Recognising dying in acute care

The article reports on terminal care services which are offered to patients in Australia and discusses a terminal care program called the Liverpool Care Pathway which was implemented in Great Britain and is being tested in Australia. In the article the author offers her opinions on terminal care in Australia, on the Liverpool Care Pathway and on the education that Australian nurses receive the dying phase of the human life cycle

Considerations in adopting a culturally relevant diabetes health education programme: An Indonesian example

Confronted with data about the rising incidence of diabetes in Indonesia, and the recognition that no national programmes for diabetes education are in place, we conducted a search to identify effective western models of health education that could be considered for implementation in Indonesia. In this paper we report on the findings from the search, and share cultural considerations that would need to be applied if these programmes were adopted for use in Indonesia. We conclude that three structured education programmes, X-PERT, DESMOND and DAFNE, have been shown to be effective in a range of western settings and that these could be adapted for use in Indonesian contexts. © 2015 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Perinatal mental health education for midwives in Victoria

Perinatal mental health issues affect women and their families world-wide. Midwives can make a difference to women and families lives with early and prompt detection of perinatal mental health issues

Transferring from an acute hospital and settling into a subacute facility: the experience of patients with dementia

Background.  In a Melbourne metropolitan health network, patients with dementia can have difficulty settling into a subacute rehabilitation facility after transfer from the acute hospital.Aims and objectives.  To understand how older patients with mild to moderate dementia experienced the transfer from acute to subacute care and settling-in period.Design.  A descriptive design was used. Eight patients with mild to moderate dementia were recruited, one to 5 days after transfer.Method.  A qualitative method using in-depth interviews was used. The data were analysed using content analysis.Results.  Four main themes were identified: ‘Settling into a new environment’, ‘staff attitudes to people with dementia’, ‘loss of control’ and ‘family support’.Conclusions.  Person-centred care that comes from the perspective of respect for the individual transcends all these issues. People with dementia require more support to settle after transfer. Family involvement can assist in facilitating a smooth transition.Implications for practice.  Nurses who understand the specific needs of patients with dementia can develop ways of working with patients to ensure person-centred care. More conversations with people with dementia are needed to investigate how this can be achieved. Orientation procedures should ensure that support for people with dementia is optimized during the settling-in phase

Valuing the gap: A dialectic between theory and practice in graduate nursing education from a constructive educational approach

Within nursing education, graduate pedagogies are relatively unexplored, with research commonly focused upon undergraduate and continuing education. In order to address the increasingly complex organisational challenges in the workplace, mid-career nurses and midwives are turning to graduate education. In one graduate course on cultures of learning in the workplace, a constructivist approach to learning was adopted. Post-course analysis of data, from the feedback on the course from students, student choice of assignment topics, and reflections of the course facilitators, revealed three pedagogies unique to graduate education. The pedagogies were labelled 'keeping the space open', 'theoretical concepts as tools', and 'resonance and action as praxis'. The intended outcome of the course is revealed in a fourth theme, 'developing practice in the workplace'. This evaluation suggests that constructivist pedagogies used with graduate students may be different to those pedagogies used with undergraduate and continuing education students. We argue that graduate pedagogies move nursing education beyond strategies that seek integration of theory and practice, towards a dialectic between theory and practice.No Full Tex

Achieving person-centredness with older people in residential aged care

A research project was conducted during 2015 to gain an understanding of the perspectives and actions of the nurses and personal care assistants, (participants) as they sought to provide person centred care (PCC) in a residential care setting

Solution-focused approaches and their relevance to practice development

Drawing on experience as facilitators of practice development the authors in this article propose the use of solution-focused approaches to practical puzzles. Solution-focused work in practice development draws on solutions-focused therapy but is distinct from it in a number of important ways. In the article there is an emphasis on the energy that emanates from the recognition of internal (personal or team) strengths and the ways that facilitators may guide practice developers to build confidence in their own ability to find solutions in the seemingly messy world of everyday clinical practice. This article begins with two descriptions of solution-focused work in practice development situations and goes on to discuss the origins of solutions-focused work in therapy and the adaptations required for use in practice development and concludes with a recommendation for its adoption among the repertoire of practice development facilitator tools

Plotting care: a modelling technique for visioning nursing practice in current and future contexts

Health professionals in health-care organisations are frequently challenged to strategise their services, reshape patterns of care delivery and to adapt to changing environments Relocation of services into new hospital buildings is one example of a situation that generates these challenges In this paper the authors discuss an innovative modelling strategy that was employed to assist nurses to explore their current daily care practices, to visualise them in the context of proposed new buildings, and to work towards planning care in readiness for the new context The modelling technique of \u27plotting\u27 is presented as a way of capturing the natural spatial-service wisdom that exists within teams, and assisting them to translate their knowledge of this to each other and to co-operatively work towards a new clinical future Plotting will be of use to health professionals, clinical leaders and educators who are interested in spatial analysis of care and other health service practice