Hospital loses Intensive Care Unit accreditation

Sydney's Westmead Hospital has lost its ICU training accreditation following a series of serious bullying and harassment allegations.

The College of Intensive Care has stripped the hospital of its ICU training credentials in September following complaints against senior medical staff.

The State Government has demanded a report into the allegations within a month.

Losing training positions could impact patient care and increase workloads for existing ICU doctors.

Read more here

Source: Healthcareer

The best evidence available should be accessible to all

The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), based in South Australia, says the best evidence available should be accessible to all and is key to tackling poor practice that can do more harm than good.

JBI is an international not-for-profit health research institute of the University of Adelaide that collaborates with more than 70 partnering organisations across the world. The institute fosters long-term sustainable change in health practices by training healthcare professionals to deliver evidence based healthcare and providing the best available evidence to inform clinical decision making.

Read more here on the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal website.

Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder — one of several types of personality disorders — is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.


People with narcissistic personality disorder may not want to think that anything could be wrong, so they may be unlikely to seek treatment. If they do seek treatment, it's more likely to be for symptoms of depression, drug or alcohol use, or another mental health problem. But perceived insults to self-esteem may make it difficult to accept and follow through with treatment.


Read more here about Narcissistic Personality Disorder on the Mayo Clinic website.

                                                                 Image credit: pixababy

Collaborative practice improves the quality of your support

For people experiencing sexual assault, domestic or family violence, there may be a range of services and organisations they are in contact with for support. Organisations can respond better if they collaborate with other agencies that may be supporting the person they are working with. Working together in this way means consistent advice can be given to clients across different services. Collaborative practice also reduces the risk of re-traumatisation to clients by minimising the need to tell their story again to other workers.

Research into inter-agency collaboration may assist your organisation in setting up collaborative practices.

Read more at 1800RESPECT here and about inter-agency collaboration here on the Australian Institute of Family Studies website.

Living with multiple medicines: Patients and health professionals share their experience

The Living with multiple medicines project is about people’s experiences of taking five or more medicines by seeing and hearing them share their personal stories on film.

Our researcher travelled around Australia to talk to 34 people (including four doctors and one pharmacist) in their own homes or workplaces. Find out what people said about:

• how they feel about taking multiple medicines

• communicating with others

• problems they have with their medicines and how these are resolved.

Read the full report here on NPS Medicine Wise

                                                       Image source: www.nps.org.au

Australia is responding to the complex challenge of overdiagnosis

Overdiagnosis is now a health challenge recognised across many nations. Debates about its definition continue, but in short, overdiagnosis happens when health systems routinely diagnose people in ways that do not benefit them or that even do more harm than good. Overdiagnosis is an unwarranted diagnosis, leading to harm from unnecessary labels and treatments and to the waste of health care resources that could be better spent dealing with genuine needs. To manage overdiagnosis and the sustainability of the health system more broadly, reversing the harm of too much medicine is becoming a health care priority, demanding effective responses in policy and practice. In Australia, a new alliance is developing a national plan to deal with this problem.

Read the full report here on MJA.

October is Mental Health Month

Reliable data is essential to understanding how people experience their mental health, and how our mental health and social support systems respond to them. This is the evidence that can make the case for change, and reveal whether the reforms we make are effective in improving people’s lives.
Under the Mental Health Commission Act, the Commission is required to monitor and report on the implementation of Living Well: A Strategic Plan for Mental Health in NSW 2014-2024, and also to review and evaluate services and programs provided to people who have a mental illness. Read more here at the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Also read more about Mental Health Month at WayAhead. #sharethejourney2018

                                                      Image Credit: wayahead.org.au

Hospital privacy curtains breed bacteria

Frequently touched, but infrequently changed, privacy curtains in hospitals can become breeding grounds for resistant bacteria, according to a new study.

Without timely intervention, the curtains could pose a threat to patient safety.

The longitudinal, prospective pilot study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, tracked the contamination rate of 10 freshly laundered privacy curtains in the Regional Burns/Plastics Unit of the Health Services Center in Winnipeg, Canada.

Read the article here at Australian Hospital + Health Care Bulletin 

                                               Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Kobus

Caring for dying patients in an acute hospital setting, three tips for getting it right

Caring for dying patients in an acute hospital setting, three tips for getting it right: Acute hospitals are perfect for emergencies, surgeries, fixing, curing and treating patients, making them well again and sending them home. When it comes to dying in an acute hospital, sometimes we need some help and guidance to know how to care for these vulnerable patients and what is needed at this point of life. Providing care and dignity are basic human values and should be given to patients regardless of the situation.

Read the article here at Care Search

Vulnerable older people at risk at end of life

Vulnerable older people at risk at end of life: The escalating, and often hidden, problem of elder abuse is chief amongst the challenges confronting Australia’s ageing population. It is a challenge not only for older people but also for other key stakeholders including, for example, health professionals, lawyers, government, policy makers and social workers (Purser et al, 2018).

Compounding the problems are the definitional and prevalence uncertainties in this area. At what age a person becomes ‘older’ is unclear. Definitions range fifty years and over, to sixty-five years and over.

Read the article here on CareSearch

Help Us Find Solutions for Social Isolation

Social isolation is a state in which a person lacks a sense of belonging, isn’t engaging with others, and has a minimal number of social contacts and quality relationships. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation think there is much more the U.S. can learn from beyond their nation’s borders about preventing social isolation—both from countries where residents are happy and have thriving social connections, and countries that are still working to find solutions.Help Us Find Solutions for Social Isolation: Join us in searching for ideas to help tackle the growing problem of social isolation in the United States, and expand social connections which provide purpose and meaning.

Patient Safety Culture

A review published in the Australian Health Review highlighted that despite efforts to improve patient safety culture (PSC), health professional groups have different views and do not perceive their organisations to be promoting patient safety.
Although many factors affect patient safety, in the US the Institute of Medicine identified hospital organisational culture as one factor contributing to a reduction in errors. From an Australian perspective, there is a lack of recent PSC literature in acute hospital settings in Australia, which is highlighted and discussed the the review.
The full article, Health professionals’ perception of patient safety culture in acute hospitals: an integrative review can be read here.

A global study reveals 1 in 5 catheters unnecessarily painful or malfunctioning

A global study has found major problems with the manner in which short peripheral catheters are managed, with two-thirds of catheter insertions found to be placed in non-recommended sites or at risk of failure, and one in five catheters found to be unnecessarily painful or malfunctioning.

The study, led by Western Sydney University, involved hundreds of health professionals who assessed 40,620 peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) in 51 countries. The study found that thousands of catheters were placed in non-recommended sites such as the hand, wrist or antecubital veins with many devices reviewed already failing or at risk of failure.

Read the full article here by The Australian Hospital & Healthcare Bulletin.

Moving ultrasound pictures capture babies' first breaths

Watching a newborn baby take its first breath has always been a significant moment for parents and healthcare staff. Now, for the first time, doctors at the Royal Women’s Hospital have captured moving ultrasound images of the lungs of newborn babies as they take their first breaths.

The research, involving the Women’s and Monash University, signals a breakthrough in understanding how human lungs transition from the womb to the first breaths at birth.

Researchers say the new information could lead to the diagnosis of severe breathing problems in very preterm babies in the first minutes of life, instead of the current several hours, allowing for live-saving treatment.

Read the full article here in The Australian Hospital and Healthcare Bulletin

                                              Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Cari

It's National Child Protection Week - help prevent abuse and neglect

The National Association for Prevention of Child abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) are an Australian organisation that focuses entirely on the prevention of child abuse and neglect before it starts. They promote National Child Protection Week which starts annually from Fathers' Day every year (Sunday 2nd - Saturday 8th September this year).
They say that we all have a role to play in protecting children from harm. The little things we do every day can help to create safer environments for children. For instance:

• Be kind to children and parents
• Respect young people
• Be a good role model around children
• Get involved in your local community
• Look out for signs of abuse or neglect; if you suspect something is wrong talk to an expert
• Always take reports of abuse seriously
• Avoid blame and don’t judge; instead, ask yourself what you can do to help
• Listen to the needs of children and spend time with them

National Child Protection Week is an opportunity for government, business and community to come together to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. Learn more about how to get involved here.