Cross–cultural care program for aged care staff : workbook for staff

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license .Cultural and linguistic diversity between residents and staff is significant in residential aged care homes in Australia. Residents are from over 170 countries with 31% born overseas and 20% born in a non-English speaking country (AIHW, 2016). Staff who care for residents are also from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It is estimated that 32% of staff were born overseas and 26% were born in a non-English speaking country (Mavromaras et al., 2017). The majority of overseas-born residents come from Europe while the majority of overseas-born staff come from Asian and African regions (Mavromaras et al., 2017, AIHW, 2016). This diversity generates many opportunities for aged care organisations to address equitable and culturally appropriate care for residents. However, the diversity can also be a challenge to achieving high-quality care for residents and to staff cohesion. The program is developed from a 2-year action research project entitled ‘Developing the multicultural workforce to improve the quality of care for residents’. The project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health under the ‘Service Improvement and Healthy Ageing Grants’ in 2015. During the project life, the project team worked with residents and staff in four participating residential aged care homes to implement and evaluate the program. The details of the research project are presented in the project final report (Xiao et al., 2017). The program has been adapted into an online self-learning program using the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and is free to access. Instruction for accessing the online program is attached as Appendix 1: Instructions for accessing the online Cross-cultural Care Program for Aged Care Staff

The implementation of intentional rounding using participatory action research

Author version made available according to Publisher copyright policy.‘Intentional’/’hourly rounding’ is defined as regular checks of individual patients carried out by health professionals at set intervals, rather than a response to a summons via a call bell. Intentional rounding places patients at the heart of the ward routine including the acknowledgement of patient preferences and in anticipation of their needs. The aim of this study was to implement intentional rounding using Participatory Action Research to increase patient care, increase staff productivity and the satisfaction of care provision from both patients and staff. Outcomes of the study revealed a drop in call bell use, no observable threats to patient safety, nursing staff and patient satisfaction with care provision. However, any future studies should consider staff skill mix issues, including the needs of newly graduated nursing staff as well as the cognitive status of patients when implementing intentional rounding on acute care wards

Multicultural workforce development model and resources in aged care

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Full-text embargoed for 24 months until 31 Dec 2019

Developing the multicultural workforce to improve the quality of care for residents: Final report

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This report is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (November 2017).Cultural and linguistic diversity between residents and staff is significant in residential aged care homes in Australia. The diversity generates many opportunities for aged care organisations to address equitable and culturally appropriate care for residents. However, diversity can also be a challenge to achieving high-quality care for residents and to staff cohesion. This final report describes the project: ‘Developing the multicultural workforce to improve the quality of care for residents’. This project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health under the ‘Service Improvement and Healthy Ageing Grants’ in 2015. Flinders University, AnglicareSA Inc. and Resthaven Inc. formed the consortium to undertake the project led by Flinders University. Participating sites from these organisations included four residential aged care homes (RACHs). The aim of the project was to work with stakeholders to develop, implement and evaluate a multicultural workforce development model (MCWD), an education program and resources to support the implementation of the model. A Critical Action Research approach was applied to achieve the aims and objectives described above. The project was completed in two phases over a 2-year period. In phase one (12 months), the project team undertook a study of residents and staff experiences in cross-cultural care services in the four participating sites. Findings from the literature review and the study informed the development of the MCWD model and resources to support the implementation of the model. In phase two (12 months), a site champion in each participating site was appointed by their organisation to implement the MCWD model, cross-cultural care toolkit, cross-cultural care self-reflection toolkit and cross-cultural care program for aged care staff. The implementation of the Multicultural Workforce Development (MCWD) Model and resources using the site champion model was associated with improved resident satisfaction with cross-cultural care services, staff perceptions of cultural competence, and experiences in cross-cultural interactions with residents and co-workers. There is a need to embed and sustain the MCWD model in residential aged care homes using the site champion model

Impact of the Mt. Pinatubo volcaniceruption on the lower ionosphere andatmospheric waves over Central Europe

The very strong volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in June 1991 directly affected the troposphere and lower and middle stratosphere. Here we look at its effects in the mesopause region as revealed by the radio wave absorption measurements in the lower ionosphere over Central Europe and inferred planetary and gravity wave activity. The gravity wave activity inferred from the nighttime LF radio wave absorption displays an evident enhancement for waves of periods of about 2-3 h coinciding with regional measurements of the optical depth of (volcanic) aerosols, while there is no detectable effect for short period waves (T < 1 h). There is no detectable effect in the planetary wave activity inferred from the daytime HF radio wave absorption. As for the absorption itself, the results on the impact of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption do not provide an observable effect

Multiple sodium channel isoforms mediate the pathological effects of Pacific ciguatoxin-1

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Human intoxication with the seafood poison ciguatoxin, a dinoflagellate polyether that activates voltage-gated sodium channels (NaV), causes ciguatera, a disease characterised by gastrointestinal and neurological disturbances. We assessed the activity of the most potent congener, Pacific ciguatoxin-1 (P-CTX-1), on NaV1.1–1.9 using imaging and electrophysiological approaches. Although P-CTX-1 is essentially a non-selective NaV toxin and shifted the voltage-dependence of activation to more hyperpolarising potentials at all NaV subtypes, an increase in the inactivation time constant was observed only at NaV1.8, while the slope factor of the conductance-voltage curves was significantly increased for NaV1.7 and peak current was significantly increased for NaV1.6. Accordingly, P-CTX-1-induced visceral and cutaneous pain behaviours were significantly decreased after pharmacological inhibition of NaV1.8 and the tetrodotoxin-sensitive isoforms NaV1.7 and NaV1.6, respectively. The contribution of these isoforms to excitability of peripheral C- and A-fibre sensory neurons, confirmed using murine skin and visceral single-fibre recordings, reflects the expression pattern of NaV isoforms in peripheral sensory neurons and their contribution to membrane depolarisation, action potential initiation and propagation

Spiritual wellbeing for older people

London, U