Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Do Inquiries Make A Difference Or Are They A Waste Of Time?, Heather Gluyas

Nursing Conference Papers

Government inquiries into system failures are expensive, time consuming and have an enormous impact professionally and personally on those involved. They are set up to investigate systemic failures in healthcare delivery. Such major failures are different from a single event failure that may capture media attention or be the focus of a coronial inquest. Health system failures that result in an inquiry are distinguished by the scale and magnitude of the breakdown in care. The timescale of the events may stretch over months or years, and there are a number of different occasions where poor patient outcomes (including patient deaths) …

Collaborative Education: An Innovative Method Of Teaching Undergraduate Nursing Students, Karen Clark-Burg

Nursing Conference Papers

The aim of this presentation is to provide you with an insight into the structure of a unit I teach at Notre Dame University, where we have incorporated the idea of collaborative education as a method of teaching our undergraduate nursing student.

As a definition, “Collaborative education is an active learning experience crossing institutional, professional and historical boundaries”. That active learning experience is the essence of collaborative education, and is often expressed with the phrase, “learning by doing”. Academics and health care organisations become experts in the collaborative process only by immersion in it through actively working with each other …

Looking Forward To A Safer Future: The New Who Guidelines For Safe Surgery, Jed S. Duff

Nursing Conference Papers

Each year in Australia there are approximately 2 million hospital admissions for surgical services (Australia’s Health, 2008) and this number is set to grow significantly, with forecasts of at least a 22% increase by 2021 (Birrell, Hawthorne & Rapson, 2003). Surprisingly, for such a high-risk high-volume specialty, we have very little data on perioperative adverse events. This lack of even basic data means that we are unable to track event rates, leaving us oblivious to the full extent of the problem.

Research on intraoperative adverse events tells us that the rate of major complications is between 3-16%, with a mortality …

Clinical Placement Experiences In The Highlands Of Vietnam, Heather Gluyas, Annette Fraser

Nursing Conference Papers

There is a considerable body of literature which supports the value of international placements, however there is little reported in the literature where these experiences have been in remote third world countries. This presentation will present the experiences of the students and their clinical supervisors who traveled to the remote Highlands of Vietnam to provide health assessment clinics and health education in schools.

The objectives were to provide the opportunity for students to develop professionally and personally through:

• Experiencing a clinical placement within a health care system other than the Australian system

• Working within a health care system …

Glasgow Coma Scale: Improving Practice In Non-Neuro Specialty Wards, Lauren Rullis, Tracey Thornley

Nursing Conference Papers

The Glasgow Coma Scale published in 1974 was designed with simplicity in mind. The tool was developed for use in a wide range of clinical environments and for staff who had no specialised training (Teasdale and Jennett 1974) ensuring standardisation in assessment. Evidence (Waterhouse 2008) however suggests that there are ongoing problems in the use of the GCS assessment, and the impact that this might have on patient outcomes are unknown. Variations in practice have been found in all areas, including neurological specialty wards, however the skill level of nursing staff in non neurological areas is concerning with inconsistencies in …

Critical Factors Within An Inquiry Process That Influence Positive Changes In Clinical Governance, Heather Gluyas

Nursing Conference Papers

Major failures in patient safety often lead to high profile inquiries set up to establish the facts, and to identify areas of improvement to prevent further failures. In order to learn from inquiries, we need to be able to identify if, and how, the inquiry process influences improvements.

Using a case study strategy, this research study examined the impact or influence of the Douglas Inquiry on KEMH’s clinical governance systems. The research focused on two areas that were highlighted in the final Inquiry report as requiring reform. These systems deal with the clinical credentialing and performance review and the involvement …

Interactive Video Method Of Teaching And Assessment: Poster Presentation, Karen Clark-Burg, Selma Alliex, Annie Das

Nursing Conference Papers

The School of Nursing (University of Notre Dame Australia) was very keen to trial a method of teaching and assessment in one of the Nursing skills units. Students were divided into two groups to experience both traditional and interactive video methods using a commercially available software program in a cross-over research. It was expected that this strategy would enhance students ‘deeper learning’ and better standards of skills.

Videoing As A Teaching And Learning Tool In An Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum, Selma Alliex, Karen Clark-Burg, Annie Das

Nursing Conference Papers

This conference addressed a range of critically important themes related to nursing education. It was designed to bring together nursing educators from across the globe, who are proactive in providing innovative educational practice to meet the changing needs of nursing; nursing students and healthcare personnel.