Lamp June 2015

lamp THE MAGAZINE OF THE NSW NURSES AND MIDWIVES’ ASSOCIATION

VOLUME 72 No.5 JUNE 2015

Lismore midwives shut beds FAIR GO FOR COUNTRY MOTHERS Print Post Approved: PP100007890

AND THEY CALLED US LIARS!

CREATIVE CARERS

CONTENTS

CONTACTS NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association For all membership enquiries and assistance, including Lamp subscriptions and change of address, contact our Sydney office.

Sydney Office 50 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo NSW 2017 (all correspondence) T 8595 1234 (metro) 1300 367 962 (non-metro) F 9662 1414 E gensec@nswnma.asn.au W www.nswnma.asn.au

VOLUME 72 No.5 JUNE 2015

Hunter Office 8-14 Telford Street, Newcastle East NSW 2300 NSWNMA Communications Manager Janaki Chellam-Rajendra T 8595 1258

COVER STORY

12 | Lismore midwives shut beds Heightened risk to mothers and babies as management slashes midwife numbers.

Mary-Ann Hyde RM and Heather Ryan RM PHOTOGRAPH: MARK STAPELBERG

REGULARS

5 6 8 29 32 35 39 41 43 45 46

Editorial Your letters News in brief Ask Judith Obituaries Social media Crossword Nursing research online Books Movies of the month Diary dates

SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

20 | Creative carers parade their talent

MINIMUM STAFFING

17 | Fair go for country mothers

8 | Five pairs of MBT Pata Classic to give away!

Produced by Hester Communications T 9568 3148 Press Releases Send your press releases to: F 9662 1414 E gensec@nswnma.asn.au Editorial Committee • Brett Holmes, NSWNMA General Secretary • Judith Kiejda, NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary • Coral Levett, NSWNMA President • Peg Hibbert, Hornsby & Ku-Ring-Gai Hospital • Michelle Cashman, Long Jetty Continuing Care • Richard Noort, Justice Health Advertising Patricia Purcell T 8595 2139 or 0416 259 845 or F 9662 1414 E ppurcell@nswnma.asn.au

The NSWNMA is seeking legally enforceable minimum staffing levels for rural maternity services.

AGED CARE

26 | Community support grows for aged care RNs

The Lamp spoke to three community members about why they want to keep RNs in aged care facilities 24/7.

COMPETITION

For all editorial enquiries letters and diary dates T 8595 1234 E lamp@nswnma.asn.au M 50 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo NSW 2017

PRIVATISATION

30 | And they called us liars!

Information and Records Management Centre To find archived articles from The Lamp, or to borrow from the NSWNMA nursing and health collection, contact: Jeannette Bromfield, Coordinator T 8595 2175 E gensec@nswnma.asn.au The Lamp ISSN: 0047-3936 General disclaimer The Lamp is the official magazine of the NSWNMA. Views expressed in articles are contributors’ own and not necessarily those of the NSWNMA. Statements of fact are believed to be true, but no legal responsibility is accepted for them. All material appearing in The Lamp is covered by copyright and may not be reproduced without prior written permission. The NSWNMA takes no responsibility for the advertising appearing herein and it does not necessarily endorse any products advertised.

Privacy Privacy statement: The NSWNMA collects personal information from members in order to perform our role of representing their industrial and professional interests. We place great emphasis on maintaining and enhancing the privacy and security of your personal information. Personal information is protected under law and can only be released to someone else where the law requires or where you give permission. If you have concerns about your personal information please contact the NSWNMA office.

If you are still not satisfied that your privacy is being maintained you can contact the Privacy Commission.

Subscriptions for 2015 Free to all Association members. Professional members can subscribe to the magazine at a reduced rate of $55.

Individuals $80, Institutions $135, Overseas $145.

It has been revealed that the true cost of the new, privatised Northern Beaches Hospital is more than twice the figure claimed by Health Minister Jillian Skinner.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 3

Being a member of the NSWNMA is easy!

Update your contact details on the NSWNMA Online portal and WIN A FABULOUS iPAD MINI Use the Association’s online portal to change your membership details – you will not only enjoy having the choice to do this at a time that suits you – but your name will automatically go in the monthly draw to

win an iPad mini!

It’s easy. Simply register with your membership number, name and email address and create your own password.

From then on use your member number and password to log in directly to the Members login area on the website.

You can now change your details at any time – address, workplace, credit card number, mobile number, etc. You can pay fees online, print a tax statement or request a reprint of your membership card – it’s simple.

Don’t forget to tell your friends to join online!

All those who use our online portal from 1 April – 30 June 2015 will be automatically entered into the draw.

MEMBERSHIP ONLINE VIA www.nswnma.asn.au

EDITORIAL We appreciate and are honoured by your confidence Brett Holmes and Judith Kiejda have just been reelected unopposed as the General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary of the NSWNMA. Brett has also just celebrated 25 years working for the union.

BRETT HOLMES GENERAL SECRETARY

“I look forward to the next four years in this special role.”

It’s an honour and a privilege to be reelected unopposed having held the position of General Secretary since August 2002. Every day is a new challenge in this job. When I look back on my 25 years service in this union, 13 as leader, I’m often amazed at what we’ve all achieved together during this period.

There have been very good improvements in the wages and conditions of nurses and midwives in all our sectors. The very concept of reasonable workloads has been recognised and implemented as a workplace right. And that important right has been strengthened with the introduction of ratios based on nursing hours per patient day in our public health system. This was a truly historic win for nurses, midwives and patient safety. It sets a precedent for their extension into aged care and private hospitals. All these achievements have been won in a very challenging political environment.

That difficult political environment is still with us. We have a state government that has removed hard-won industrial rights that have been historically recognised by an independent and fair arbitration system. There have been relentless attacks on other workers’ rights including the gutting of workers compensation.

These attacks and the hostility of conservative

governments and employers towards unions have made our job difficult. But this union and the union movement in general have shown that a united and resolute membership can overcome these challenges.Your Rights At Work campaign, to which nurses and midwives contributed enormously, was effective enough to see off WorkChoices.

Our success in all these campaigns has been based on the commitment and courage of our membership and having the financial and organising capacity to prosecute those campaigns.Your confidence in our leadership allowed us to set up the Nurse Power Fund which gave us the resources to bring the voices of nurses and midwives to the public arena during election and industrial campaigns. It has also allowed us to promote our professions to the wider community.

Our strong financial position has also allowed us to provide insurance for our members and save a number of nurses and midwives injured on the way to or from work from complete financial ruin.

When I started at this union 25 years ago it never entered my mind I could be the leader of this magnificent union but fate and opportunity has allowed me that privilege and I look forward to the next four years in this special role.

JUDITH KIEJDA ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY Like Brett, I too would like to thank you for the faith you have shown me in my role as Assistant General Secretary.

Both Brett and I recognize that a central reason for our success in delivering gains for nurses and midwives is the great team of councillors we work with. Our council reflects all parts of our membership and ensures that we are in touch with the concerns and aspirations of nurses and midwives across the profession. Their commitment, sacrifice and leadership skills have been significant in all our successful campaigns.

I have been very proud to see how our union has grown over the last thirteen years – not only in numbers but also in outlook and capacity. We have learnt to be innovative and to think outside a typical union structure embracing community as well as industrial

campaigning and engaging with an international agenda.

I am proud that our members connect with such issues as fair tax and trade agreements that may seem to exist outside the workplace but still undoubtedly impact on, and have consequences for nurses and midwives and their families. Similarly making the connection between government and international policies and what happens at work.

My role representing nurses and midwives at the ACTU and Unions NSW has shown me the importance of nurses and midwives to the broader union movement. We are the face of a modern union movement.

I congratulate all those nurses and midwives who have deepened their involvement and engagement with their union.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 5

YOUR LETTERS

L ET T ER O F T H E M ONT H

Poem worthy of award

My congratulations to you for including the splendidly written poem Among Fifteen Wounded Men by Margaret A Whitton of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, to accompany the article in the April Lamp relating to the nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service.

As an educator and ex-university lecturer in Australian poetry, I was most impressed by the expressions and emotions so searingly conveyed within that poem.

The imagery was sensitive and poignant, with an immediacy that transcended time and place.

The personal relationship between the poem’s author and her grandmother, Bernice Collopy, was gently and intimately suggested.

The poem acutely brings to life the sights, sounds and heartrending realities experienced

by Sister Callopy and the 15 wounded men whose photo accompanied the poem.

This is a profoundly moving poem, which is only really appreciated on a second and third reading to comprehend the depth and strength of the various images depicted.

The external appearance and underlying intense emotions of the wounded men are mostly eloquently suggested, as are the tender ministrations of Sister Callopy.

I conclude this poem to be worthy of inclusion in an anthology of Australian war poetry and well deserving of an award by the NSWNMA. It is indeed a touching tribute to the 15 wounded men, to Sister Bernice Callopy and to the skills of her granddaughter, the poet!

Dr Caroline M Watson-Ley CNS, Roseville

6 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

Get ready to vote It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Brett Holmes and Judith Kiejda on their election (unopposed) to the positions of General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary respectively, for another four-year term of office. As President I have had the privilege of working closely with Brett and Judith in their leadership capacity for some time now and I admire their deep commitment, dedication and passion for the work they do on behalf of the nurses and midwives of New South Wales.

Every four years the Association rules permit the members to elect a leadership team to take the NSWNMA forward. This includes the paid positions of General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary and also a team of 21 unpaid Councillors, who, to be eligible for election, must be a current member and workplace delegate. Together, these 23 members take the role of a board of management to lead our organisation.

On or around 22 May this year you were sent your voting papers to elect the 21 councillors who will join Brett and Judith at the leadership table.

I encourage members to exercise their democratic right and take this opportunity to vote. We have until 22 June for the NSW Electoral Commission to receive our voting papers.

Councillors play an important role in our union, working as a team with the successful and strong leadership provided by Brett and Judith, in their ongoing focus of delivering outcomes for nurses and midwives.

Coral Levett NSWNMA President, Caringbah Redundant officers are not new recruits Kirkconnell Correctional Centre nurses made redundant in 2011 should not be treated as new recruits when the prison reopens [in July].

Prison work is dangerous and you need a particular person to be an officer or nurse. Prior to the Kirkconnell closure in 2011, officers, administrators and nurses were carrying out their duties and responsibilities as normal – highly skilled, qualified and trained staff protecting the community.

The Select Committee on the Closure or Downsizing of Corrective Services NSW facilities, which I attended, confirmed that NSW Corrective Services failed to carry out a rural impact statement prior to the closure of regional prisons.

Hundreds of local jobs at Kirkconnell and Grafton were lost, with significant impact on small businesses in Bathurst and Lithgow.

Our local member Paul Toole should be pushing for those who want their jobs back to be reoffered them with no strings attached. Small businesses, which lost thousands of dollars in contracts, [should] be offered them again. The only requirement for staff who lost their jobs and want them back should be a criminal record check.

Let’s see what our local member will do for those families and small businesses that suffered greatly from the failure of Corrective Services bureaucrats to do their job.

I expect our union to push for nurses made redundant to get their jobs back at Kirkconnell.

Anthony Craig ex-Kirkconnell Prison nurse, Lithgow NSWNMA responds It is a great shame that, as highlighted in this letter, significant decisions such as the closure of important public facilities occur based on the “then” rather than what community needs may be into the future. Much more research thought and care needs to be taken prior to closing facilities and services, with the consequent dislocation to the community, employees and their families.

YOUR LETTERS

What’s in it for me?

This has been asked on many occasions, when an EN is invited/encouraged to join the Enrolled Nurse Professional Association of NSW. So what is in it for me?

The Association is now in its 21st year. The membership fee has remained the same, despite the ever-increasing cost of living. The Association endeavours to hold the annual twoday conference in a different area each year, giving ENs from all over the state a chance to attend. The conference is a great place to meet new people, network with colleagues and catch up with those met at past conferences.You can earn CPD hours and membership on your resume is good for brownie points.

The executive and committee are all voluntary positions. Most work fulltime but all are committed to being your voice.

You are eligible to stand for executive/committee after two years membership.

Members are invited to represent ENs on various committees and associations. We also have regular meetings with the Chief Nurse of NSW. These meetings provide a forum for ENs to voice their concerns relating to their roles in all areas of the health system.

Information on this year’s conference and how to join can be found on our website www.enpansw.org.au.

We look forward to welcoming new members and any suggestions they have that will enhance our Association.

I hope that answers the question: “What’s in it for me?�

Chris Anderson President ENPANSW, Gorokan RNs 24/7 I wrote to the Health Minister to say “I want RNs 24/7 in my mum’s nursing home�. The lower levels of staff don’t have the skill levels.

What will happen to all the current students when they graduate? Some nursing assistants at Mum’s home are studying and accumulating HECS debts to become RNs. They are lovely bright migrants who hope to work in aged care, unlike many Australian-born RNs. They will be so disappointed if so many RN jobs go from aged care!

Jill Wright retired RN,Waverley

Leeches and a coincidence!

I wrote to Column 8 in the Sydney Morning Herald about my nursing experience and it was published. I thought this would be a bit of light relief for your members! It was a happier time ...

Diane Erickson of West Ryde remembers her days as charge sister of the Sydney Hospital Hand Unit, when leeches were used to “remove excess blood from wounds� (as she politely puts it). She also remembers that they were sneaky little suckers and “there always seemed to be one enterprising escapee who made bed-making a lucky dip for the unwary�. Column 8 is feeling decidedly queasy now.

In an amazing coincidence, the same Column 8 carried an item from Nola Tucker. In 1980 Nola’s daughter Sue and I commenced nursing training at Royal North Shore Hospital. We were best mates but, sadly, lost touch. I will always remember the kindness Nola and her family bestowed on a homesick country kid unused to the big smoke.

What are the chances that all these years later we would end up in the same newspaper column?

Diane Erickson West Ryde

NURSES AND MIDWIVES:

IT’S TAX TIME AGAIN! Your end of financial year tax statement will be available online from 1 July 2014 via our Members Only portal on the NSWNMA website.

To access your tax statements 24/7, simply log on at www.nswnma.asn.au .

DON’T FORGET! YOUR NSWNMA MEMBERSHIP FEES ARE TAX DEDUCTABLE.

HAVE YOUR SAY Send your letters to: Editorial Enquiries email lamp@nswnma.asn.au fax 9662 1414 mail 50 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo NSW 2017.

Please include a high resolution photo along with your name, address, phone and membership number.

Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

Anonymous letters will not be published.

Letterr of the month The letter judged j g the b best each month will win a $50 $ Coles Grou up & Myer gift card!

unionshopper pp r.com.au .

1300 368 117

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 7

COMPETITION

NEWS IN BRIEF

Australia

Nursing: Australia’s “most ethical and honest profession”

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Five people will be given a pair of Pata Classic Zip shoes s . To ership applyy, simply write your name, address and memb membership number on the back of an envelope and send to: MBT Competition, 50 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo, NSW W, 2017 Please note: only one entry per member will be accepted. Competition entries from NSWNMA members only. Competition opens 1 June 2015 and closes 30 June 2015. The prize is drawn on 1st of the month following the competition. If a redraw is required for an unclaimed prize it must be held up to 3 months from the original draw date. NSW permit no: LTTPM/15/00192.

Nurses have been recognised by the broader community as representing the most ethical and honest profession in Australia for the 21st year in a row.

According to the latest Roy Morgan Image of Professions Survey, 92 per cent of Australians aged 14 and over consider nurses to be the most highly regarded occupation, up one per cent on the previous year’s poll.

NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes welcomed the acknowledgement.

“It is again welcome news for our nurses and midwives to be publicly appreciated for their professional commitment in this annual survey,” he said.

“Our members are in hospitals, community health, aged care facilities, disability services and other health settings, working hard each and every day and night as advocates for safe patient care, ensuring their communities receive the best possible health care.

“The unsociable hours of shift work require many of them to sacrifice a great deal of the lifestyle choices other workers take for granted.

“Nurses and midwives are often intertwined into some of the most intimate moments in a patient’s life and as a result take their ethical and professional responsibilities very seriously.

“I’m extremely proud of the nurses and midwives in NSW: if only our state government would honour this widespread respect by taking their calls for improved and expanded nurse-to-patient ratios, built on nursing hours, on board.”

“I’m extremely proud of the nurses and midwives in NSW: if only our state government would honour this widespread respect by taking their calls for improved and expanded nurse-to-patient ratios, on board.”

NEWS IN BRIEF

Britain

The Lamp is for sale!

The 150-year-old desk lamp belonging to Florence Nightingale.

No, the Association is not selling its magazine. A 150-year-old desk lamp belonging to Florence Nightingale is up for auction.

Auctioneer Charles Hanson told The Guardian it was a remarkable find, originating from the family home in Derbyshire, England.

“If only it could talk, it could tell us so much about the passion Florence had for her work and the wellbeing of others,” he said.

He said the 25cm-tall lamp had “wonderful provenance” and could be traced to two sisters who had been in service to Nightingale at Lea Hurst in the 1850s.

When the Nightingale family left Lea Hurst the sisters were given the lamp and told “to take best care of it”, which is how it came to be with the current owner who is offering it for auction.

Nightingale’s experience nursing soldiers in filthy conditions during the Crimean war in the 1850s drove her to campaign for greater sanitation and cleanliness in hospitals.

She recounted in her own memoirs how her work with the troops, as she made night rounds of field hospital wards full of the injured, earned the famous nickname “the lady with the lamp”.

Australia

Liquor reform leads to drop in assaults A report by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows a substantial reduction in the number of assaults in the Kings Cross and Sydney CBD entertainment precincts, following changes to laws governing the sale of alcohol.

The report covered the period between the introduction of the changes in February 2014 and September of that year. It found there was an immediate and substantial reduction in assault in Kings Cross (down 32%) and reduction in assault in the Sydney CBD (down 40%).

The laws require venues in the Sydney CBD and Kings Cross to deny re-entry or entry of new patrons from 1.30am and to stop serving alcohol at 3am.

The laws came into being after a concerted campaign by police and health-related organisations including the NSWNMA. Meanwhile, a comprehensive survey of Australia’s drinking habits has found that the number of young people drinking to get drunk rose to nearly 60 per cent in the past year, while 73 per cent had loaded up on cheaper drinks at home before going out.

The latest annual alcohol poll by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education shows 57 per cent of young people had drank with the intention of getting drunk, compared with 50 per cent in 2014.

Britain

Short men at greater risk of heart disease A study of nearly 200,000 people has found that for every 6.35 centimetres (2.5 inches) less in height, there is a 13.5 per cent increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) or coronary artery disease. This means that someone who is 1.52 metres tall (5ft) would have a 32 per cent increased risk of CHD compared to someone who is 1.71m (5ft 6).

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Leicester, the University of Cambridge and numerous other institutes and universities across Britain and internationally and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers concluded that using a genetic approach there is “an association between genetically determined shorter height and an increased risk of CHD”. They suggest that this may in part be due to “the association between shorter height and an adverse lipid profile [levels of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and the calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol]”.

Interestingly, there was no significant association for women.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 9

NEWS IN BRIEF

Tropics

Mozzies love you? It’s genetic Why is one half of a couple plagued by mosquitoes on holiday, while the other is blissfully free of bites? Researchers have long thought this was to do with body odour.

In new research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Florida and the University of Nottingham, a series of non-identical and identical twins were tested. The study, published in medical journal PLOS One, found identical twins had similar levels of attractiveness to mosquitoes.

MOSQUITOES KILL AROUND 725,000 PEOPLE EVERY YEAR THROUGH MOSQUITOBORNE DISEASES SUCH AS MALARIA AND DENGUE FEVER. The researchers say their results “demonstrate an underlying genetic component detectable by mosquitoes through olfaction”. In other words, genetic differences account for at least some of the relative attractiveness of people to mosquitoes, and the insects can smell the difference.

They suggest some people may have developed a body odour that is less attractive to mosquitoes, which could then have been handed down through natural selection of favourable genes, as it would protect against diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.

The researchers warned that the relatively small sample size and the nature of the experiment meant they couldn’t be precise about their conclusions.

Mosquitos are the world’s deadliest animal according to information gathered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mosquitoes kill around 725,000 people every year through mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Britain

Older women dying younger Life expectancies for women in Britain aged 65, 75, 85 and 95 fell in 2012 compared with a year earlier. It was the first slip in all age groups in nearly two decades according to a report by Public Health England.

Age campaigners say the report shows that five years of austerity is beginning to take its toll on elderly people.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director for Age UK, told The Guardian: “This decrease in life expectancy, after many years of improvement, is like the canary in the coal mine: it is telling us that something has changed for the worse, so that fewer people are thriving in later life than they could or should.

“The most obvious likely culprit is the rapid decline of state-funded social care in recent years, which is leaving hundreds of thousands of older people to struggle on alone at home without any help.”

Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, agrees.

“This data is concerning because what we have had historically is a golden generation born after the First World War that have done very well with their health.

Beginning in the 1970s we have had increasing numbers of people belonging to that cohort who were living increasingly long,” he said.

“We know there have been these big cuts to social services and social support over the past few years and we need to know if this is having an effect.”

Sweden

Move to limit private healthcare profit Harnosand, 400 km north of Stockholm, has ordered its regional council officials to find ways to limit the profits that private companies can reap from running publiclyfunded health services.

It is the first action taken in Sweden to reverse a 20-year-old experiment with private provision of public healthcare, that has arguably gone further than in any other European country.

Private companies today provide about 20 per cent of public hospital care in Sweden and about 30 per cent of public primary care.

In the run-up to last year’s Swedish general election, a survey by Gothenburg University’s SOM Institute found that 69 per cent of Swedes were opposed to private companies profiting from providing public education, health and social care, with only about 15 per cent actively in favour.

“The whole shift in public opinion in Sweden has to do with the result of what’s actually happened: the mistreatment of the elderly in public homes. People don’t like schools that have gone bankrupt overnight. And people think it’s immoral that taxpayers’ money is taken out and sheltered in the Channel Islands,” said Jonas Sjöstedt, leader of Sweden’s Left Party, which made limiting profits in the health and welfare systems its key policy in last year’s election campaign.

The Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum

Australia

Baird government to sell nursing museum The state government is selling the Brislington Medical and Nursing Museum in Parramatta.

The museum was established 30 years ago and is managed by volunteers from the Parramatta District Hospital Graduate Nurses Association. The museum is located in a Georgian building built by convicts in 1821 on the corner of George and Marsden Streets, Parramatta.

It is the oldest existing dwelling house in the inner City of Parramatta. Brislington pays tribute to a by-gone era and gives a then-and-now picture of medical science and hospital care in Parramatta. The house has items of significance from the Parramatta Hospital, which was demolished to make way for the new court precinct.

Museum volunteers have started a campaign to save the museum from sale.You can sign a petition in support of the campaign at: www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/savebrislington-medical-and-nursing-museum-in-parramatta-from-the-nsw-government#

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 11

COVER STORY

Lismore midwives shut beds Heightened risk to mothers and babies as management slashes midwife numbers.

STAFF CUTS AT LISMORE BASE HOSPITAL have forced midwives and nurses to close non-maternity beds in the Women’s Care Unit.

The hospital’s NSWNMA branch voted to close non-maternity beds used to accommodate female surg ical patients.

“Maternity is the core business of this place. The staff cuts are so severe that we decided we should only deal with that core business,” said branch secretary Gil Wilson CNS. “Our priority is to maintain a safe level of care for mothers, their babies and our staff.The new staff numbers are unacceptable – it is just too dangerous.

“Post-operative surgical patients who are already placed in maternity are unaffected but as these beds become vacant they will be closed.

“If you are a maternity patient there will always be a bed for you.”

The branch decision followed management’s refusal to withdraw cuts to staff numbers in the Women’s Care Unit.

Management of Northern NSW Local Health District cut 182 staff hours from

12 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

“IT MAKES NO SENSE NOT TO LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE ON THE FLOOR WHEN IT COMES TO PATIENT SAFETY.” — Mary-Ann Hyde RM the unit roster by removing one midwife from all three shifts seven days a week.

Branch president Shaen Springall said management had not allowed enough nursing hours to cope with the overflow of surgical patients.

“We have a number of direct-entry midwives and enrolled nurses in the unit.

The cuts could require them, on night duty, to look after post-surgical patients they are not qualified to care for,” Shaen said.

Gil Wilson said the branch was particularly concerned about the risks at night – partly due to the physical layout of the unit and its reliance on direct entry midwives.

Night shift has been cut from five midwives to four. They must cover three physically separate units – the birthing

suite, the main maternity ward with 11 beds and a demountable “pod” with 10 maternity beds.

The pod, which connects to the main ward via a walkway, is 116 metres and two locked doors away from the birthing suite.

Mary-Ann Hyde RM, who has worked in the maternity unit for 14 years, said the four night staff would usually include one direct entry midwife and sometimes two. Two midwives would usually be needed in the birthing suite with the other two staff covering the maternity wards.

Mary-Ann said if the birthing suite had two labouring women, or an emergency such as a bleeding mother or a baby to be resuscitated, a staff member would be taken off the wards to assist.

“When the emergency alarm goes off

“IF WE WANT TO PROVIDE A SAFE QUALITY SERVICE WE NEED THOSE MIDWIVES BACK ON THE FLOOR.” — Gil Wilson CNS Lismore Base Hospital branch secretary Mary-Ann Hyde RM and Heather Ryan RM

to come to the birthing suite, there is no time to be making calls to organise relief or to explain to a relieving nurse what is happening with our maternity patients.

“In these circumstances a direct-entry midwife who has just graduated can be left looking after a minimum five mothers and their babies – 10 patients in all.

“Some new-grad midwives may not even have formalised their post-grad training; they might be on the casual pool hoping to get a contract.Yet management is happy to put them in charge of 10 patients.

“That situation is becoming more the norm than a one-off. Staff and their patients are at risk every time that happens.”

Management imposed the cuts after reviewing staff requirements using the Birthrate Plus tool. The review followed a fall in the number of births at the hospital.

“We don’t deny that births have dropped, however the acuity level in the unit is much higher,” Gil Wilson said.

“We say Birthrate Plus is designed to ensure minimum – not maximum – staffing levels.

“It doesn’t adequately take into

account other elements that impact on workloads and safety, such as case mix and the layout of the unit.

“Looking at numbers is fine but we also have to look at what we are doing here. Are we taking care of numbers or patients?

“If we want to provide a safe quality service we need those midwives back on the floor.”

Mary-Ann said the previous Birthrate Plus review in 2012-13 resulted in increased staffing but not to the full complement of the recommendation.

“Now management want to implement the full recommendation and drop three midwives per day seven days per week.

“We asked them to leave night duty alone, or at least put someone on-call for a trial period to gauge the impact of the cuts, but they refused.

“We don’t understand how they can easily brush off the concerns of senior midwives. It makes no sense not to listen to the people on the floor when it comes to patient safety,” said Mary-Ann, who has been nursing for almost 30 years.

The cuts would also impact on

post-natal care such as providing advice and assistance to manage factors such as asthma and high blood pressure and underweight babies.

“Good post-natal care also means having the time to sit with new mothers during breast feeding to help them deal with any related problems,” she said.

“We need time to understand their family situations. Are they in a safe situation at home, are there child protection issues facing this newborn at home?

“Acuity doesn’t only involve physical problems. We have a lot of lower socioeconomic clients with housing, domestic violence and other issues.

“We need to know whether we need to link them to early child health nurses or social work support to give them the best possible start to parenthood.”

She said the maternity unit no longer had appropriate staff to manage situations where midwives who are not qualified nurses are required to care for general patients placed in “overflow” beds.

“I don’t think we can be put in a position where the needs of general surgical patients compromise our ability to provide post-natal care.”

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 13

14 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

MINIMUM COVER STORY STAFFING

Fair go for country mothers The NSWNMA is seeking legally enforceable minimum staffing levels for rural maternity services.

POST-NATAL WOMEN IN RURAL AND regional hospitals are missing out on necessary care and advice because of inadequate midwifery staffing.

The staffing shortage disadvantages first-time mothers in particular, who often have trouble with breastfeeding and other mothercraft issues.

The NSWNMA has launched a campaign to ensure women in the country get the same care as mothers at tertiary referral hospitals in the cities.

On May 1, the NSWNMA lodged a claim with the state government for minimum guaranteed midwifery staffing at all maternity services, regardless of location.

The midwifery claim is part of the NSWNMA’s 2015 claim for a new public sector award, due to start in July.

Public hospitals that deliver more than 200 babies per year have legal minimum staffing levels calculated by the Birthrate Plus tool.

However Birthrate Plus does not apply to 26 smaller facilities in the towns of Lithgow, Blue Mountains, Glen Innes, Gunnedah, Inverell, Moree, N a r r a b r i , S c o n e, M u swe l l b ro o k ,

“Midwives in country hospitals are constantly running between birthing suites and emergency departments due to short staffing.”

— NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Judith Kiejda Singleton, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, Macksville, Kempsey, CoomaMonaro, Cootamundra, Deniliquin, Leeton, Narrandera,Temora,Tumut,Young, Cowra, Forbes, Parkes and Milton Ulladulla.

NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Judith Kiejda says the Association wants main elements of Birthrate Plus to be legally enforceable in all hospitals.

“We believe these 26 hospitals deserve minimum guaranteed staffing for their

maternity wards,” she said. “Depending on the risk category of each mother, this would ensure a certain number of hours of midwifery staffing would be legally guaranteed for the various stages of antenatal, labour, birth and post-natal care.

“Midwives in country hospitals are constantly running between birthing suites and emergency departments due to short-staffing and are working beyond their 12-hour shifts due to inadequate skill mix.”

Overwhelming support for our PHS claim The state-wide vote of our Public Health System branches has been completed and has seen strong support for our 2015 claim for the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding. A total of 201 branches endorsed the claim. There were no branches that voted against the claim.

Brett Holmes, Judith Kiejda and NSWNMA councillors present the 2015 Public Health System claim at the state parliament.

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MINIMUM STAFFING

Long wait for post-natal care Post-natal mothers can miss out on the care they need because of understaffing at rural hospitals. Cowra District Hospital, 300 kilometres southwest of Sydney, is one example.

Cowra’s maternity unit is normally staffed by one midwife to cover the labour ward and up to five women who have delivered. It had 140 deliveries in 2014.

If the midwife is caring for a woman in labour, a new mother having trouble with mothercraft issues such as breastfeeding may have to wait “unacceptable” periods of time for assistance, says Cathy Smith, president of the hospital’s NSWNMA branch.

“Maternity staff report that this happens around once a month on average,” Cathy told The Lamp.

“If one midwife is caring for one woman in labour, the post-natal women are probably not going to get much assistance with breastfeeding or mothercraft information – even if some postnatal beds are unoccupied.

“If two women are in labour the midwife can call in a second midwife.

“Even with the additional midwife, when the unit has two deliveries and all post-natal beds are full, the midwives are run off their feet.

They feel they can’t provide the service they should be providing.

“While most families enjoy their stay in the maternity unit, it is very unfair for both the women and the staff at Cowra when these situations occur.”

Two of Cowra’s midwives are ED trained and may be rostered for work in the busy emergency department. That can make it difficult for the maternity unit to find a second midwife, Cathy says.

Cowra midwives are also required to work on the general ward when the patient load is too much for the one RN on duty.

The general ward nurse-to-patient ratio is one-to-five, a higher workload than at metropolitan hospitals with their one-to-four ratio. That makes it hard to call on general ward staff to — assist in the maternity unit.

“Midwives often don’t complete all their work in the shift and will end up staying behind to complete the paperwork,” Cathy said.

“MIDWIVES FEEL THEY CAN’T PROVIDE THE SERVICE THEY SHOULD BE PROVIDING.”

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Cathy Smith RN

Understaffed ED a drag on maternity

“MOTHERS WHO HAVE TROUBLE BREASTFEEDING AND CAN’T GET HELP USUALLY WON’T SUCCEED.” — Debbie Wynne RM

Midwives working at the hospital in Young, 400 kilometres southwest of Sydney, find they are unable to help mothers with new babies because they are required to assist in the understaffed emergency department.

Normally, Young District Hospital is staffed by one midwife in the maternity unit and a registered nurse and enrolled nurse on the general ward. An RN is rostered in the ED on morning and afternoon shifts but not at night.

As a result the midwife or the RN rostered on the general ward must handle night presentations.

And the ED is getting busier: Young has been losing its GPs and, with a population around 7000, the ED is receiving more presentations as a result.

“It is a rare day when the midwife or RN from the general ward does not spend some time in ED – sometimes for the whole shift,” said Debbie Wynne RM, NSWNMA branch secretary.

“At night especially, the midwife is the first to be called to ED. That means patients in the maternity ward must be covered by general ward staff who are not midwives.”

This is particularly hard on firsttime mothers who often need a lot of support and guidance with issues like breastfeeding soon after giving birth, says Debbie.

“There is usually a small window of opportunity to establish breast feeding in the first few days.

Mothers that have trouble breastfeeding and can’t get help usually won’t succeed.

“It would be rare for a midwife to

be able to supervise a feed with every mother on every shift.

“Also, bath demonstrations can’t always be given as early as they should be, because the midwife is busy helping in ED. “If the maternity unit has someone in labour at night and the general ward is too busy, then the hospital has to get an on-call midwife.

“They will always come in because they all know what it’s like to be stuck in a busy unit without enough staff.”

Hospital branch members believe the ED often needs two staff rostered on during the day and one at night.

They say it is misleading to base hospital staffing on numbers in beds at midnight. These statistics don’t show the time the nurse or midwife spends off the floor helping in ED. “The figures for one night might show only two post-natal mothers in the maternity unit. Nowhere will it say the midwife spent five hours in ED,” Debbie says.

Nor do the statistics properly account for time spent looking after outpatient maternity women who come to hospital for many reasons such as electronic foetal monitoring, Anti-D injections, urinary tract infections or bleeding.

Birthrate Plus does not apply to Young Hospital because its birth rate has fallen below 200 per year.

That is a result of more women being referred to bigger hospitals – usually Canberra or Wagga – because of an increase in obesity levels and the unavailability of GPs in Young.

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MINIMUM STAFFING

Country Women back mandatory ratios The Country Women’s Association (CWA) will lobby against the state’s two-tiered system of health care.

THE CWA HAS COME OUT IN SUPPORT of mandated nurse-to-patient ratios that would give rural and remote hospitals the same staffing levels as those in the cities.

More than 600 delegates to the CWA’s annual state conference in Tamworth voted strongly in favour of a motion to “support all nurses in their efforts to have mandated nurse-to-patient ratio/nursing hours applied equally throughout all hospitals in NSW including remote rural hospitals.”

CWA state president Tanya Cameron said the organisation had worked to eliminate inequities in health service delivery between the city and country throughout its 93-year history.

She said the CWA would write to relevant government authorities about the staffing issue and the response would determine its next move.

General Secretary of the NSWNMA 18 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

“Your postcode does not determine how much tax you pay but it does determine how much nursing care you receive.”

— Carol Smith CWA Grafton

Brett Holmes said the CWA’s recognition of such an important patient safety issue was a big step forward in the campaign for ratios in all hospitals across the state.

“We are extremely grateful that the CWA has recognised the importance of improving and expanding nurse-to-patient ratios. We will help to raise awareness of this issue throughout their network and directly with the New South Wales government,” Brett said.

The conference resolution was moved

by Carol Smith, a former nurse and member of the CWA’s Grafton branch, and seconded by branch president Lesley McFarlane.

Carol told delegates medical, surgical and some other wards in hospitals in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong were staffed to ensure that on average, a patient receives six nursing hours for every 24 hours they are in the ward.

Upholding the CWA legacy The CWA has been helping bush nurses since the 1920s.

“Large regional hospitals such as Tamworth and Coffs Harbour on the other hand only receive 5.5 nursing hours per patient day (NHPPD),” she said.

“Other significant rural hospitals such as Grafton and Bathurst only receive five NHPPD. Smaller regional and rural facilities such as Temora and Byron Bay do not have any minimum mandated staffing levels other than the requirement that there be two registered nurses on duty when they are equipped with a designated emergency department that is open.

“The current arrangements create a two-tiered system of health care that depends on your postcode. Your postcode does not determine how much tax you pay but it does determine how much nursing care you receive.”

Carol said unreasonable workloads

were compromising safe patient care.

Indications of possible unreasonable workloads included nurses and midwives being diverted away from patient care on a regular basis, staff not finishing their shift on time or getting tea breaks or meal breaks, and high rates of sick leave and staff turnover.

“Of all the staff in the health care system the nurse is the only one that provides continuous 24/7 presence at the patient’s bedside,” she pointed out. “It is these nurses who pick up any deterioration in the patient’s condition, initiate intervention and minimise the impact of any such deterioration to prevent negative outcomes for the patient.”

Carol said mandated nursing hours might attract more people to take up the profession, thus helping to ease nurse shortages in country areas.

The CWA’s decision to support the NSWNMA’s push for equal staffing of rural and metropolitan hospitals continues a long tradition of working for better health services in the bush.

“The CWA was instrumental in the formation and operation of many country hospitals before World War II. We have a legacy to protect,” former nurse and CWA member Carol Smith said. Carol, from Grafton, moved the successful motion to support mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios at the CWA’s recent state conference.

Before the last state election Carol spoke to nurses at a Grafton rally, where she outlined the CWA’s history of efforts to improve rural health services. This included support for the Bush Nurses’ Association, which lasted until 1975.

Carol said that from the 1920s the CWA had worked to start small hospitals in remote areas and to add a maternity ward to existing hospitals.

She said CWA branches helped bush nurses by organising accommodation and raising funds to purchase vehicles for their use.

Sometimes “unqualified” nurses – trained nurses who in those times were not allowed to work after getting married – assisted bush nurses with patient care, though they were unpaid for this service.

Funds raised by the CWA were also used to purchase land for small bush hospitals and establish maternity homes and ambulance services.

“Due to the dedication of CWA members, mothers were able to be delivered of their babies in relative safety when infant mortality was relatively high,” she said.

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SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

Creative carers parade their talent International Nurses Day — 12 May — was a fitting date to hold the NSWNMA Nurses and Midwives’ Short Film Festival, in conjunction with our Short Story and Poetry Competition.

NSWNMA GENERAL SECRETARY BRETT HOLMES says both competitions deliver exceptional stories that are entertaining, perceptive and well told.

“Our filmmakers take us through a range of emotions – joy, sadness, elation, nostalgia and the sometimes fun side of the nursing and midwifery profession.

“The entries covered a wide spectrum of film genres: historical costume drama, animation, educational, biography and documentary.

“They ranged from the serious to the seriously funny. All of them were compelling and full of insight into the nursing and midwifery profession.”

This year’s film entries were judged by Patrick McInerney, producer of the television show, RPA, Devris Hasan, cinematographer and lecturer in filmmaking at NIDA and screenwriter and television and film producer, Enzo Tedeschi.

POWERFUL STORIES OPEN OUR EYES The two judges for the Short Story and Poetry Competition were effusive in their praise of the entries.

Nicole Dalby, a Senior Drama and English teacher at Girraween Selective High School, said: “It was an absolute privilege to read these pieces of writing. These stories gave a non-medical reader a great insight into the profession and an appreciation for the bond that can develop between people in highly stressful situations.Writing that included light and shade or variety often heightened the more serious moments.”

Co-judge Tegan Bennett Daylight, a fiction writer, teacher and critic, concurred: “Each writer showed me a side of nursing and midwifery – and of their own life – that I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t judged this competition.

“It was a privilege to hear the voices of such dedicated, knowledgeable and hardworking people.

I think the competition is a wonderful idea, as it seems to me that every nurse or midwife has an amazing story to tell.”

To our sponsors, thank you!

Trish Lowe, winner, Short Story and Poetry Competition and Samantha Clutson, winner, Short Film Festival

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The NSWNMA would like to acknowledge the generous contribution of major sponsor First State Super, as well as our other sponsors Under Siege Media and Marketing, Paykel Media and Lindt Chocolates.

1 1. L to R: Josephine Poole, Ciara Rafferty, Samantha Clutson, Meg Collins, Christine Girdham.

2. L to R – Brett Holmes, Rebecca King, Graham Greene (First State Super), Trish Lowe, Michael Dwyer (CEO, First State Super), Linda O’Malley, Mary Murphy (Chief Marketing Officer , First State Super) and Kathleen Wurth.

3. Ciara Rafferty (second from left) with friends.

4. Leonie Keen (second from left) with friends.

5. L to R: Josephine Poole and colleagues featured in her film Once Upon A Time In Bankstown.

6. Rebecca King and friend.

7. Leonie Muir (left) with the cast of Dementia Rising.

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3

5

4

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SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

Filmmakers reflect a diverse profession When nurses and midwives look through the lens of the camera they find stories as diverse as the people who work in the profession. This year’s NSWNMA Short Film Festival winning films range from amusing animation to documentary.

Watch the five winning films on YouTube at www.nswnma.asn.au/short-film-festival-2015/ or by using the individual links

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oHW2q43NFs

$5000 FIRST PRIZE THE HAIRBRUSH Sponsored by First State Super Director Samantha Clutson, Sutherland Hospital An emergency department nurse preoccupied with a delicate situation finds her patience tested by a disgruntled patient.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WykZqFrp7Y

$2000 SECOND PRIZE THE SHIFT Jointly sponsored by Undersiege Media and Marketing and Paykel Media Director Meg Collins, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital The Shift covers the development of the nursing profession across the past century, from its subservient foundation in the 1890s to the contribution of nurses during WW2, when they moved from the safe hospital environment into areas of terrible conflict. There was a gender shift in the 1970s when substance abuse was also rife. By 2015 we see a university-educated older nurse in an ICU setting surrounded by the most advanced technology.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_zxre6oGI

$1000 THIRD PRIZE OMGHIV – a STIgma Sponsored by NSWNMA Director Ciara Rafferty The focus of this documentary is on the past and present stigma of HIV and attempts to understand the implications of these attitudes within the healthcare system and the wider community.

$1000 MAUREEN PULLMANN ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD* *This award was shared between two winners who each received $500. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buxi-pGeVWI

ONCE UPON A TIME IN BANKSTOWN Sponsored by NSWNMA Director Josephine Poole This film was made in response to the current federal government’s demonisation of immigrants, particularly refugees, and in response to the predominantly negative media coverage of the suburbs of South West Sydney.

It is a celebration of our diversity, multiculturalism and internationalism and the contribution made to the community by its immigrants.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWkKC4Myujc

IN HIS ARMS Sponsored by NSWNMA Director Christine Girdham, Blacktown Hospital Unit Nathan and Emily are happily married and excited to be starting a family. However having a baby isn’t as easy as they think. Together, they make it through the challenge of falling pregnant, not realising that their biggest challenge lies ahead.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 23

SHORT STORY AND POETRY COMPETITION

breaking the silence It was cold.

The ambient temperature was 22 degrees, but it was the sombre mood, hitting the chest of those who entered, which was most telling. There they were — Pip and Henry. Pip was lying, pale and afraid, with legs akimbo, on the unforgiving surface. She was draped, anaesthetised, catheterised and utterly unable to articulate the magnitude of the moment. She was preparing to step through a void which sadly, she was unable to get through alone — and so it was, that the team assembled.

It was Meg who noticed her first. As the midwife assigned to assist with this, so called, “routine” case, she approached. The others bustled and readied themselves, seeking all means possible to avoid a conversation with Pip as she nestled her head into Henry’s shoulder. They had never gotten this far before and so knew no way of processing this moment. Not for the first time, Meg wondered how it was possible that anybody with a shred of decency would feel it appropriate to leave a vulnerable woman so exposed. Quietly, she covered Pip, before introducing herself, giving Pip and Henry’s hands a little squeeze and smiling through the most reassuring proclamations, she was prepared to offer. She hoped the authenticity of her reassurance, made it as far as her eyes, which were by now the only identifiable features visible above her carefully applied surgical mask.

Pip and Henry’s story became clearer with the telling. They had been given four chances. Perfect embryos. “Four!” they had declared to their erstwhile fertility specialist, “Imagine having four children to love”. They had never felt so blessed and almost suffocated on their smugness.

The first had settled in nicely, giving all concerned, cause for celebration, before arriving prematurely and unceremoniously, into a blood filled toilet bowl. As the bereft ambulance officers had bundled Pip off to hospital, shrouded in a cotton blanket, all she had suggested was, that they “please call Henry”. Henry — her love, whose name meant ‘ruler of the house’, had indeed been required to run theirs, as attempt after futile attempt, failed. However, with the fourth and last try, success seemed more likely. Pip, though barely able to fold a singlet or pick up a paint brush in preparation, was absolutely resigned to the fact that, this attempt would end as the others had — in a consultation room, surrounded by platitudes and Kleenex tissues.

However, as the perilous twelve-week milestone passed, then the twentieth, not only were they still pregnant, there were two heartbeats. “Twins”, they had proclaimed, “are you absolutely sure?”

Pip was finally able to imagine family holidays and happy laughter; indeed they had begun to not only consider names, but squabble over them. Henry, felt that there was no way, their daughter would be taken seriously, with a name like Daisy, whilst Pip argued that to name their son, Fabien after Henry’s grandfather, would lead to a living hell, of endless head flushings and sly, kidney punches.

They were ecstatic in their bubble, until the day, the sonographer, at first stumbled over a clumsy excuse to leave the room, then backed out, leaving Pip’s abdomen sticky, and the ultrasound probe dangling in mid-air. “Both heartbeats gone?” they had asked incredulously,”are you absolutely sure?”

For a time they functioned like empty husks, blowing around in the autumn wind, barely able to make eye contact or construct sentences of more than four words. It was Pip’s mother who had at first suggested and then insisted, that time out was required as she bundled them into a taxi. By the time they returned to Australia five months later, they were tanned, in love again and pregnant.

When Pip could no longer attribute her intractable nausea, to the lamb curry she had purchased

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at a roadside stall in Marrakech, she took a leap of faith and a pregnancy test. “Oh, my God/” she proclaimed to Henry, as she sat on their tiled bathroom floor, the positive blue line revealing what for both of them had seemed like the remotest of possibilities. “One day at a time darling”, he had suggested, “We will just take it one day at a time”. And so they had, until the day that Pip found herself, lying pale and afraid, with legs akimbo on the unforgiving surface, wondering what on earth she would have done without him and holding onto Meg’s hand as if it were a portal into another dimension.

As Meg excused herself, then scrubbed in preparation, she feigned interest in the surgeon’s sink side conversation about ski holidays and golf handicaps, before backing into the theatre, donning her gown and gloves and positioning herself at his right elbow. The reality of this situation for Pip and Henry was as far from “routine”, as it was possible to get. By now, the wall clock’s second hand was the only indicator that time existed outside this room.

Tick ..1142, scalpel to skin, the light hearted banter ceased, as the precise incision was made and rivulets of blood oozed from Pip’s fractured capillaries.

Tick...1143, fat, facsia, layer after layer, was dissected, diathermied and torn asunder, until finally, Pip’s uterus was exposed and carefully opened — the perfunctory rupturing of Pip’s membranes, heralding the moment of truth. Meg was reassured by the torrent of clear liquor, which erupted into the suction canister.

So many times before, this moment had been marred by a sentinel event, a rush down the corridor and the presence of meconium; the dark, tar like fluid that instructed Meg to acknowledge the adrenaline charged blood pounding in her ears, since the next thing to emerge from the bewildered mother’s uterus, would surely be, a compromised baby.

It was moments such as those and the unrelenting, sleep disturbing, admonishments which followed, which had led Meg to consider advising her youngest daughter against following her footsteps into the profession which she adored. Was it not a mother’s duty to spare her child from grief? But in so doing, Meg would also be denying her; the happiness of placing a freshly washed newborn, into the cherubic, waiting arms of a proud older sibling, the joy of supporting a woman through labour, cheering for her as she proudly lifted her newborn baby onto her chest for the first time, or the happiness of witnessing the tears of a proud new father, cascading down ruddy, whiskered cheeks.

Tick ...1145, his hand was inside Pip’s abdomen and then, a perfect purple head, squilched forth.

Tick ...1146, silence pervaded the theatre, as the tiny infant was delivered onto Pip’s draped, green, legs.

Meg received her into the warm blanket she had prepared for the purpose and rushed to both assess her and address the oppressive silence, which persisted. Meg reminded herself to apply first principles, as she worked from head to toe, providing warmth and stimulation, supporting her transition.

Tick … 1147, just as Meg’s muscle memory, directed her towards emergency suction, bag and mask, the perfect lips fashioned themselves into a warble and then an indignant wail, which instantaneously infused the room with warmth and gave all assembled permission to whoop with joy!

“Here is your beautiful girl”, Meg cooed after a time, as she bundled the perfectly swaddled little girl, into Pip and Henry’s eager arms.

breaking the silence “I have been a midwife since 2001. For five years, I was employed within the maternity service of a busy private hospital. Apart from facilitating antenatal classes and conducting preadmission interviews, my midwifery colleagues and I rarely had the opportunity to meet the women we cared for in labour, prior to their birth. This story reflects many experiences that I was involved with during that time, which collectively changed my preparedness to apportion the word “routine” to planned procedures, such as caesarean sections and highlighted the importance of having meaningful conversations, with those being cared for.”

— Trish Lowe, Australian College of Nursing

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AGED CARE RN 24/7

Community support grows for aged care RNs The Lamp spoke to three community members — Sydney GP Dr Ashley Morgan, catholic priest Father John Pearce and senior Cancer Council policy analyst Bernadette Roberts — about why they want to keep RNs in aged care facilities 24/7.

GPs need RNs in nursing homes — Dr Ashley Morgan, Fort Street Medical Centre, Petersham When Dr Ashley Morgan took over the general practice that his father and uncle had established, he also took over the care of many of their patients.

With many of those patients aging and entering nursing homes, he sees firsthand the vital need for registered nurses in aged care facilities.

Since he began practicing more than 25 years ago, Dr Morgan has seen aged care facilities caring for patients who are living longer and who are also sicker and more frail.

“Nursing homes are increasingly becoming like mini-hospitals, where palliative care is really essential,” he said.

“It takes an RN to assess the patients for their needs and administer the morphine, or whatever is needed under medical advice. I feel very strongly that not having registered nurses [in aged care facilities] 24/7 would have a direct impact on the care of the residents,” Dr Morgan said.

The inner-west GP, who cares for more than 250 residents in more than a dozen residential aged care facilities, says the lack of registered nurses in aged care hostels is already having a detrimental impact on the workload of GPs. Recently he was called to a facility to give a resident an antibiotic.

“It is a particular problem over the weekend if the patient arrives back from a hospital discharge with medicine that only an RN can administer.”

For GPs like Dr Morgan, fewer RNs working in aged care means more phone calls, more demands for visits and longer visits.

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“When there is no RN available to deal with relatively basic procedures, I have to work up the patient, I have to triage and assess the patient from the start.

“There is nothing more valuable to a GP, who goes to a residential aged care facility, than a good RN who has good clinical skills and good common sense,” said Dr Morgan.

The most “ludicrous” case Dr Morgan recalls was being called to a facility to change a patch a resident was wearing after being discharged from hospital.

“The patch was simply the patch given for an ECG, not a medical patch. The person at the hostel did not know the difference.”

The erosion of RNs in aged care homes is not only consuming GP hours, it’s having a negative impact on the health budget, encouraging cost-shifting practices and increasing the burden on hospitals and EDs. “Without an RN on duty, the response to some relatively simple things … is to call an ambulance,” Dr Morgan said.

He says these problems are “exacerbated in the bush” where transportation to hospitals is more complex and where GPs are in even higher demand.

With the loss of RNs in aged care facilities affecting not just patients, but also the wider medical profession, Dr Morgan believes other professional associations need to get behind the NSWNMA’s RN 24/7 campaign.

“I believe the AMA and the RACGP [Royal Australian College of General Practitioners] should be very vocal in their support of this cause.”

“THERE IS NOTHING MORE VALUABLE TO A GP … THAN A GOOD RN WHO HAS GOOD CLINICAL SKILLS AND GOOD COMMON SENSE.”

STOP PRESS As The Lamp went to press Leading Age Service Australia (LASA) the employer association for a number of for-profit aged care providers has informed the NSWNMA that their members will not renegotiate their existing enterprise agreements.

They have made a decision to pay a ‘yet to be determined’ increase to your wages and conditions. Effectively, this could be a take it or leave it ‘offer’.

An increase to your wages is welcome news as nurses’ wage rates in aged care are far too low. However, an increase not inserted into a legal Agreement is not protected or secure, and could be removed at any time if your employer chooses to take it away.

The NSWNMA will meet with LASA soon to clarify their position and will continue our consultations with our members through meetings, teleconferences and a comprehensive survey.

RNs critical to palliative care — Bernadette Roberts, senior policy analyst Cancer Council NSW When her critically ill father was in a nursing home and being treated for lung disease, Bernadette Roberts noticed that one of the care assistants had put the tube to help her father breath on the air outlet, not the oxygen outlet.

As a former registered nurse Roberts knew what was wrong and could fix the problem.

“It was fortunate my father didn’t have dementia and could say to me ‘I don’t think I’m feeling like I’m getting any oxygen’,” she told The Lamp.

Roberts, who now works as a senior health policy analyst with the Cancer Council, added: “It was just luck that I was there soon after that happened. I hate to think what could have happened if there was no RN at all.”

Although she has left nursing, Roberts works at the Cancer Council assessing how government policies will affect people with cancer, particularly as the population ages.

In New South Wales, the

risk of developing cancer by the age of 85 is 1-in-2 for men and 1-in-3 for women.

“As the population ages there are more deaths from cancer and more people diagnosed with cancer. More people will be spending the last part of their life dying from their cancer within the aged care facility.

“The thing about cancer care is that some of the drug regimes are really complex.

People are often on multiple medications and you need to know about the interactions they can have and how they need to be administered – do they have to be taken with food, for example?”

The latest cancer treatments are helping people to live longer, but there are not enough palliative care nurses in NSW, Roberts says. A registered nurse working with a visiting palliative care team can make sure patients receive the pain relief they need.

“An RN may also be required to assess and monitor an acute illness resulting from cancer, to manage the effects of cancer

“MORE PEOPLE WILL BE SPENDING THE LAST PART OF THEIR LIFE DYING FROM CANCER WITHIN THE AGED CARE FACILITY.” treatments such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy or the support rehabilitation.”

She added: “An RN may also result in a dying patient avoiding a potentially distressing transfer to hospital, which also benefits the health system by avoiding the costs associated with using a hospital bed unnecessarily.”

From personal experience working in a nursing home, Roberts knows firsthand the crucial importance of the registered nurse role.

“As a registered nurse I would be able to assess if someone’s breathing was getting worse, or if their condition was deteriorating, or their symptoms were worsening or if they needed more oxygen or more pain relief, particularly if someone was cognitively impaired.”

Registered nurses also play a vital role in supporting and supervising other staff to provide health care.

“But it is really the RNs who do the assessment and oversee resident care,” she said.

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AGED CARE RN 24/7

Pastoral support for aged care RNs — Father John Pearce, Catholic Parish of St Brigid’s, Marrickville

On a cold Sunday morning at the end of April, parishioners at St Brigid’s Catholic Church in Marrickville, listened not to the Father delivering the homily, but to a NSWNMA representative speaking about our campaign to keep RNs in aged care facilities at all times.

The parishioners firmly support keeping RNs in aged care facilities around the clock, and more than 500 members have signed the NSWNMA’s petition to keep RNs on duty 24/7.

Father John Pearce, one of the clergy at the large Spanish Mission-style church in the inner west of Sydney, told The Lamp the need for qualified nursing staff around the clock was all too clear to him, from the work he and his colleagues carry out in local aged care facilities.

“We’ve got eight nursing homes that we serve here – our parish team visits them to conduct mass once a month. The residents are often in critical conditions and are wheelchair bound. If they cut a registered nurse at night time, it could have some critical responses,” Father Pearce said.

“If you go into a nursing home, it’s not because someone is passing you off, it’s because you need care. Sickness is not contained to a time of 9am to 5pm. People deteriorate any time of the day, not just in business hours.”

With many hospitals and medical facilities nearby, Marrickville is home to a large population of nurses. Father Pearce says that from his conversations with nurses in his own congregation, he knows that many in the profession “are stressed and feel they are understaffed”.

Said Father Pearce: “I can’t understand why this is an issue that has come up, and when you mention it to people nobody can work it out either: how do you have a nursing home without a nurse? The name is a ‘nursing home’ – the idea of a nursing home without a nurse is ludicrous.”

“THE IDEA OF A NURSING HOME WITHOUT A NURSE IS LUDICROUS.”

“I encourage the broader community to support this petition and get the government to roll back this legislation. If I get to the stage that I can’t be cared for at home I’d be really upset if I was put in a place to be cared for where there was no nurses when I needed them.”

Send us your RN 24/7 in aged care petitions We need to receive your petitions supporting out RN 24/7 in aged care campaign by the 30 June 2015 so when you have completed them send them to: Rita Martin, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, 50 O’Dea Ave, Waterloo, NSW 2017 You can download the petition form from the NSWNMA website: www.nswnma.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RN24-7-petition-FINAL.pdf

28 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

ask judith

when it comes to your rights and entitlements at work, nswnma assistant general secretary JUDITH KIEJDA has the answers.

Short shrift shift I am a casual employee working in the private sector. Recently I agreed to work a shift that was cancelled 30 minutes after I had commenced. Am I entitled to compensation?

Yes, you must be paid for two hours to compensate for the loss of the remainder of the shift. Clause 10.4 Casual Employment sub-clause (c) of the Nurses Award 2010 (Private Hospitals and Day Procedures Centres) states: “A casual employee will be paid a minimum of two hours pay for each engagement.”

For whom the toll pays I am a public sector RN working in Community Health and have a vehicle assigned to me, which I am allowed personal use of outside of work hours. Am I responsible for paying toll costs when I am using the vehicle for personal reasons?

Yes, you are responsible to pay any toll costs incurred during periods of personal use. I refer you to NSW Ministry of Health policy directive, PD 2014_051, section 3.4.3 that states: “Any tolls incurred during private travel/personal use must be met by the employee concerned.”

Too busy for time off I am a CNC working in a private hospital, covered by the Nurses Award 2010 (Private Hospitals and Day Procedures Centres).

For the past three months I have not had the opportunity to take ADOs because work has been too busy. My manager has agreed to allow me to accrue my ADOs. Would you tell me how many ADOs I can accumulate and whether I will lose them if I don’t take them?

You can accumulate up to five ADOs per year and your employer must ensure you are able to take any ADOs in excess of five.

Clause 24 Accumulation and Taking of Accrued Days Off (ADOs), sub-clauses 24.1, 24.2 and 24.3 of the above Award state as follows:“24.1 - Where an employee is entitled to an ADO, in accordance with the arrangement of ordinary hours of work as set out in clause 21 – Ordinary hours of work. ADOs will be taken within 12 months of the date on which the first full ADO accrued.”

24.2 - With consent of the employer, ADOs may be accumulated up to a maximum of five in any one year.

24.3 - An employee will be paid for any accumulated ADOs at ordinary rates, on the termination of their employment for any reason.”

Once you have accrued five ADOs they must be taken within 12 months of the date that the first ADO was accrued, otherwise they are paid out when you terminate your employment.

Forced on vacation?

I am an EN working in a public hospital and have been informed that I have excessive annual leave and must take leave in three weeks time and then, because of shortages on the ward, continue to take a few days at a time over the next few months. Can I be directed to do this?

You can be directed to take annual leave, however you have rights about how much of your leave you can be directed to take at any given time. Regarding the amount of leave you can be directed to take, the Public Health System Nurses and Midwives’ (State) Award 2011 clause 30 Annual Leave, subclause (vi) states: “Annual leave shall be given and taken either in one consecutive period or two periods, or if the employer and employee so agree, in either two, three,

or four separate periods but not otherwise.

Provided that up to five single days per year may be taken at times convenient to both the employer and the employee.”

This means that when you are directed to take leave, you can only be given your leave in one or two lots, unless you agree to take it in more than two lots.You cannot be forced to take leave in multiple short periods at different times. In relation to notice to be given, clause 30 Annual Leave, sub-clause (vii) (c) of the Award states: “The employer shall give each employee, where practicable, three months notice of the date upon which he or she shall enter upon leave and in any event, such notice shall not be less than 28 days.”

It is preferable that as much notice as possible is given to enable you to plan and gain maximum benefit from being on leave; however the minimum notice is 28 days.

Holidays at relief rate I work for a small public hospital and have been relieving the NUM who is on extended maternity leave for more than a year. I am due to take annual leave and when I return I will continue in the relief position. Am I eligible to be paid my annual leave at the higher grade rate?

Yes you are. Because you have been relieving for more than 12 months and because you will continue to relieve on your return to work, you are entitled to be paid your annual leave at the higher rate.

The NSW Health service policy PD2014_029, Leave Matters, part 2, subsection 2.9 states: “Employees who have acted continuously for one year or more in the same higher graded role and who continue to act in that role are eligible for payment of the higher duties allowance for any annual leave which is taken during the further period of higher duties.”

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 29

PRIVATISATION

And they called us liars!

Less than five weeks after the New South Wales state election it has been revealed that the true cost of the new, privatised Northern Beaches Hospital is more than twice the figure claimed by Health Minister Jillian Skinner before the election.

ACCORDING TO THE SYDNEY MORNING Herald the true cost of the Northern Beaches Hospital will be $2.14 billion, more than twice the figure of $1 billion quoted by Jillian Skinner when the contract with operator Healthscope was signed.

At that time Mrs Skinner said the hospital would “be valued at more than $1 billion” including $400 million in local road upgrades.

When contract details were finally revealed in April they showed that the private consortium, made up of Healthscope, Leighton Holdings and Theiss, would be paid $2.14 billion over the life of the contract, including $600 million to build the hospital.

Healthscope was announced as the preferred tenderer in October last year.

The contract between Healthscope and

30 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

the Baird government was signed on December 11 2014.The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 stipulates that a contract must be publicly disclosed within 45 days, yet the details were withheld by the government for more than four and a half months and only released after the March 28 election.

NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes slammed the secrecy behind the contract and the delay in the release of its details until after the election.

“Our key concern has always been the history of failure of public-private partnerships in a public hospital setting, the lack of transparency surrounding ‘commercial in confidence’ arrangements and the inability of government to be upfront with nurses about employment prospects and the community about appropriate patient care.

“We were told that further details would come to light once a preferred tenderer was announced, then reassured that our members would be kept up to date about arrangements regarding working conditions, entitlements and nurse-topatient ratios.

“Those reassurances were meaningless.

The Baird government hid the details of the contract and denied the right of the public to consider the true financial nature of the Northern Beaches Hospital privatisation – a significant change in health policy direction – when they were exercising their democratic right to vote.

“That was unconscionable and deceitful.”

Jillian Skinner told The Sydney Morning Herald she was “not involved in contractual matters”. She added “there has never been a health Public Private Partnership that has been so transparent”.

On March 17 hundreds of nurses and midwives sent a message to politicians and media commentators who had publicly criticised the Association’s state election campaign against the privatisation of the Northern Beaches Hospital and in defence of our public health system.

About Healthscope Healthscope is Asia-Pacific’s fourth-largest private hospital operator (by bed number; second largest by hospitals) and pathology/medical service provider.

It is the second largest private hospital operator in Australia and the only operator with hospital facilities in every state and territory of Australia.

Its facilities include: • 31 sub-acute hospital facilities (11 co-located with large public teaching hospitals) • 7 psychiatric hospitals • 6 rehabilitation and extended care facilities As at mid-2014 Healthscope had: • 44 Australia-based hospitals (with about 4400 beds) • 69 Australia-based pathology labs • 46 medical centres (including 11 skin clinics and 1 breast diagnostic clinic) • 43 international pathology laboratories The company is divided into three separate divisions: • Hospitals – the largest business unit

• Australian pathology and medical centres • International pathology (covering businesses

in New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam).

At the end of 2013 the company had more than 19,800 employees. The Australian hospital division employs nearly 14,000 people.

Nurses represent more than half the staff in Healthscope’s hospitals division and 41 per cent of Healthscope’s total workforce. 88 per cent of the company’s employees are covered by workplace agreements.

HIGHLY PROFITABLE Healthscope is valued at between $3.9 billion and $4.6 billion by market analysts.

2014 was a particularly lucrative year with a net profit in the year to December 2014 of $82.7 million according to The Australian. Its earnings before tax were expected to be $284.7 million.

The Australian noted that the contract to operate the new Northern Beaches hospital will deliver the company extra revenue of $300 million a year.

HealtheCare takeover will concentrate market The Business Spectator reports that “Healthscope and Ramsay Health Care are believed to have launched a private battle to seize control of their smaller private hospital rival HealtheCare”.

The two largest private hospital operators in Australia are said to have engaged with private equity firms, including Quadrant, Champ and potentially Pacific Equity Partners, in a joint venture deal to buy HealtheCare.

HealtheCare has 16 hospitals across Australia.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 31

VA L E

Mary Margaret Palme [e\

Mary was born in Sydney in 1945 and lived with her parents, Eileen and Wal Palme, in Lidcombe and Strathfield.

Apparently Mary picked up a few swear words from her father’s bakery and at five was sent off to the nuns at Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta. Mary’s family moved to regional New South Wales, finally settling in Denman.

In her younger days Mary had a passion for cars – in particular the MGB and Monaro – enjoyed a party and never refused an invitation to a Country Ball or Woolshed dance.

Mary was a keen sportsperson – swimming and playing tennis and she absolutely loved cricket, the St George football team and the Randwick races, where she enjoyed dressing up and having a punt. Every Melbourne Cup day Mary would take out the “jockeys cap” and run the sweeps.

Mary always said that in her day you left school and went into nursing or a secretarial course, but her spelling wasn’t great so nursing became her chosen career.

Mary completed her general and midwifery training at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle. She nursed at the Darwin Hospital, Muswellbrook Hospital and from the midseventies to late eighties, worked in the then developing Intensive Care Unit of Gosford Hospital.

She learnt on the job and enjoyed a supportive and close working relationship with her nursing and medical colleagues.

It wasn’t all work – every Wednesday afternoon at the hospital there was tennis and a barbecue and, living at North Avoca and then Pearl Beach, opportunities for a beach lifestyle and entertaining.

32 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

Mary left Gosford Hospital to pursue a career in the private sector for a while, in what was then called OH&S. In 1991, Mary joined the nursing team at Concord Repatriation General Hospital (CRGH), finally settling into the Diabetes Education Centre in 1997 where she practiced until her passing.

Mary remained passionate about workplace safety and in October 2011 was awarded the CRGH Employee of the Month Award for OHS Excellence.

An active member of the NSWNMA since 1963, Mary was a staunch supporter of the Concord NSWNMA Branch and held positions of steward, delegate and alternate delegate across a number of years.

Mary always spoke up for what she believed in and was one of those special people who gave of themselves to benefit others. She will always be in our thoughts as an inspiration to continue the fight to improve the working lives of nurses and midwives.

Mary was noticed and well liked in her local Leichhardt community. She was very friendly with neighbours in her street, shopped and dined locally and was a loyal customer of local businesses and services.

On hearing of Mary’s passing many of these local businesses expressed sadness and had a good story to tell about Mary – they valued her custom and support.

Mary’s ashes are now back at Denman with her beloved parents. She will be sadly missed by her many friends and colleagues, our union and her local community.

— Concord Hospital branch officials

VA L E

Patricia Valerie Parker (nee Dolan) 1938 — 2015

[e\

The eldest of three sisters, Patricia, began her extensive nursing career at Footscray Base Hospital at the age of 15.

Twelve months later she began the four-year journey to becoming a registered nurse.

She completed her midwifery at the Mater in Brisbane. As her son Paul reminded us in the eulogy delivered at her funeral, she enjoyed many experiences in regional hospitals in Victoria and New South Wales. He specifically named Leeton, Kilmore, Mudgee, Newcastle, Wagga Wagga and Bendigo. In June 1964 the young optimistic professional, transferred to Darwin for three months, intending to save money for a trip to France with her friend Estelle. She worked in midwifery and the emergency department and spoke fondly of the Aboriginal mothers who came into her care in outlying areas. She also had a stint in the Tiwi Islands.

Many were the stories she told of the characters she came in contact and worked with in the Territory – especially Fred Hollows the ophthalmologist who, by his extensive work in preventing blindness, instigated the highly regarded National Trachoma and Eye Health Program.

Next door to the women’s nursing quarters in Darwin were the professional men’s quarters. Patricia met and married microbiologist, medical scientist Reginald James “Jim” Parker. Two boys, James and Paul, were born to complete the happy family.

In 1974 her idyllic life in the Northern Territory was shattered by Cyclone Tracy.

Patricia and her boys were repatriated to Sydney Quarantine Station, while Jim stayed in Darwin to assist in the recovery.

With resilience and courage Patricia adapted to her new circumstances but she never forgot the trauma of Tracey.

Jim was relocated to Lismore in 1975 and still works in the Commonwealth (now NSW) Laboratories at Lismore Base Hospital. She set about raising her boys, nursing and making more lifelong friendships. At “the Base” as it was locally known, Sister Parker worked in many different areas such as outpatients, was in-charge nurse of the old Ward 10, which cared for gerontology, palliative care and medical patients from the Mental Health Ward 8. She was notable as a well-remembered nurse educator.

It took a terrible accident at Cabarita in 1996 to force her retirement. She was driving to her job as a practicing educator and nurse administrator in an aged care facility; it was another event that irrevocably changed her life.

Her remaining years were all about family, friends, coffee, gardening, the occasional wine, dinner with friends and continually worrying about everyone she cared about. She loved music, especially symphonies, and enjoyed romantic novels, gardening and “four squares of dark chocolate a day”.

Patricia Valerie Parker died on 28 February 2015, the last day of summer, and a private funeral was held with family and friends. Her eldest son James and his wife, expecting the birth of their third child, were there in spirit: Leah Patricia Parker was born in Ireland, 8 March 2015.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 33

ENROOLLED NURSE PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIAATION T

2015 CONFERENCE “W Whaa t is Your View” i The Enrolled Nurse Profeessional Association NSW are pleased to invite you to the 22nd Ennrolled Nurse state conference being held at the Hydro Majestic, Meddlow Bath. The conference is organised by ENPPA enabling delegatees to discuss and disseminate information to other nurses, forge friendships and networking with colleagues.

HIGHLIGHTS

WHEN & WHERE

s Organ Donation s Coordinator / Recipient and Donor Family s Lions Scholarships s Future of Medicine s Radiology

17–18 September Hydro Majestic, Medlow Bath 8–9am for registration Cost for both days: $320 members/ $350 non-members. Dinner: $40 delegates/ $70 non-delegates

ENQUIRIES: contactt the Enrolled Nurse Professional Association PO Box 775, Kingswoodd NSW 2747, Tel: 1300 554 249 Email: Rebecca at enpaasecretary@gmail.com Employers requiring an innvoice, contact Pia at enpatreasurer@gmail.com REGISTRATIONS CLOSEE Friday 6 September Registration form available on www.enpansw.org.au

Order form page 44

ADVERTISE IN THE LAMP AND REACH MORE THAN

62,000 NURSES AND MIDWIVES.

To advertise please contact Patricia Purcell 02 8595 2139 // 0416 259 845 // ppurcell@nswnma.asn.au 3 4 | T H E L A M P M AY 2 0 1 5

social media | nurse uncut

www.nurseuncut.com.au Do you have a story to tell? An opinion to share? nurse uncut is written by everyday nurses and midwives.

We welcome your ideas at nurseuncut@nswnma.asn.au

WHAT’S

A BLOG FOR AUSTRALIAN NURSES AND MIDWIVES

HOT THIS MONTH

Nurse Uncut is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NurseUncutAustralia and on Twitter @nurseuncut

Casual nurse – and proud! www.nurseuncut.com.au/casual-nurse-and-proud-of-it

Jess works permanently in the casual pool and loves it. She makes the case for embracing casuals as a valuable resource.

Nursing degrees – declining standards? www.nurseuncut.com.au/nursing-degrees-declining-standards

Two nursing academics appear on ABC television’s Four Corners program to say weak students are being undeservedly awarded degrees, potentially endangering public safety.

Ethics, human rights and refugees – what nurses should know www.nurseuncut.com.au/ethics-human-rights-and-refugees-what-all-nurses-should-know

Ruth Sheahan untangles fact from fiction around “boat people” and examines responsibilities under the Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia.

Friendship between nurses in wartime www.nurseuncut.com.au/friendship-between-nurses-in-wartime

Historian Janet Butler writes about the bonds of friendship between nurses during WWI.

2020 Health Care Climate Challenge www.nurseuncut.com.au/2020-health-care-climate-challenge

The 2020 Challenge invites health care systems and hospitals globally to reduce their carbon footprint and protect public health from climate change.

Ebola midwife: The hardest but best thing I’ve done www.nurseuncut.com.au/ebola-midwife-the-hardest-but-best-thing-ive-done

Usually women with Ebola bleed to death during labour, but midwife Ruth helped two women give birth and survive (though the babies were stillborn).

New on SupportNurses YouTube channel Ramsay enterprise bargaining Ramsay members talk about growing stronger through this negotiation process. >> youtu.be/iu62IHH7t4w May Day 2015 highlights “Why I’ve come to this May Day rally.” >> youtu.be/3VZb5JQTEGs

NSWNMA on Instagram!

We’re on Instagram, so share your local photos with us @nswnma and #NSWNMAforce4change.

Follow us on Twitter NSWNurses & Midwives @nswnma Watch us on YouTube SupportNurses Connect with us on Facebook

New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association >> www.facebook.com/nswnma Look for your local Ratios put patient safety first >> www.facebook.com/safepatientcare Branch page on Aged Care Nurses >> www.facebook.com/agedcarenurses our website.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 35

The Edith Cavell Trust

Scholarships for the academic year 2016 Applications foor the Edith Cavell Trust Scholarships are now being accepted for the academic yearr 2016.

Members or Asssociate Members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association or the Australian Nurssing and Midwifery Federation (NSW Branch) are invited to apply.

All grants, awards or loans shall be made to financially assist nurses, midwives, assistants in nursing, assiistants in midwifery (including students of those disciplines), and accredited nursing or midw wifery organisations, schools and faculties in the furtherance of: (i) accredited nursing or midwifery studies; (ii) such acadeemic research programs as are approved by the Trustees in the theory or practice of nursing or midwifery work; or (iii) clinical nursing education programs at graduate, post-graduate and continuing educationaal professional development level; in accordance with a number of categories.

Applicants musst be currently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Full details of tthe scholarship categories, how to apply and to obtain the official appplication form is available from the NSWNMA website.

www.nswnnma.asn.au – click on ‘Education’ For further information contact: The Secretary – The Edith Caveell Trust, 50 O’Dea Avenue, Waterloo, NSW 2017  Matt West oon 1300 367 962  mawest@nswnma.asn.au

Applica t close 5p ions m on 31 July l 2015

On show now Without i Consent: Australiia’’s past adoption practices An exhibition of moving experiences of heartbreak and resilience, sha ared by people impacted by Australia’s forced d adoption practices.

Forced Adoptions History y Project Contribute your experiences and a share your research on forced adoptions. forcedadoptions.naa.gov.au This project has been assisted by the Depa artment of Social Services.

Check out naa.gov.au/visit-us for our programs in your capital city.

Free entry | open daily 9am–5pm | (02) 6212 3600 Queen Victoria Terrace, e Parkes, Canberra ACT

social media | facebook

WHAT NURSES & MIDWIVES

SAID & LIKED on facebook www.facebook.com/nswnma True cost new hospital Can’t say we were surprised: the NSW government is accused of breaking transparency laws by suppressing the true cost to taxpayers of the new privatised Northern Beaches Hospital ($2.14billion rather than $1b) until after the election, and of keeping key details of the public-private partnership secret.

True cost private health An elderly woman with private health insurance received a $1500 bill after having tests done in a private hospital. Sounds like Americanisation to us.

Failing our graduates The Four Corners program exposed mass plagiarism and “soft marking” in Australia’s higher education sector, including in nursing faculties.

Midwives deliver royal coup The eminent obstetricians stood by in a room next door – the new royal baby was actually delivered by midwives Arona Ahmed and Jacqui DunkleyBent.

The age of prejudice One doctor claimed that the frail aged are often left untreated due to age prejudice, while others say the aged can be over-treated and made to suffer unnecessarily. What do you think?

Fancy that!

Be very aware of what this government is doing as far as privatising services. Not looking transparent.

Why are they giving taxpayer dollars to a private enterprise anyway? They should have totally funded a new public hospital for that kind of cash!

I have been a nurse for donkey’s years and don’t belong to a health fund for this very reason.

I know, in my heart, that public patients receive better treatment in a public hospital hands down.

Privatisation has never been for the benefit of consumers. This is only to be expected.

I had lots of mixed emotions [watching this program], mostly concern for the new graduates, they deserve support but need to be educated enough to care for patients in the way they deserve. // As a preceptor I was told, by an educator, I was not allowed to fail an incompetent unsafe student. // It makes a sham of those of us who worked hard to obtain degrees and put our heart and soul into the training. // Most nurses at the coalface have known this for years. // But how many nurses at the coalface had the integrity to stand up and be counted? // It’s sad and it’s true and in the end everyone will pay for it.

The real problem is when they are confirmed in their registration by an independent body and later employed with no monitoring despite concern from various team members!

Was going to become a facilitator at a NSW uni for nursing. A colleague talked me out of it and resigned herself as the uni had a no-fail policy and friend said there were plenty of unsafe nurses being passed with that policy.

I have been in an emergency department with a major trauma, calling for equipment and the other RN has not understood what I was asking for. Really scared me to have this lack of back up. // I had classmates at uni who asked for extensions on every deadline. The lecturers said they had to pass them because their fees were needed to keep running the university.

Who’d have thought! Midwives delivering babies, this idea may catch on.

Assisted the woman to birth her own baby - not “delivered”. One day we will get that terminology sorted!

Bet they weren’t paid as much as the ob-gyns.

Both happen, with over-intervention being more of a problem. Nobody is willing to say “enough”. // I think most get good care, but does “good” mean sending 95-year-olds for angiograms and put into ICU for invasive treatment that in all reality will not change any outcome? Why not give them optimal care and comfort rather than a busy ward, being jabbed and more tests that in reality are not going anywhere. // I have experienced both extremes while nursing in aged care for many years. My hope is we have well-structured euthanasia as an option for me in 30 years time. // Do older patients face prejudice? Not by nurses they don’t.

PHOTO GALLERY

These nurses and our audience numbers soared as this image went viral!

This sums it up nicely – staffed to budget, not patient safety.

A timely reminder – every weekend, nurses and midwives care.

Members at Penrith were happy to vote for their new aged care enterprise agreement.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 37

test your knowledge

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Across 1. Cartilage whose matrix contains yellow elastic fibers (7.9) 8. Ankles (5) 10. A decay product of radium, used in radiation cancer therapy (5) 11. A contagious viral infection of the upper respiratory tract (4) 13. An opening in a structure or surface; a cleft or breach (3) 14. Intrinsic factor (1.1) 15. Try to vomit (5) 16. A unit of measurement of electric resistance (3) 17. To perform awkwardly (4) 18. Basal metabolic rate (1.1.1) 19. A type of protein in blood plasma that acts as an antibody to activate allergic reactions (2.1)

20. Symbol for rhodium. (2) 21. Language or speech (5) 22. A nurse classification (1.1.1) 23. Drags (4) 25. Nephelometric immunoassay (1.1.1) 27. The length of time that one has existed (3) 29. Ampere-hour (1.1) 30. A single secretory cell (11.5) 34. A prepared account of an event, investigation, or evaluation (6) 35. Ironweed (9) 36. Graduates or former students (6) 39. Mentally quick or alert (5) 40. An atom or group of atoms that acquires an electrical charge by the gain or loss of electrons (3)

41. Matter ejected from the trachea, bronchi, and lungs through the mouth (6) 42. scanning laser ophthalmoscope (1.1.1) 43. An endotracheal tube that passes through the nose (12.4) Down 1. Nourishment given through a tube or stoma directly into the small intestine (7.9) 2. Femur (9) 3. Pertaining to the body, or to a corpus (9) 4. Relating to the belly (9) 5. An instruments for measuring pressure or tension (9)

6. Repelled by bright light (9) 7. Bone formed by the ossification of cartilage (12.4) 9. A bioflavonoid used in the treatment of capillary fragility (5) 12. Not on, attached, or connected (3) 24. Restraints (8) 26. Irritability (3.6) 28. Strains to vomit (4) 31. Grafts (8) 32. Containing uranium (8) 33. Relating to the gums (8) 37. Ultrasound (1.1) 38. The thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (2) 39. Symbol for americium (2)

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 39

NURSES & MIDWIVES: There are many benefits of being a financial member of the NSWNMA — did you know that

Authorised by B.Holmes, General Secretary, NSWNMA

YOUR MEMBERSHIP FEES COVER YOU FOR TRAVEL TO AND FROM WORK? If you are involved in an accident while travelling to or from work, NSWNMA’s Journey Accident Insurance provides you with peace of mind.

In recent years this insurance has been a financial safety net for many members who have met unfortunate circumstances travelling to or from work.

As a financial member of the NSWNMA you are automatically covered by this policy. It’s important to remember however, that it can only be accessed if you are a financial member at the time of the accident.

So make sure your membership remains financial at all times by paying your fees by Direct Debit or Credit.

Watch Alexis talk about Journey Accident Insurance

JOURNEY ACCIDENT INSURANCE

Your journey injury safety net

UNSURE IF YOU ARE FINANCIAL? IT’S EASY! Ring and check today on 8595 1234 (metro) or 1300 367 962 (rural).

Change your payment information online at

www.nswnma.asn.au

nursing research online

Background Briefing is an excellent investigative journalism podcast exploring the issues of the day and examining society in a lively documentary style. It is free to download from the www.abc.net.au/radionational site and there is a broad catalogue of progams, many relevant to nursing and the broader health sector. quickly urged him to buy a set of hearing aids priced at nearly $12,000.

“We hadn’t had any finalisation of the results of the tests when he was already selling me hearing aids,” said Buckley. “I looked at the audiologist and I said, ‘You don’t happen to be owned by the hearing aid manufacturer?’ He was quite shocked and looked at me taken aback.”

What Buckley didn’t know was that around a third of audiology clinics in Australia are owned by hearing aid companies. A Background Briefing investigation has found that even audiologists who don’t directly work for manufacturers often receive commissions and other incentives to sell hearing aids to their patients. www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2015-0426/6407390

Living in the bite zone

A cycle of violence Jess Hill, May 2015 There’s no such thing as a typical perpetrator. Nick [not his real name], a burly man in his mid-thirties lives just south of Melbourne with his wife Steph and their two young boys.

A year ago, during a late night argument, Nick picked Steph up and threw her out of bed. Her screams woke up their eldest son, who came running into the room to find his mother sobbing on the floor.

There are the family men who don’t even realise they’re abusive, the master manipulators who terrorise their partners, the drug addicts caught in a spiral of violence and a dozen other types in between. But they all have one thing in common: a compulsion for power and control.

Experts are adamant on this point: domestic violence is not an anger management problem. When perpetrators believe they’re being defied, they can feel like they’re losing control.

They use the abuse – be it physical, emotional or psychological – to subjugate their partners and regain control. www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2015-0503/6428882

Have I got a hearing aid for you!

Hagar Cohen A few years ago the family of film producer Tony Buckley began nagging him about his hearing.

He went to a Sydney-based audio clinic to be tested, where an audiologist

Ian Townsend There is growing evidence that a changing environment is making life better for Australia’s mosquitoes and contributing to a large outbreak of Ross River virus.

So far this year there have been 6000 reported cases of the mosquito-borne virus, more than the total number of cases recorded last year. More than half have occurred in the fast developing strip of coastline between Brisbane and Port Macquarie.

“There are an awful lot of people who are going to be at risk in the future as our towns and cities expand, and particularly expanding along the coast in former good mosquito habitat,” said the head of the mosquito lab at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Greg Devine.

On the NSW side of the border new housing estates along the Tweed River are being built adjacent to mangroves where the saltwater mosquito Aedes vigilax – one of the main culprits in the outbreak of the virus – has bred in huge numbers.

Researchers say that not only are people moving closer to this mosquitoes’ mangrove habitat, the mangroves themselves are spreading out and moving closer to people. www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2015-0419/6389918

When is a surgeon not a surgeon?

William Verity It was only because Janelle Trigg had some time on her hands that she decided to follow the advice of her friend and get a tiny bit of white skin on the side of her nose checked out.

As it turns out it was nothing to worry about, at least in the medical sense.

Except the treatment she received at a skin cancer clinic was a catastrophe that has scarred her for life and led her on a four-year fight for justice.

By her own admission her nose carries on its tip “a great indentation like a skate park” even after she spent $7500 of her own money trying to fix it.

“I’m going to have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said.

Medical mistakes, complications and botch-ups are to be expected occasionally. Where medical procedures result in harm to patients, we have regulations and a legal system that will pick them up. Right? Wrong.

Few people realise that there are two areas of medicine – skin cancer treatment and cosmetic medicine – that are largely unregulated and where people carrying out surgical procedures aren’t required to have specialist skills. www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2015-0412/6378998

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 41

book me All the latest Book Me reviews from The Lamp can now be read online at www.nswnma.asn.au/library-services/book-reviews.

Each review includes a link directly to that item in the library catalogue plus instructions on how to request a loan.

Nurses & Midwives in Australian history: a guide to historical sources

Learning Disability Nursing at a Glance

Noeline Kyle, R Lynette Russell and Jennifer Blundell

Bob Gates, Debra Fearns and Jo Welch

Unlock the Past www.unlockthepast.com.au RRP $17 ISBN 9781921956196 For those wishing to investigate nursing history, identifying and accessing records that are accurate and substantial can be daunting. This handy guidebook describes the many public and private repositories that can provide information about the lives of nurses and midwives, as well as their training and work environments in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The first chapters introduce the government bodies responsible for nurses and nursing activities and identify key professional nursing organisations with archival collections, including the NSWNMA. Details are also provided for each state and national library and their corresponding archival services, numerous museum and hospital collections, as well as institutions such as asylums and refuges, religious orders, armed services and much more.

Genealogists and social history researchers alike will find this book a useful addition to their tool kit.

Wiley Blackwell (via JR Medical Books) www.medicalbooks.com.au RRP $41.95 ISBN 9781118506134 This recent addition to the At A Glance series addresses the key principles underpinning contemporary learning disability nursing practice and relates them to clinical issues that occur in both primary and secondary care settings. Significantly, it covers the needs of people with learning disabilities across the life spectrum, from children through to adolescence and on to adults and older people. Further sections explore people with multiple diagnoses, biophysical aspects of learning disability nursing, medication and issues of inclusion. It is designed as a quick reference guide and has been written in easy-to-understand language, drawing heavily on diagrams and pictures to support visual learners.

Workplace Mental Health: Manual for Nurse Managers

special interest

Lisa Adams Springer Publishing (via Footprint Books) www.footprint.com.au RRP $81 ISBN 9780826137456 While individuals typically enter the nursing profession with hopes and wishes of doing good, hopes can be shattered if their own mental health is compromised. From an array of factors such as a nurse’s coping skills, social supports, job satisfaction, self-conception and pride, philosophy and life experiences, as well as external stressors like the physical environment, change, role ambiguity and resource shortages: the potential for a perfect storm is stirring. This unique, practical text describes the impact of bullying, harassment, addictions, violence and other triggers to mental health issues and offers evidencebased strategies to help health care professionals cope with unhealthy work environments. It provides insights into individual and group dynamics and examines the roles of the health care institution, workplace management and the individual employee in fostering healthy and unhealthy situations. Each chapter is clearly articulated, with learning objectives at the start and discussion questions at the end, and in between an effective presentation of research, case studies and recommendations.

Without Nurses a Hospital is Just Bricks and Mortar: The St George Hospital Nurses Judith Cornell St George Hospital Graduate Nurses Association www.stgeorgegrads.com RRP $30 ISBN 9780646928395 The first probationary nurse of St George’s Cottage Hospital commenced work in 1894, two days after the first Matron had been appointed and two years after the hospital’s foundation stone was laid. Since then the nurses of St George have made their mark in a wide range of settings, including clinical practice, hospital and educational reform, service in wartime and missionary endeavours. This book celebrates the many nurses who trained at the hospital and who in turn shaped the development of both the hospital and more broadly the nursing profession in Australia. It is engaging and easy to read as well as rich in details drawn from archival material and oral histories. It profiles a number of influential matrons and nurse graduates and describes some of the challenges, achievements and advancements of nurses at all levels of the organisation. It would be an excellent resource for anyone seeking to deepen their connection to St George Hospital or better understand the early history of nursing in Sydney.

news for members Access to CINAHL Plus with Full Text Members can now access the CINAHL Plus with Full Text research database directly! Simply log in to the Association’s member-only page then click on the CINAHL link. CINAHL Plus with Full Text is the definitive research tool for nursing and allied health literature, providing full text for more than 750 journals and thousands of articles dating back to 1937. It also includes searchable cited references, legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. For further information or assistance please contact the NSWNMA Library.

All books can be ordered through the publisher or your local bookshop. NSWNMA members can borrow the books featured here, and many more, from our Information and Records Management Centre (IRMC). Contact Jeannette Bromfield gensec@nswnma.asn.au or Cathy Matias 8595 2121 cmatias@nswnma.asn.au. All reviews by NSWNMA IRMC Coordinator/Librarian Jeannette Bromfield. Some books are reviewed using information supplied and have not been independently reviewed.

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 43

NSWNMA WATCHES

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NSWNMA merchandise is not only stylish & comfortable, it is affordable & sold at cost to members.

ORDER FORM Bonded Polar Fleece Zip Front Jacket $30 + $5 postage & handling*. Quantity: S XL XXL XXXL Size: M L NSWNMA Watches $50 + $5 postage & handling*.

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Merchandise order forms also available on

www.nswnma.asn.au

movies of the month

Australian Mia Wasikowska continues to take the film world by storm in the classic role of Madame Bovary, a young woman desperate to escape the boredom of her provincial life. When marriage to the good but dull doctor, Charles Bovary (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), fails to live up to her fantasies, Emma Bovary embarks on a series of indiscreet, adulterous affairs. Based on the acclaimed novel by Gustave Flaubert, this remake is true to its origins in so much as the audience is skillfully engaged in Emma’s moral dilemma, as her actions drag her deeper into debt and disgrace. In its day Madame Bovary was described as obscene and while Emma’s affairs are less shocking today, the actions of a selfish, aspirational young woman, who wreaks havoc while trying to achieve a romantic ideal, is all to easy to recognise. Wasikowska shines in the title role but she is not alone and is supported by a strong cast of familiar actors including Paul Giamatti and Rhys Ifans.

IN CINEMAS JULY 9

METROMEMBERGIVEAWAY Email The Lamp by the 15th of the month to be in the draw to win a double pass to Madame Bovary thanks to Transmissions Films. email your name, membership number, address and telephone number to lamp@nswnma.asn.au for a chance to win!

DVD SPECIAL OFFER Aidan Turner ([The Hobbit) stars as the passionate and idealistic Ross Poldark, who returns from the American Revolutionary War to a family that believed him dead and discovers his childhood sweetheart (Heida Reed) is engaged to his cousin. Starting a new life on the land he has inherited from his father – and as a neighbour to his beloved Elizabeth – Poldark begins to rebuild what is left of his inheritance.

He begins a new business venture, makes new enemies and finds love with his spirited kitchen maid, Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson). Poldark is a tale of heartbreak, love, passion and determination set against the stunning landscape of the Cornish coastline. The original BBC series captivated audiences in the 1970s and this new rendition is sure to win fans as well.

RURALMEMBERGIVEAWAY Email The Lamp by the 15th of this month to be in the draw to win a dvd of Poldark thanks to Roadshow Entertainment. email your name, membership number, address and telephone number to lamp@nswnma.asn.au for a chance to win!

THE LAMP JUNE 2015 | 45

diary dates — conferences, seminars, meetings. diary dates is a free service for members Please send event details in the format used here: event name, date and location, contact details – by the 5th of each month.

Send your event details to: lamp@nswnma.asn.au Fax 02 9662 1414 Post 50 O’Dea Ave, Waterloo NSW 2017. All listings are edited for the purposes of style and space.

NSW Medical Imaging Nurses Association National Conference 19-21 June Sydney www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEvent Summary.aspx?eid=110777 Nurses Christian Fellowship – Is longevity becoming an ethical dilemma?

23 June Sydney www.ncfansw.org Sydney Adventist Hospital Biannual Wound Conference 26 June 2015 www.sah.org.au/conferences Empower Nurse Education – Acute Care Nursing Conference 1 August Newcastle www.empowernurseeducation.com.au Nurses Christian Fellowship – Workshop and AGM 15 August Sydney www.ncfansw.org DANA Many Faces of Addiction Forum 13-14 August Sydney Central www.danaconference.com.au Australian Wound Management Association (NSW) 14-15 August Terrigal info.nsw@awma.com.au Empower Nurse Education – Anaesthetics and PARU Conference 4-5 September Newcastle www.empowernurseeducation.com.au NSW Health Triples Lawn Bowls Tournament 13 September Belfield Bowling and Recreation Club Paul.Sillato@swsahs.nsw.gov.au 26th PANDDA 2015 Conference 15-16 September Parramatta www.pandda.net Nursing and Midwifery Unit Managers Society Annual Conference 9 October Terrigal www.numsociety.org.au 2015 Australian Nursing and Midwifery Conference 15-16 October Newcastle www.nursingmidwiferyconference.com.au/ Australian and New Zealand Orthopaedic Nurses’ Association Conference Climbing to the Summit 11-13 November Sydney www.anzonaconference.net/

ACT The MHS Conference – Best Practice into Reality 25-28 August Canberra www.themhs.org Second National Complex Needs Conference 17-18 November Canberra https://phaa.eventsair.com/QuickEventWebsit ePortal/second-national-complex-needsconference/2ncncwebsite Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association 7-9 December Canberra www.stopdomesticviolence.com.au

INTERSTATE 18th CNSA Winter Congress (Cancer Nurses Society of Australia) 14-16 June Perth www.cnsawintercongress.com.au Cancer Nurses Society of Australia 18th Winter Congress 14-16 June Perth www.cnsawintercongress.com.au

46 | THE LAMP JUNE 2015

Allergic Reactions: What nurses need to know 15-16 June Brisbane www.ausmed.com.au/course/allergies-innursing Renal Society of Australia Annual Conference 15-17 June Perth www.rsaannualconference.org.au The person centred approach to healthy weight management. If not dieting, then what?® 2015 19-20 June Adealide www.apna.asn.au/ifnotdieting No 2 Bullying Conference 29-30 June Gold Coast www.no2bullying.org.au Nursing Informatics Australia Annual Conference 3-5 August Brisbane www.hisa.org.au/hic2015/nia/ 16th International Mental Health Conference 12-14 August QLD www.anzmh.asn.au/conference/ ASA+FNA 27th Conference 2015 19-21 August Darwin www.aeromedconference.com/ 10th Conference – The Australian College of Nurse Practitioners 6-8 September Albert Park VIC www.dcconferences.com.au/acnp2015/ 6th Australian Emergency Nurse Practitioner Symposium 9-10 September Albert Park VIC www.dcconferences.com.au/acnp2015/home Asia Pacific Autism Conference (APAC15) 9-11 September Brisbane www.apac15.org.au 2015 Indigenous Men’s Conference 28-30 September Darwin www.indigenousconferences.com 2015 Indigenous Women’s Conference 28-30 September Darwin www.indigenousconferences.com Australian College of Midwives 19th Biennial Conference 5-8 October Gold Coast www.acm2015.com 13th International Conference for Emergency Nurses 7-9 October Brisbane www.cena.org.au ACMHN’s 41st International Mental Health Nursing Conference 7-9 October Brisbane www.acmhn2015.com The National Nursing Forum 14-16 October Brisbane www.acn.edu.au/Forum_2015 2015 CRANAplus Conference 15-17 October Alice Springs www. crana.org.au 7th Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Symposium 26-28 October Creswick, VIC www.anzmh.asn.au/rrmh/ 2015 Annual Scientific Alcohol and Drug Conference 8-11 November Perth www.apsadconference.com.au 2015 National Indigenous Health Conference 1-3 December Darwin www.indigenousconferences.com

INTERNATIONAL International Council of Nurses (ICN) Conference 19-23 June Seoul, Republic of Korea. www.icn2015.com Patient Safety Congress 6-7 July Birmingham, United Kingdom http://info.patientsafetycongress.co.uk/

sbyers01@bigpond.net.au Margaret Borg (nee Mueller) 0431 159 964 or margaret_borg@bigpond.com Community Health in the Lower Hunter (Maitland, Cessnock, Singleton, Dungog and Port Stephens) 40-year reunion 19752015 24 October East Maitland Bowling Club chreunion@yahoo.com.au Ruth King 4934 3364 Kathryn Bennett 0432 136 060 NEC Prince Henry/Prince of Wales 40-year reunion October 1972-1975 PTS 24-25 October Margret Brignall (nee Samuel) 0418 646 959 Margaret.Samuel@sswahs.nsw.gov.au Sonia Keeling (nee Graf) 0407 221 407 mskeeling@bigpond.com Gill Gillon (nee Horton) 0401 048 205 gillgill@optusnet.com.au St Vincent’s Darlinghurst PTS Class January 1976 40-year reunion 19 March 2016 fnethery@gmail.com.au or jacquie.scott@btopenworlk.com

9th European Congress on Violence in Clinical Psychiatry 22-24 October Copenhagen, Denmark www.oudconsultancy.nl/Copenhagen2015 2nd Annual World Congress of Orthopaedics 2015 24-26 September Xi’an, China www.bitcongress.com/wcort2015/default.asp 4th World Congress of Clinical Safety 28-30 September Vienna, Austria www.iarmm.org/4WCCS/ 4th World Congress of Clinical Safety (4WCCS) 28-30 September Vienna, Austria www.iarmm.org/4WCCS/ NCFI Quadrennial International Conference Healthy Lives in a Broken World - A Christian response to nursing 6-10 June 2016 Tagaytay City, Philippines www.ncfi.org

REUNIONS Auburn Hospital October 1976-1979 40th reunion Sharon Byers 0419 144 965 or

Nurses - Online Survey A survey on confidence in end-of-life communications of bad news to patients at the end-of-life and preferences for training modalities.

The survey takes 5 minutes to complete.

Please complete the survey online at:

http://unsw.to/commskillsonbadnews For any queries, contact the principal investigator Dr Magnolia Cardona-Morrell on m.cardonamorrell@unsw.edu.au By participating you will be helping us design and produce training packages for the future. Thanks in advance,UNSW Team

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