From nurse education, clinical, or workforce issues through to healthy living, Nursing Review has it covered.

An innovation growing of the Canterbury quake that allows nurses, doctors and pharmacists to electronically share a patient's care record was a winner at the recent Hi-Tech Awards.

A nursing smartphone innovation making tuberculosis treatment easier for both nurses and clients is being celebrated to mark World TB Day today.

The fate of more than 100 Healthline nurses is unknown after another provider was chosen to launch a merged national telehealth service later this year.

Any day now, a tender is to be launched to merge the nurse-led Healthline triage phone service with helpline services ranging from gambling to poisonings.

About 55 per cent of Kiwis now use the internet to research health woes and one in five do it weekly or more, a national survey has found.

A parenting tool first developed to help Christchurch’s quake-stressed parents find quick, fun ways to spend time with their children is now a free app.

NP ANDY McLACHLAN enthuses about his love of technology and science fiction (even the really bad stuff with rubber monsters, polystyrene boulders, and fake eyebrows...) and how cool new tech might fit into the future of healthcare.

Getting hospital patients out of their pyjamas and into clothes has became a worldwide social media-led movement. FIONA CASSIE finds out about #endPJparalysis and the Christchurch nurse leader behind it.

Check out these nursing website recommendations from Kathy Holloway. 

FoodSwitch - Health Navigator review of a NZ-developed nutrition app that helps people find out more about the food products available on their local supermarket shelf. 

Three nurses from diverse specialties share case studies of using telehealth technology to make life simpler for their patients.

A dizzying amount of digital help is now potentially available for nurses to help patients self-manage their long-term conditions.  FIONA CASSIE seeks some advice from the experts on what technology nurses can add to their toolkits.

Workplace cyberbullying is an insidious form of bullying that can stalk you from the hospital to home via the phone in your pocket. Researcher Natalia D’Souza wants to talk to nurses who may have experienced unwanted aggressive behaviour via any form of electronic media from text and email to social media and instant messaging. FIONA CASSIE reports.

Mobile video apps for face-to-face connection: Reducing the time public health nurses spend stuck in Auckland’s traffic can only be a good thing.

Crossing the digital divide with diabetes text messages: 'Old school’ text messaging is at the heart of an mHealth project to help motivate and support people with poorly controlled diabetes.

PROFESSOR JANE KOZIOL-McLAIN, a longstanding researcher into family violence, is leading a research team currently working with young people to develop a ‘healthy relationships’ smartphone app to be piloted in schools next year.

Too few nurses are actively involved in the IT projects impacting on everyday nursing care of patients. Nursing Review reports on Kim Mundell’s recent speech to the National Nursing Informatics Conference on why more nurses need to be involved and what barriers may be getting in the way.

Paperless capture of vital signs is another step closer at Canterbury District Health Board with the rollout of electronic patient observations software and an early warning score (EWS) system now underway in the first ward. Nursing Review reports

A nursing mantra for much of the past two decades has been evidence-based practice. US nursing researcher Dr Karen Monsen believes it’s time to rethink that mantra and instead start mining ‘big data’ for practice-based evidence of expert nursing. Fiona Cassie reports.

Research on a ‘smart inhaler’ that moos, miaows or rings out pop tunes and makes kids with asthma use their preventer more often won young hospital pharmacist Amy Chan the recent Medicines New Zealand 2015 Value of Medicines award.

Rotorua is well on the way to having a New Zealand-first  – if not a world-first – combination of a child health hub and a public library.  FIONA CASSIE talks to Gary Lees, the director of nursing for Lakes District Health Board to find out more.

GWEN ERLAM set out in her doctoral research to bridge the generation gap and find the best way to reach and teach Millennial nursing students using simulated learning environments.

KATHY HOLLOWAY looks at e-health from a nursing perspective and the need to remember that the ‘e’ should stand not just for ‘electronic’ health but for ‘enhanced’ health.

Can you halve the time student nurses spend on the ward or with a nurse in the community and still train a clinically competent nurse? A major US study has proven you can by replacing half the traditional clinical placement hours with quality simulation scenarios. 

The vision for the end of 2014 was for all New Zealanders to have electronic access to their core personal health information*. The reality is that it is still some time away. NURSING REVIEW gives you an update on where sharing electronic health records between patients, practices, pharmacies, hospitals, and other health professionals is up to.

The country's first public hospital is a step closer to farewelling the paper chart at the end of the bed and replacing it with electronic recording of nursing observations and automatic alerting of a high-risk early warning score (EWS). FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

JODIE and PETER WOOD report on how a Whangarei Hospital orthopaedics ward developed a customised electronic whiteboard to give nurses patient details at a glance and help free up more time for direct patient care.

Whangarei nurse PETER WOODS outlines how using a smartphone cut out the 'middleman' and got ED patients more quickly allocated a ward bed.

If your ward is chaos, the best argument for more staffing is hard data, says Cherrie Lowe, the Australian nurse founder and CEO of patient acuity software system TrendCare. FIONA CASSIE reports on Lowe's presentation to the recent NZNO nurse managers conference, including a major benchmarking study analysing 9.9 million nursing shifts.

Is a nurse showering a patient or brushing their hair an indulgence we can longer expect in today’s hectic wards? Is team nursing and delegation of more and more personal care to health care assistants the logical and inevitable next step? FIONA CASSIE finds out more about models of care in today’s acute hospitals.

There are probably fewer more challenging tests of teamwork than a 6.3 magnitude earthquake turning your ward into an indoor waterfall, followed by having to evacuate patients on mattresses down a sodden stairwell in ongoing aftershocks.

In the wake of the Francis Inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust, and reports of failings in other hospitals and care homes, the UK Government asked Times journalist Camilla Cavendish to review what can be done to “ensure that unregistered staff in the NHS and social care treat all patients and clients with care and compassion”.

Five years down the track, implementing Safe Staffing Healthy Workplace Unit’s safe staffing tools in public hospitals is still a steady work in progress. FIONA CASSIE talks to unit director LISA SKEET about early pockets of success, TrendCare naysayers, and the need for DHBs to turn hard data into more nurses on the floor.

KATHY HOLLOWAY shows you how to keep updated on fresh material on your favourite websites through RSS and how to catch a podcast.

By the end of 2014, the aim is for every New Zealander to be able to electronically access their core personal health information. This prompts new challenges and new privacy issues. FIONA CASSIE talks to nursing leaders about increasing moves to shared electronic health information, about protecting privacy and why it is important for nurses – even the IT shy – to be involved every step of the way.By the end of 2014, the aim is for every New Zealander to be able to electronically access their core personal health information. This prompts new challenges and new privacy issues. FIONA CASSIE talks to nursing leaders about increasing moves to shared electronic health information, about protecting privacy and why it is important for nurses – even the IT shy – to be involved every step of the way.

An electronic portfolio record for nurses developed by Ngā Manukura o Āpōpō* (NMoĀ) ­­– the Māori nursing workforce development programme – is now open and available to all nurses for free.

KATHY HOLLOWAY challenges nursing in New Zealand to connect globally including seeking out and learning from the findings of UK’s Francis Report into caring failures at Mid-Staffordshire

Nursing Review checks out the momentum on the new Diabetes Care Improvement Packages and finds report cards ranging from ‘excellent’ to ‘could do better’.

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.

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.

KATHY HOLLOWAY explains how to attend a conference without leaving the house

Technology will never replace the art of nursing … but it can make the job a darned sight easier. FIONA CASSIE talks to Michelle Honey, the chair of the Nursing Informatics group, about nurses using information technology to improve health care.

KATHY HOLLOWAY answers the question: just what is cloud computing again?

A free online learning programme to help primary health care nurses meet the growing demands for diabetes care is being offered on a newly launched website.

A Christchurch system tracking ambulance patients’ journeys from initial call to ED and beyond, including multiple callouts, recently won an Australasian ambulance award for excellence.

Dr KATHY HOLLOWAY asks what the connection between evidence-based practice and health literacy is.

Electronic health records are just the tip of the e-health iceberg, and there is pressure on New Zealand nurses to understand the trends, reports KATHY HOLLOWAY.

BEV MacKAY and JANE ANDERSON report on an action research project exploring using iPads to enhance teaching support for NorthTec nursing students on clinical placements.

Are you an unknowing Hansel or Gretel, leaving a trail of ‘breadcrumbs’ behind you as you wend your way through the internet? KATHY HOLLOWAY explains cookies.

KATHY HOLLOWAY helps you find secure and memorable passwords to keep you safe online.

SAFE STAFFING/ HEALTHY WORKPLACE: We report on a new electronic ‘tick-box’ tool that instantly signals hospital wide if your busy ward needs nursing help.

Tauranga Hospital’s ‘busy’ emergency department used to often find itself at 150 per cent capacity on a daily basis. (See also "How Busy is Your Ward")

Can telehealth monitors in the home help nurses and doctors care for more patients with chronic conditions? Preliminary results from the country’s second telehealth research project – ASSET – indicate the answer is probably “yes”. FIONA CASSIE reports.

Creative nursing approach to improving medication safety: Wairarapa DHB

Map of Medicine** is an electronic collection of evidence-based care “maps” connecting all the knowledge and services around a clinical condition.

Is sending a quick work email from your local café or library safe? KATHY HOLLOWAY guides you through internet security at public ‘hotspots’.

What is your ‘instinctive style’? A trial of a personality test by one of the country’s largest general practice group indicates nurses gravitate to roles that reflect their ‘innate strengths’.

BRIEFS INCLUDING:Nga Manukura pilot to commence/ Workplace computer access/ Avoid food list released/ Cancer programme for Maori

The push for Canterbury patient records to be shared electronically was stepped up after last year’s February quake and the service is now close to being launched.

Mannequins can now convulse, blink, pee, sweat and respond to intravenous drugs. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about simulation – both low-tech and high-fidelity.

A busload of kids draped in bandages hop and stumble into Starship, some crying, some not. And probably some giggling, as the “injured” are not accident victims but students of a local school roleplaying to test Starship emergency department’s contingency plans.

Getting asthma under control is the aim of the simple web-based tool GASP, targeted at nurses and GPs. And its success in helping cut hospital admissions and exacerbations has made it an award winner. Fiona Cassie talks to Wendy McNaughton, the respiratory nurse behind GASP