Articles - Nursing Workforce

1. Globalisation, localisation and implications of a transforming nursing workforce in New Zealand: opportunities and challenges
By Callister, Paul; Badkar, Juthika; Didham, Robert; Nursing Inquiry, 2011 Sep; 18 (3): 205-15
Abstract: Severe staff and skill shortages within the health systems of developed countries have contributed to increased migration by health professionals. New Zealand stands out among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in terms of the high level of movements in and out of the country of skilled professionals, including nurses. In New Zealand, much attention has been given to increasing the number of Māori and Pacific nurses as one mechanism for improving Māori and Pacific health.

2. How Can We Obtain Data on the Demand for Nurses?
By Spetz, Joanne; Kovner, Christine T.; Nursing Economic$, 2013 Jul-Aug; 31 (4): 203-7
Abstract: Sources related to demand for nurses data are more difficult to find, and also more difficult to interpret relative to supply. When people talk about the "demand" for nurses, they can have multiple concepts in mind. Even if the concept is well-defined, the data may not clearly align with the intended concept.

3. Primary health care nursing: at the crossroads
By Bell, Kathy; Australian Nursing Journal, 2013 Jun; 20 (11): 46-7
Abstract: To meet our emerging health care challenges, we need to recruit, retain, train and develop, and fully utilise a strong workforce of primary health care nurses. There are now around
11,000 nurses working in general practice in Australia (one of the fastest growing workforces in Australia (AIHW 2008) and the majority of general practices employ at least one practice
nurse (General Practice Nurse National Survey Report 2012).

4. Bring diversity to nursing: Recruitment, retention, and graduation of nursing students
By Melillo, Karen Devereaux; Dowling, Jacqueline; Abdallah, Lisa; Findeisen, Mary; Knight, Margaret; Journal of Cultural Diversity, 2013 Summer; 20 (2): 100-4
Abstract: Despite modest gains in ethnic and racial minority representation in the nursing profession, the current nursing workforce does not mirror the U.S. population. Efforts to increase and maintain baccalaureate-prepared minority nurses to begin to reflect the diverse population needing culturally responsive, high quality care is a continuing goal of nursing education and practice. Because of this, initiatives focusing on increasing ethnic and cultural diversity of healthcare workers are of high priority.

5. Preparing nurses to work in primary care: educators' perspectives
By Albutt, Gary; Ali, Parveen; Watson, Roger; Nursing Standard, 2013 May 8; 27 (36): 41-6
Abstract: To report nurse educators' perspectives of the appropriateness of pre-registration nursing education programmes in preparing nurses to practise in primary care. Method Data were collected through semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews with eight nurse educators, and were subject to thematic analysis. Findings Nurse educators believed that nursing education programmes did not adequately prepare newly qualified nurses to work in primary care because they provided limited experience in this setting. Conclusion Factors such as shortage of practice placements in primary care and lack of mentors to supervise and support students were identified as major barriers to student learning and subsequent preparedness to work in primary care..

Potpourri of Articles - Nursing Inquiry

6. Black nurse in white space? Rethinking the in/visibility of race within the Australian nursing workplace.
By Mapedzahama, Virginia; Rudge, Trudy; West, Sandra; Perron, Amelie; Nursing Inquiry, 2012 Jun; 19 (2): 153-64
Abstract: Rethinking the in/visibility of race within the Australian nursing workplace This article presents an analysis of data from a critical qualitative study with 14 skilled black African migrant nurses, which document their experiences of nurse-to-nurse racism and racial prejudice in Australian nursing workplaces. Racism generally and nurse-to-nurse racism specifically, continues to be under-researched in explorations of these workplaces; when racism is researched, the focus is nurse-to-patient racism and racial prejudice. Similarly, research on the experiences of migrant nurses from a variety of ethnicities in Australia has tended to neglect their experiences of the social dynamics of the workplace, thus reinforcing their racialisation.

7. Understanding medication safety in healthcare settings: a critical review of conceptual models.
By Liu, Wei; Manias, Elizabeth; Gerdtz, Marie; Nursing Inquiry, 2011 Dec; 18 (4): 290-302.
Abstract: Communication can impact on the way in which medications are managed across healthcare settings. Organisational cultures and the environmental context provide an added complexity to how communication occurs in practice. The aims of this paper are: to examine six models relating to medication safety in various hospital and community settings, to consider the strengths and limitations of each model and to explore their applications to medication safety practices

8. Problems and consequences in the use of professional interpreters: qualitative analysis of incidents from primary healthcare.
By Hadziabdic, Emina; Heikkilä, Kristiina; Albin, Björn; Hjelm, Katarina; Nursing Inquiry, 2011 Sep; 18 (3): 253-61
Abstract: The aim of this study was to explore what problems are reported by healthcare professionals in primary healthcare concerning the use of interpreters and what the problems lead to. The study involved a single case in a real-life situation with qualitative content analysis of 60 incident reports written by different healthcare professionals. The main problems documented were related to language, such as lack of the interpreters with proficiency in a particular language, and to organisational routines, with difficulties in the availability of interpreters and access to the interpreter agency.

9. Intercultural communication in child and family health: insights from postcolonial feminist scholarship and three-body analysis.
By Grant J; Luxford Y; Nursing Inquiry, 2008 Dec; 15 (4): 309-19
Abstract: Concerns about intercultural communication practices in child and family health were raised during a South Australian ethnographic study. The family partnership model was observed as a universal pedagogic tool introduced into the host organisation in 2003. It has a role in shaping and reshaping cultural production within child health practice. In this study, we draw on insights from postcolonial feminist scholarship together with three-body analysis to critique the theoretical canons of care that inform intercultural communication in the child and family health setting. We contend that although the family partnership model may be very useful, its intended universal application is problematic in the context of multiculture

10. 'Being appropriately unusual': a challenge for nurses in health-promoting conversations with families.  
By Benzein EG; Hagberg M; Saveman B; Nursing Inquiry, 2008 Jun; 15 (2): 106-15
Abstract: This study describes the theoretical assumptions and the application for health-promoting conversations, as a communication tool for nurses when talking to patients and their families. The conversations can be used on a promotional, preventive and healing level when working with family-focused nursing. They are based on a multiverse, salutogenetic, relational and reflecting approach, and acknowledge each person's experience as equally valid, and focus on families' resources, and the relationship between the family and its environment. By posing reflective questions, reflection is made possible for both the family and the nurses. Family members are invited to tell their story, and they can listen to and learn from each other. Nurses are challenged to build a co-creating partnership with families in order to acknowledge them as experts on how to lead their lives and to use their own expert knowledge in order to facilitate new meanings to surface. In this way, family health can be enhanced..

Journal - Table of Contents

11. From Safeguard, September/October 2013, Issue 141
Feature stories
11A. Community of people
Good relationships and good safety performance went hand-in-hand on a major Canterbury construction project.

11B.Contract killing
The use of contractors continues to proliferate, but how well is their health and safety being managed?

11C. Ministers maps out the future
The Government has responded to the Independent Taskforce with its Working Safer package of OHS reforms.

11D. Umbrella body
The Government intends to facilitate the creation of a new umbrella body to boost OHS capability. 

11E. The right chemistry
At Huntly power station, a chemist’s enthusiasm for health and safety has ensured her name is known well beyond the laboratory. .

11F. Doing it by the book
Sarah Fry reports on the project which reduced the burden of manual handling for Nelson library staff (and won the occupational health category at the 2013 awards).

Conferences & Seminars

12. NIHI Symposium on Big Data in Healthcare
The University of Auckland’s National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI) is kicking off a discussion on the role of Big Data in healthcare at its inaugural Symposium on 31 October 2013
Date; 31 October 2013
Venue: The Auckland War Memorial Museum Event Centre, Auckland
For more information/to register visit: www.nihi.auckland.ac.nz/bigdata

13. 2013 Australasian Tuberculosis Conference
Date: 28 & 29 November 2013
Venue: Hilton Hotel, AUCKLAND
More information: www.tbconference.co.nz

News - National

14. Shearer fights on for school food
ODT - Wed, 9 Oct 2013
David Shearer Labour MP David Shearer will continue to push for free breakfasts and lunches in poorer schools despite no longer being leader of his party. Mr Shearer put the Education (Food in Schools) Amendment Bill into the ballot while he was leader in an attempt to get Labour Party policy on food in schools into law. The bill came out of the ballot a month after he resigned as leader and he now holds the energy and foreign affairs portfolios
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/276271/shearer-fights-school-
food

15. Superbugs tipped to outlast antibotics
TVNZ - Thursday October 03, 2013 Source: AAP
The day will come when drugs can no longer fight off bacterial infections, the annual Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) has heard
http://tvnz.co.nz/lifestyle-news/superbugs-tipped-outlast-antibotics
-5598549

16. Pills made from poop cure serious gut infections
TVNZ - Friday October 04, 2013 Source: AP
Doctors have found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills that can cure serious gut infections - a less yucky way to do "faecal transplants." Canadian researchers tried this on 27 patients and cured them all after strong antibiotics failed to help
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/pills-made-poop-cure-serious-gut-
infections-5598831

News - International

17.Australians disengaged at work: report
Sydney Morning Herald - October 9, 2013 - 1:42PM
Australians are suffering from a serious case of workplace malaise, with a report finding more than 70 per cent are either ambivalent about or completely disengaged with their jobs.
The Gallup study of employee engagement, released on Wednesday, found that only 24 per cent of Australians are engaged with their job compared to 60 per cent who were not engaged and another 16 per cent who were actively disengaged
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/australians-
disengaged-at-work-report-20131009-2v7o7.html

18. Nerve signal and hormone transport discoveries win Nobel prize
Medical News Today - 8 October 2013
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267142.php