Stephanie Fox-Young

Do psycho-social factors contribute more to symptom reporting by middle-aged women than hormonal status?

Six hundred women aged between 45 and 54 were randomly selected from the electoral roll in Brisbane, Australia. A questionnaire addressing their symptoms, hormone status and psycho-social factors was successfully administered to 381 women (64% of the original sample; 83% of those contactable). Although cardiovascular symptoms were experienced by 25% of the sample, the most common (hot flushes) ranked only tenth on a list of recently experienced symptoms. The association of hormone status with symptoms was weak in comparison with other factors. Most symptoms were reported by women who were perimenopausal, had undergone a hysterectomy, or were currently using hormone replacement therapy. A poor mental health index was strongly associated with all groups reporting symptoms. It is concluded that clinicians responding to symptoms from middle-aged women should continue to address psychosocial factors just as vigorously as those related to their hormone status.

Collaborative voices: ongoing reflections on nursing competencies

Abstract In a rapidly changing Australian health care environment, providers of undergraduate nursing programs are continually upgrading their assessment methods to ensure that graduates are competent and safe to practice. Competence assessment is based on the existing Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council (ANMC) Competency Standards for Registered Nurses. It is acknowledged that there are issues surrounding the validity and reliability of current assessment methods, primarily due to organisational constraints both at the University and the service provider level.There are a number of highly reliable tools available that enable assessment of nursing students in the psychomotor domain. Assessment in other domains is less precise.This paper explores some of the issues relating to competence assessment processes in order to promote discussion and discourse between educators, facilities and policy makers. It is envisaged that increased debate will result in an enhanced level of academic and clinical preparation for the upcoming nursing workforce in this country.

Simulation based learning in Australian midwifery curricula: results of a national electronic survey.

OBJECTIVE The primary aim of this paper is to describe the extent, nature and types of simulation used as a learning method in contemporary Australian midwifery curricula. METHOD An electronic survey was developed using Graduate e-Cohort Pro and administered to key midwifery academics who had responsibility for 38 curricula leading to initial midwifery registration in Australia. FINDINGS Engagement of midwifery academics in the survey was high with a response rate of 82%. There is a range of midwifery programs by type and level of award across Australia that vary in duration, enrolments, and by component theoretical and clinical hours. The proportion of simulation hours in curricula varied across programs accounting for up to 17% of clinical program hours. However simulation was used extensively to teach all identified generic technical skills (n=16) midwifery technical skills (n=51) and generic non-technical skills (n=6). Most commonly used simulation types were scenarios, peer-to-peer learning, partial task trainers and standardised patients. Simulation types were suited to the learning tasks. CONCLUSION Simulation is used extensively in midwifery education in Australia. Further research is required to understand the curriculum development imperatives of simulation and there is a need to adequately resource and support staff in the use of simulation to provide high quality simulation learning experiences for students.

Insights on Aboriginal Grief Practices from the Northern Territory, Australia

The rich data drawn from a study to develop an innovative model for Indigenous palliative care are presented to help address the paucity of authentic Indigenous voices describing their grief practices. Interviews with patients, carers, Aboriginal health care workers, health care workers and interpreters were conducted in four geographical areas of the Northern Territory in Australia. Insights and descriptions of the cultural processes and beliefs that follow the death of an Aboriginal person led to the identification of a number of key themes. These included: the emotional pain of grief; traditionalist ways of dealing with grief; the importance of viewing the body; the sharing of grief among large family and community networks, with crying, wailing, ceremonial singing, telling stories and dealing with blame all playing a part in the bereavement processes. Ways for Westerners to offer assistance in culturally sensitive ways were also identified by the participants, and are reported here to enable health workers to begin to understand and respond appropriately to traditionalist ways of experiencing and reacting to grief.

NATPGE: Understanding registered nurses' attitudes towards post graduate education

Nursing education is a dynamic process designed to enable nurses to competently meet the healthcare needs of society. Health system restructuring has been associated with diminishing postgraduate specialist nursing numbers worldwide. Valid instruments that monitor and evaluate nurses’ attitudes to gauge educational barriers and facilitators are a central component in planning effective education, and have been unavailable. Overall both the CE and the RNs ranked the NATPGE, using the CVI, as a realistic training platform that would be useful for evaluating RNs’ attitudes towards postgraduate education. The comments received from the CE resulted in some minor changes to the wording of some items for better clarity and simplicity. No particular concerns were raised about any of the items by the CE. The CE was agreeable that the items were arranged in a positively and negatively worded sequence, which was intentional as to prevent response bias. The present research indicates very good content and face validity and whilst the test-retest reliability overall was moderate, several individual questions did have poor kappa values.