • Survey highlights aged-care issues

    Unregulated caregivers are frequently being called on in residential aged-care facilities to do registered nurse tasks, a caregiver survey has found.

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