How does the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study help the professions?
Nursing and midwifery shortages
The Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study is the first of its kind to examine factors associated with recruitment and retention in both undergraduate programs and within the nursing and midwifery professions. A predicted shortage of 40,000 nurses in Australia by 2010 (DEST 2002) and an estimated world wide shortfall of health workers of 4.25 million (WHO 2005) limits the capacity of health care systems to provide effective services in the acute, community and aged care settings. It has been estimated that New Zealand will require an 11% increase in the health workforce by 2011 to simply maintain existing practitioner-population ratios (NZIER 2004). Improved recruitment and retention rates are critical to managing the current workforce scarcity and for assuring there are sufficient nurses and midwives to replace the ‘baby boomer’ generation as they retire from the workforce in the next ten to fifteen years (National Review of Nursing Education, 2002).
Injury prevention
The Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study will also be the first to prospectively assess musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) prevalence and incidence within the nursing and midwifery workforce in a systematic manner, with the potential of developing and implementing cost-effective injury prevention initiatives. Collaboration between researchers with expertise in nursing and midwifery, longitudinal studies and injury epidemiology will find answers to a critical social problem.
How can you help?
Your participation in the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study will ultimately help the government, universities and health care authorities to develop effective strategies to prevent nursing and midwifery workforce shortages that have critically damaged the operational efficiency of health care systems, particularly in regional and rural areas. The outcomes will have application across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as well as to other health professions.
Study on undergraduate attrition
As part of the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study, ten universities across two Australian states were asked to provide aggregate data on their Bachelor of Nursing students after the Census date of 31 March 2006. Lynda Gaynor and Tamara Gallasch, Honours students in the two states, collected demographic data including age range and the proportions of enrolled nurses, males, and part-time students.
The results indicated that the age range of students across both states is 17–68 years, with just under half of the students aged over 25 years. The proportion of part-time students is higher in South Australia (22.5%) than in Queensland (9.7%). Around 12.7% of students in both states are male.
Comparisons were also made between the aggregate number of eligible graduands submitted to the Queensland Nursing Council and undergraduate nursing enrolments in the preceding three years (Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre data). Retrospective analysis of the average attrition rate at Queensland universities was estimated at 24.5%. A paper providing further detail on this study has been published in the December edition of AJAN. We will continue to analyse undergraduate data to provide up-to-date information to assist stakeholders.
Caring in Aged Care: An update on this sub-study of the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort study
In the last newsletter we launched the above study and many e-cohort participants provided valuable information
Dr. Anthony Tuckett and Mrs Karen Hughes would like to take this opportunity to thank those residential aged-care nurses who responded to the 'Caring in Aged-Care' questionnaire.
According to Anthony, several common themes are emerging in the written comments provided by participants. He said: ‘Whilst our analysis is not yet complete, initial coding and category development suggest that residential aged-care is a place of fracture or dissonance. Simply put, nurses know that the reality is far from the ideal. Caring, in residential aged-care, is hampered by paperwork, staffing shortages, burnout, an aging workforce, and most significantly by a gross lack of time’. Dr. Tuckett said he has been moved by some of the frank revelations the nurses have provided and feels an even greater responsibility to ‘get the message out there’.
Further findings from the 'Caring in Aged-Care' study will be reported in subsequent newsletters.
News from the professions
   
The following item was kindly prepared by Denise Sharp, MRCNA Research and Policy Advisor from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Review of the Code of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses, Code of Ethics for Midwives and  Development of the Code of Professional Conduct for Midwives
At the Australian Nursing Regulatory Authority Conference (ANRAC) held in 1990, not only were the first national nursing competency standards accepted, but the establishment of an authority to be called the Australian Nursing Council (ANC) was agreed to in principle. In 1992, the ANC was established in Canberra, and in February 2005, changed its name to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) to include midwifery.
The Code of Ethics was developed in the early 90s under the auspices of not only the ANMC, but also the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) and the Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA). The Code of Professional Conduct followed in the mid-90s. More recently, national competency standards for nurse practitioners and midwives have been developed and published. All of these documents are reviewed on a regular basis, with the last review of the Codes for nurses being undertaken in 2002.
Having recognised midwifery as a distinct profession, the ANMC decide to develop a Code of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct for midwives. In keeping with the terms of their Memorandum of Cooperation, the Australian College of Midwives agreed to support the project through membership of the project management team and ultimately, joint ownership of the Code of Ethics for Midwives together with the ANMC and the ANF.
The first part of the project to review the existing nurses Codes and include the development of the midwives Codes commenced in January 2006. To enable the consultants from James Cook University to obtain as much input as possible from the professions a consultation strategy utilising a website questionnaire, forums and focus groups throughout Australia was employed. This strategy was relatively new to the ANMC at this time, but has since been adopted as an excellent way to obtain input from nurses and midwives through direct engagement.
The project is now nearing its conclusion with the consultant for the second part of this project, Ms Amanda Adrian harmonising the documents to ensure the Codes clearly articulate with all elements of the professional practice framework for nurses and midwives. For further information on this project and other projects commission by the ANMC please visit the website at www.anmc.org.au
Participant profile:
Tracey Young,
RN, BN
Since graduating with a Bachelor of Nursing ten years ago, Tracey has held a number of positions in mental health nursing. Currently, she works in Western Australia as a Senior RN at the Mental Health Emergency Response Line (MHERL), which incorporates RuralLink. This is a state-wide mental health triage service that offers support, advice and, if required, dispatches medical health professionals in the Perth metropolitan area.
The service takes calls from community mental health clinics, carers, family members and emergency services as well as the clients themselves. In some instances, Tracey refers patients to other services or liaises with them on the client’s behalf. While she finds this a very rewarding and interesting position, Tracey says one of the greatest challenges is comprehensively assessing risk over the phone. If you have a professional interest in Tracey's work you can contact her by email.
In her non-professional life, Tracey is a busy mother of five! She loves living in Perth because she sees it as a 'family oriented' city with easy access to water sports, swimming and snorkeling. Tracey also enjoys the occasional trip to the local wineries!
Staff profile:
Bridie Kent,
RN, FCNA(NZ)
BSc(Hons), PhD
Associate Professor Bridie Kent is a Director of Clinical Research and has held a joint appointment with the University of Auckland and Auckland District Health Board since 2002. She is a clinically focussed nurse academic who for 15 years specialised in adult critical care nursing. In 1993, Bridie embarked on an academic career in health professional education.
Bridie has extensive experience in organ and tissue donation education, research and practice. Her PhD thesis explored the factors which influences nurses' willingness to discuss post-mortem wishes for organ donation.
As the Director of the Centre of Evidence Based Nursing Aotearoa (CEBNA), Bridie makes a major contribution to knowledge implementation in acute and primary care. She is a member of the Knowledge Utilisation Consortium, an international group of leading health professionals who are moving forward the boundaries in this field of science. Bridie is also a Fellow of the College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ), a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International and a member of the Higher Education Academy.
Bridie's research focusses on two major areas of practice, namely; clinical nursing research including evidence-based practice, evidence implementation and ultilisation, and death/dying and palliative care.
Any e-cohort participants who wish to contact Bridie to discuss her research may do so by email.
Correspondence from
e-cohort participants
Robin Rootes (United Kingdom) will be attending the
Midwives Congress in Glasgow in June 2008
and is keen to make contact with any other participants who are also going - Click here to contact Robin.
Lorraine Retallick (Queensland, Australia) is an ICU liaison nurse and would like to know if there are any other study participants in the same or similar roles. Lorraine said, 'I would love to hear from you to share experiences and job descriptions. I would also like to to connect with others out there, as each institution is different. Please contact me if you have similar professional interests'.
Carolyn Lister (Queensland, Australia) is a clinical nurse in Perioperative Services at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane. Carolyn provided the following feedback from the Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association (AONA) Queensland Conference held in in August.
'The organisers did a great job getting good speakers on a variety of topics relevant to ophthalmic nursing'. For further information Carolyn can be contacted via email.
Tina Chinery (Western Australia) is the Nurse Director for the Pilbara regions of Western Australia. Tina reports that the Pilbara is a wonderful place to work and has some nursing positions on offer. For more information about the positions, please contact Tina Chinery. Sunrise in the Pilbara
Miriam Busby (New Zealand) is a registered nurse who also runs Millie's B&B in beautiful Aro Valley, Wellington and offers discounts to nurses and midwives. Click here to contact Miriam.
Doctors e-cohort Study goes live in 2008!
If you have visited the study website you will notice that there is a holding page for the Doctors e-cohort Study. Using methods similar to the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study, the Doctors e-cohort Study will be launched early next year. Please consider bringing this to the attention of your medical colleagues.
The Doctors e-cohort Study is a longitudinal study funded by the Australian Research Council in partnership with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Queensland Health which aims to examine patterns of recruitment and retention in the Australian medical practitioner workforce.
The personal and public health consequences of a shortage and maldistribution of doctors in Australia, and particularly in Queensland, have been highly publicised. Job retention rates and the safety and quality of medical practice are influenced by multiple factors including the mental and physical health, gender, and varying motivations and workplace expectations of different generations of graduates.
This project will use innovative technology to follow medical graduates through their careers, allowing a current and comprehensive exploration of factors influencing the career decisions of Australian doctors, and the recruitment and retention of doctors in metropolitan, rural and remote regions.
Please join us and contribute to the information we need to maintain a happy, healthy and sustainable medical workforce.
For more information, please email the study director Dr. Marie-Louise Dick.
Upcoming conferences and events
Future Directions, Future Challenges ... Beyond Tomorrow
6th International Conference for Emergency Nurses
Nurses' Conference
3 to 4 December 2007
Sydney, Australia
Conference website
4th Asian Pacific Congress of Heart Failure
31 January 2008 to 3 February 2008
Melbourne, Australia
Conference website
National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Annual Conference
The NACNS annual conference provides an opportunity for Clinical Nurse Specialists to learn about the latest innovations in CNS education and practice.
5 to 8 March 2008
Atlanta, GA, United States
Contact: Christine Filipovich, MSN, RN
Conference website
Eleventh Congress of Chest Pain Centers
April 23 - 26, 2008
Orlando, Florida USA
Conference website
International Confederation of Midwives 28th Triennial Congress June 1-5 2008
The Royal College of Midwives extends a special invitation to the world's midwives to attend the ICM Congress and looks forward to welcoming you to Glasgow, one of the great and historic cities of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre with the river Clyde running alongside, is a marvelous venue for the Congress and only a short journey from Glasgow airport, the train station and the city centre.
Conference website
Mental health nursing - A broad canvas: The art of mental health nursing in the age of technology and science
The Australian College of Mental health Nurses Inc. Melbourne 6 - 10 October 2008. Scientific Program Convenor, Dr Phil Maude from The University of Melbourne is calling for abstracts now.
Conference website
4th Pan-Pacific Nursing Conference and 6th Hong Kong Nursing Symposium on Cancer Care
'Managing chronic illness: challenges and opportunities for nursing practice and research'
November 13-15 2008
Conference website
If you attend an interesting conference, we'd be very happy to hear from you so that we can share the information with other Nursing and Midwifery e-cohort participants. Please email Lindy.
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The e-cohort team wishes all our participants and their loved ones a peaceful, happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!
Upcoming event?
If you have an event you would like to advertise in the next newsletter (due for publication in April 2008) or if you have any other suggestions for the content of this newsletter, please let us know by clicking here to send an email. Also, let us know if you would like to be featured in the participant profile section.
Keeping in touch!
Have you changed your name, internet provider or other contact details?
It's really important that we have current contact details for everyone. If you move house, change job, or get a new email address, please let us know by logging on to the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort website and updating your personal details. If you don't know how to do this, click here to find out, or email Sharyn for more information.
Also, don't be surprised if you get an SMS reminder from the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study. In 2008, we will be contacting many participants using SMS to update contact details.
Calling all UK nurses and midwives
Recruitment to the study will finish completely in March 2008 and we would very much like to have more UK participants on board - please complete the baseline survey if you haven't already and spread the word to your colleagues.
Do you want to advertise a nursing or midwifery reunion or find a long lost colleague?
Please let us know by clicking here to send an email and we will post a notice in the next newsletter (this service is available to study participants only)
Thought for the day
Roots nourish, give us life and bind us safely to earth. Plant them well.
Anonymous
'We are in a crisis in terms of the available number of midwives. So if we don't address this, women's health and the family well being is at stake'
Pat Brodie, Australian College of Midwives speaks out on the 7.30 Report (ABC TV). Click here for more information.
'We will know we have been successful when the patient of tomorrow knows that choosing a healthcare provider with a commitment to employment of highly educated and skilled nurses is as important a decision as the surgeon selected to undertake the surgery'.
Professor Sanchia Aranda, FRCNA. School of Nursing, University of Melbourne in the presentation of the 6th Vivian Bullwinkel Oration on November 5th at La Trobe University. Click here to access the whole oration.
Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study timeline
2006
*Nurses & Midwives
e-cohort established. The team began recruitment of participants nationally and internationally.
*Regulatory authorities and professional associations contacted for assistance in disseminating invitations to participate to all registrants in three countries.
2007
*Recruitment continues
* Planning for future surveys and publications
*Data cleaning and early analysis of baseline survey data
2008.
*First papers from baseline data written
*Second year survey(s) of participants
*Analysis of second year survey(s) and longitudinal trends.
2009
*Papers reporting trends identified via baseline and subsequent surveys written
*Third year survey(s) of participants
*Analysis of third year survey(s) and longitudinal trends.
2010
*Papers reporting trends evident from all surveys to date written
*Fourth year survey(s) of participants
*Analysis of fourth year survey(s) and longitudinal trends.
Are you interested in external research collaboration?
We do collaborate with external researchers who wish to undertake a sub-study or perform analysis of existing data. At present our only limiting criterion for collaborators is that a Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Principal Investigator is involved. In this way we can ensure quality; track what data is being analysed and published.
We are nearing completion of data collection from the baseline survey and are currently planning the 2008 survey. Please send your initial enquiries to Anne Russell.
e-cohort website security
To keep your personal information confidential, the Nurses & Midwives e-cohort Study protects its website with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which is an encrypted protocol for transmitting private documents via the Internet.
Sensitive information such as credit card numbers can be obtained by a third party unless a security protocol is in place. SSL creates a connection between client and server, through which data can be sent securely.
As I am sure you are aware it's quite common on many websites for you to request your details to be emailed to you if you have forgotten them and it’s this same process we employed here.
We can assure you that your personal details are kept in a very secure environment on our servers. Click here to learn more
Who was Vivian Bullwinkel?
Vivian Bullwinkel, AO, MBE, ARRC, ED (1915-2000)
Vivian Bullwinkel was born in Kapunda, South Australia, and trained as a nurse in Broken Hill, New South Wales. In 1941, aged 25, she enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service and wound up in Singapore. When the fall of Singapore became imminent, it was decided to evacuate the nurses. Late on 12 February Bullwinkel was with the last group of nurses to set sail.
Unfortunately, Japanese bombers found the ship in the Banka Strait and sunk it. Bullwinkel drifted for hours before making it ashore on Banka Island with other survivors. When Japanese troops arrived, they gathered 22 nurses together and ordered them into the sea, where they machine-gunned them. Bullwinkel, was the only survivor
Eventually, she surrendered to the Japanese and was interned with other nurses at Pelambang prisoner of war camp for three and half years. After the war Bullwinkel was active in military and civilian nursing. She was involved in veterans’ affairs and with philanthropic committees. She also made major contributions to the nursing profession in terms of improved conditions and was also influential in moving nurse education into the tertiary sector.
The Koala Healthy Lifestyle Program for children aged
six to ten years
The Koala at Mater Healthy Lifestyle Program at the Mater Children's Hospital and The University of Queensland (UQ) 'For Children, For Families, For a Healthier Active Life Together'.
The Koala Healthy Lifestyle Program is inviting overweight children aged 6-10 years in the Brisbane area to join an innovative an holistic 'Eat Well Be Active in Mind and Body' program in 2008. The program will be utilising the unique skills of a Lifestyle Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) from UQ and Scouts QLD through a family Scouts active camp program.
It is the program goal to motivate families to make healthy lifestyle changes in the whole family to prevent the complications of childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. If interested, families should visit the Koala website and phone Ms. Denise Mitchell , Koala Coordinator by email or on (07) 3163 2757.
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