Sarah Jeong

End of life care education, past and present: A review of the literature

BACKGROUND Research on end of life care education suggests that undergraduate nursing students are largely unprepared to provide end of life care to dying patients and their families. Although there have been attempts to address the issue of lack of preparedness, little is known on how to improve this. LITERATURE REVIEW AIMS To examine how end of life care education has been delivered to undergraduate nursing students and to critically discuss the research on modes of delivery and teaching strategies. REVIEW METHODS An extensive literature search on end of life care education in the undergraduate nursing curriculum was conducted in CINAHL, Mosbys Index, Cochrane Database, Scopus, Eric via Proquest, and Medline. 18 research papers published between 1984 and 2012 that met the selection criteria are included in the review. FINDINGS Findings of these 18 articles are reported under two main themes: Modes of End of Life Education Delivery and End of Life Care Education Initiatives. CONCLUSION This review highlights issues with end of life care education and suggests that end of life care simulation is an innovative strategy that may help to prepare undergraduate nursing students to provide quality end of life care.

Migration of nurses in Australia: where and why?

The Australian health care workforce has benefited from an increasing migration of nurses over the past decades. The nursing profession is the largest single health profession, making up over half of the Australian health care workforce. Migration ofnurses into the Australian nursing workforce impacts significantly on the size ofthe workforce and the capacity to provide health care to the Australian multicultural community. Migration of nurses plays an important role in providing a solution to the ongoing challenges of workforce attraction and retention, hence an understanding of the factors contributing to nurse migration is important. This paper will critically analyse factors reported to impact on migration of nurses to Australia, in particular in relation to: (1) globalisation; (2) Australian society and nursing workforce; and (3) personal reasons. The current and potential implications of nurse migration are not limited to the Australian health care workforce, but also extend to political, socioeconomic and other aspects in Australia.

Conceptualization of an evidence-based smartphone innovation for caregivers and persons living with dementia

Recent statistics released by Alzheimers Disease International has highlighted how prevalent dementia will become in the next couple of years. Along with the increased incidence of individuals being diagnosed with dementia, there has also been an increment in the number of informal carers for people living with dementia. A recent report highlighted that in Australia, there are an estimated of 200,000 informal carers as of 2011. Caring for people who are living with dementia is not an easy task. Previous studies have highlighted that as much as 65% of caregivers do experience symptoms suggestive of depressive symptoms in the process of care. With the rapid advances in technology, it is of no surprise that information technology and its related innovations have been used in dementia care. A review of the existing literature shows that much of these innovations are focused on the care of patients affiliated with dementia. However, clearly interventions focusing on the needs of the dementia cohort of patient are limited. There are currently more emerging studies demonstrating the efficacy of web-based interventional toolkits for carers who are caring for individuals with dementia. Whilst there are previous studies demonstrating the effectiveness of smartphone interventions for dementia patients, there remains a paucity of smartphone based interventions for caregivers who are living with people with dementia. This technical note describes the conceptualization of an evidence based smartphone intervention for patients living with dementia, as well as for carers of these patients.

The majority of hospitalised elderly people at high risk of dying have thought about end-of-life care, though documentation of preferences in medical records may be lacking

Commentary on: Heyland DK, Barwich D, Pichora D, et al. Failure to engage hospitalised elderly patients and their families in advance care planning. JAMA Intern Med 2013;9:778–87.[OpenUrl][1] Since the emergence of advanced care planning (ACP), numerous studies have focused on the difficulties associated with implementing this in various healthcare settings. … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DJAMA%2BIntern%2BMed%26rft.volume%253D9%26rft.spage%253D778%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx

The Association between Age, Comorbidities and Use of Radiotherapy in Women with Breast Cancer: Implications for Survival

Background: Radiotherapy (RT) plays an important role in the management and survival of patients with breast cancer. The aim of this study was to examine the association between age, comorbidities and use of RT in this population. Methods: Patients diagnosed with breast cancer from 2004–2013 were identified from the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Database (NCDB). Follow-up time was measured from the date of diagnosis (baseline) to the date of death or censoring. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used as the measure of association. Results: Independently of comorbidities and other important outcome-related factors, patients >65 years of age who received RT survived significantly longer than those who did not receive RT (aHR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.52–0.54). However, as women aged, those with comorbidities were less likely to receive RT (adjusted p-trend by age < 0.0001). Conclusions: The development of decision-making tools to assist clinicians, and older women with breast cancer and comorbidities, are needed to facilitate personalized treatment plans regarding RT. This is particularly relevant as the population ages and the number of women with breast cancer is expected to increase in the near future.

Experiences of older people following the introduction of consumer-directed care to home care packages: A qualitative descriptive study

To explore the experiences of older people receiving home care package (HCP) support following the introduction of consumer‐directed care (CDC) by the Australian government on 1 July 2015.

Emergency nurses attitudes towards older people in the emergency department: a cross-sectional study

Aim: To report nurses’ attitudes towards older people in the emergency department (ED). Background: A nurse’s attitude towards an older person can have an effect on nurses’ work practices and interactions and can result in adverse outcomes for the older person. Design: A national cross-sectional survey using a previously validated instrument Older Person in Acute Care Survey (OPACS) was conducted to measure emergency nurses’ attitudes towards older people in their care. Methods: Members of the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia (CENA) were invited to participate in the study. There were 371 (39%) completed surveys returned. Results: The OPACS survey identified that ED nurses have positive attitudes towards older people in the ED. Conclusion: The implications for practice are clinically significant because positive attitudes can result in prevention of discrimination and marginalisation of the older person in the ED.