Collegian
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Models of palliative care need to address the unmet needs of children, young people and families. ⋯ Paediatric palliative care should be flexible, responsive and tailored to the needs of children and their families. Robust evaluation of models of care that incorporate these elements is required to inform optimal care.
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Comparative Study
Impact of nursing care in Australian general practice on the quality of care: A pilot of the Patient Enablement and Satisfaction Survey (PESS).
Nursing roles in general practice have undergone significant expansion, but as yet there are few tools to measure the quality of nursing care in general practice. This study piloted the Patient Enablement and Satisfaction Survey (PESS) to evaluate two aspects of quality of care in this setting. ⋯ All patients reported satisfaction with nursing care. Patients receiving chronic disease management reported high levels of enablement. This pilot indicated that the PESS can distinguish between two aspects of the quality of nursing care that may impact on patient outcomes.
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Cancer pain remains a major public health concern. Despite effective treatments being available to manage the majority of cancer pain, this debilitating symptom is frequently under treated. As cancer has becomes a chronic disease a range of health professionals, including community nurses in Australia are increasingly caring for people living with cancer related pain. Yet, little is known about community nurses capacity to assess and manage cancer pain in accordance with best available evidence. ⋯ A range of system, health professional and consumer barriers limit access to best available treatment in the community setting for people with cancer pain. A clinical pathway that gives step-by-step guidance on evidence-based practice along with an evaluation framework may be the best way of enabling community nurses to ensure their patients with cancer related pain have access to best available care.
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Preparation of specialist critical care nurses in Australia is at graduate level, although there remains considerable variation in courses offered in relation to qualification, content, assessment and outcomes. As higher education providers must now comply with the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) a study was conducted to examine existing critical care courses and graduate practice outcomes. ⋯ The AQF requires graduate nurse education to be compliant with academic outcome standards. The findings of our study indicate variations between courses and subsequent graduate practice outcomes. It is therefore timely to establish national critical care education graduate practice standards.
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The aim of this study was to investigate if a community based hepatitis B (HBV) nurse clinic is a feasible, acceptable and safe strategy to improve access to best practice chronic hepatitis B care (CHB) in Sydney Local Health District. ⋯ This study of a community based CHB nurse clinic shows it is a feasible, acceptable, and safe initiative. The nurse improved access to best practice care and supported patients to effectively manage their CHB. We have confirmed a nurse can have a central role in triage, case management and GP support. Given the high CHB prevalence in our LHD a higher number of GP referrals were expected. Further research on how to increase engagement with GPs and people living with CHB is needed. We plan to expand our model with the CHB nurse conducting assessments and education in GP practices.