Is Safety and Quality on your radar?

On the Radar is summarises some of the recent publications on Safety and Quality in Health Care.  Access to documents may depend on whether they are Open Access or not, as a MNCLHD Library Member you will be able to request items not directly available to you to be delivered to your desk-top. To access these summaries and more go to website of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

Source: safetyandquality.gov.au

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Rethinking how antibiotics are used - JAMA article

An interesting article published in JAMA "Rethinking How Antibiotics Are Prescribed: Incorporating the 4 Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making Into Clinical Practice", is a recommended read.

By: Pranita D. Tamma; Melissa A. Miller; Sara E. Cosgrove
JAMA. 2019;321(2):139-140. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.19509

Article Abstract:

Antibiotics save countless lives, but can also cause significant harm including antibiotic-associated adverse events, Clostridium difficile (also known as Clostridioides difficile) infections, increasing antibiotic resistance, and changes to the microbiome (the implications of changes to the microbiome are only beginning to be understood).1 Antibiotic stewardship programs have become increasingly commonplace in hospitals in the United States and around the world, but these programs almost always rely heavily on restrictive practices (eg, requiring approval before prescribing certain antibiotics) or persuasive practices (eg, discussions with clinicians regarding the continued need for antibiotics).2 Although these approaches have had success in improving antibiotic use,2 they depend on external motivators, and their ability to influence how clinicians will prescribe antibiotics in the absence of an antibiotic stewardship program–driven intervention is questionable.

If you'd like to have the full-text of this article delivered to your desk top. Please contact the Library (MNCLHD Staff only) MNCLHD-PMBH-Library@health.nsw.gov.au 

Research shows and increase in bowel cancer among young Australians.

Bowel cancer mostly affects people over the age of 50, but recent evidence suggests it’s on the rise among younger Australians.

A study, published recently in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, found the incidence of bowel cancer, has increased by up to 9% in people under 50 years of age, from the 1990s to date.

The research examined all recorded cases of bowel cancer from the past forty years in Australians aged over 20 years. Previous studies assessing bowel cancer incidence in young Australians have also seen an increase in the younger age group.

This trend is also seen in young people in the United States.

Could unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, like increased intake of highly processed foods be the problem?

Read more at The Conversation

                                                                                                           Image from Shutterstock

Your mental health in 2019

Currently one in five Australians experience mental ill health every year.

Australian Psychological Society President Ros Knight says people who spend a lot of time caring for others need to make time to care for their own mental health.

Reflecting on your own mental and emotional wellness and taking steps to manage it is something nurses and midwives would benefit from doing every day.

Here are 10 psychological tips to help you stay mentally healthy in 2019.

Be kind to yourself: Treat yourself with the same kindness, concern and support you’d show a good friend facing struggles. Self-compassion fosters resilience in the face of adversity.

Contact with others: Deep, meaningful relationships help mental health. Listen to others, be genuine, share your thoughts and feelings and celebrate everyday positive experiences with friends.

Accept your feelings: Avoiding difficult emotions, keeping feelings to yourself or stewing over problems reduces wellbeing. Be open to experiences and accept all your feelings and thoughts, including the difficult ones.

Keep your perspective: Look for constructive solutions, think flexibly and see situations from different perspectives when you are confronted by everyday problems.

Live up to your values: Live a life consistent with your values. Be aware of your own values – of how you would like to lead your whole life, behave towards others, and treat yourself.

Read the remaining 5 tips here on ANMJ.

Strategic Framework for Suicide Prevention in NSW 2018-2023

The Framework will guide activities in NSW until 2023 and marks the beginning of the journey towards zero suicides in NSW.

The launch of the Framework in October 2018 was accompanied by investment in new and expanded initiatives to implement priorities under the Framework including:

• aftercare services for people who have made a suicide attempt
• alternative services for people presenting to emergency departments in distress
• more counsellors for regional and rural communities
• strengthening practices in the mental health system to eliminate suicides and suicide attempts among people in care

Read more or download the Framework here on the Mental Health Commission of NSW website.

                                                                                   Source: mental health commission of NSW

Life Check

Millions of Australians are being asked to take a free online Life Check on a new website launched on January 15 2019, as the Liberal National Government continues rolling out its More Choices For A Longer Lifemeasures, supporting Australians to live longer, better lives.

Australians aged 45 and over can now access free advice to plan and take positive steps towards better health and greater security.

The online Life Checks cover four areas that research has shown are keys to our wellbeing: Health, work, finance and social life.

As quoted on health.gov.au “We should be aiming to live well to 100 or more,” said Minister Wyatt. “We’re already living 25 years longer than we did a century ago and we owe it to ourselves, our families and the nation to live the best we can.

To take a Life Check, visit https://lifechecks.gov.au

Doctors back pill testing at music festivals in Australia

Experts in the field of drug policy in Australia know that existing policies are failing. Calls for total abstinence: “just say no to drugs” and even cruder enforcement strategies have had little to no impact on drug use or the level of their detrimental effects on the community.

Whether we like it or not, drug use is commonplace in Australia, particularly amongst the young. "In 2016 43% of people aged 14 and older reported they had used an illicit drug at some point in their lifetime". And "28% of people in their twenties said they had used illicit drugs in the past year".

The inflexible attitudes of today's policy-makers contrast dramatically with the ground-breaking approaches to public health policy for which Australia was once known. Since the 1970s many successful campaigns have improved road safety, increased immunisation rates and helped stem the spread of blood-borne virus infections.

Wearing seatbelts was made compulsory across Australia in the early 1970s. Random breath testing and helmets for bike riders were introduced in the 1980s. These actions alone saved many thousands of lives.

In the late 1980s the introduction of needle exchange, methadone treatment programs, and more recently, extensive access to effective therapies for hepatitis C, have reduced the health burden from devastating infections such as HIV and the incidence of serious liver disease, dramatically.

All of these programs had to overcome forceful and continued hostility from opposition that argued they would do more harm than good. "But in all cases the pessimists were proved wrong". Road safety measures did not cause drivers and cyclists to behave more recklessly. Clean needle availability did not increase intravenous drug use. Ready access to condoms did not provoke greater risk taking and increased cases of AIDS.

Read more at The Conversation

                                                                                                         from shutterstock.com