Models of health service delivery in remote or isolated areas of Queensland: A multiple case study
- Authors: Birks, Melanie , Mills, Jane , Francis, Karen , Coyle, Meaghan , Davis, Jennifer , Jones, Janet
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing Vol. 28, no. 1 (2010), p. 25-34
- Full Text: false
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Australian rural and remote registered nurses' experiences of learning to provide antenatal services in general practice : A pilot study
- Authors: Mills, Jane , Birks, Melanie , Francis, Karen , Miles, Maureen , Jones, Janet
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Nursing Practice Vol. 16, no. 4 (2010), p. 319-325
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article reports on a pilot vocational study programme for provision of antenatal services in the general practice environment. The concurrent evaluation study assessed practice nurses' experiences of undertaking the pilot programme, the level and applicability of the content, and the mode of delivery. General practitioners' understanding of the role of the nurse in providing antenatal services, and the actual and potential impact of this new role on models of service delivery and care were also investigated. Women receiving care from practice nurses within this new model of service delivery and care were also of interest in this study. Findings showed that the current role of the general practice nurse in caring for pregnant women is restricted to assisting the general practitioner to complete their assessment of clients. Organizing clinical placement with a midwife was a major barrier to completing the pilot programme.
Australian rural maternity services: Creating a future or putting the last nail in the coffin
- Authors: Francis, Karen , McLeo, Margaret , McIntyre, Meredith , Mills, Jane , Miles, Maureen , Bradley, Angela
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Rural Health Vol. 20, no. 5 (2012), p. 281-284
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Nurses and midwives are the largest group of health providers in Australia (60%), and with increasing remoteness, this proportion increases substantially.1 The recruitment and retention of nurses, and more specifically midwives in rural health services, is at crisis point. Sustainable birthing services will be reliant on a stable, regenerative workforce. Key to this goal is the education of nurses, midwives and doctors, all of whom have stringent pre-service professional placement quotas in order to meet required competencies to practice. The rural workforce crisis in maternity care has been a driving force in health care reform.2 Rural innovation has involved negotiating the space between increased medical risk and the need for a healthy pregnant woman to have the option of staying within her local community to have her baby.3,4 Rural nurses and midwives together with rural doctors agree that continuity of care, irrespective of how it is achieved, is associated with the best outcomes for women and their families in rural locations.4–6 Continuity of care can be achieved using a shared-care medical model involving obstetricians and general practitioners, or midwifery-led primary maternity care services. In the process of securing maternity services that provide continuity of care, the influence of specialist obstetricians, a limited resource in rural locations, has been moderated, and unique solutions to local problems have resulted in the formation of collaborative relationships involving rural nurses, midwives and general practitioners. This polemic makes an argument for a review of the current regulatory requirements for both the education of undergraduate rural nurses and midwives, and the continuing registration of rural midwives who work predominantly in nursing roles. In doing so, the authors provide an overview of the dilemmas facing policymakers, educators, health services managers and clinicians in the provision of sustainable maternity services in rural and remote Australia.
Supporting the evolution of a research culture among nurses in Malaysia
- Authors: Birks, Melanie , Francis, Karen , Chapman, Ysanne , Mills, Jane , Porter, Joanne
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The Australian journal of advanced nursing Vol. 27, no. 1 (2009), p. 89-93
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This paper describes a project to promote a research culture amongst nurses in Malaysia. The project, funded by the Australian Government’s Australia Malaysia Institute, and implemented by a group of Australian nurse academics, provided a rare professional development opportunity to nurses in urban and remote areas of Malaysia
Registered nurses as members of interprofessional primary health care teams in remote or isolated areas of Queensland : Collaboration, communication and partnerships in practice
- Authors: Mills, Jane , Francis, Karen
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Interprofessional Care Vol. 24, no. 5 (2010), p. 587-596
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Nurses represent the largest occupational group of health care professionals in Australia. The ratio of nurses to population is relatively consistent, unlike other health care professional groups (including medical doctors and allied health staff) whose numbers decline as population density and distance from metropolitan areas increases. Nurses working in areas where other health care professionals are limited or absent have expanded scopes of practice with their work being more generalist than specialist. The role of nurses in remote and isolated areas of Queensland, Australia was the focus of a commissioned multi-case research project. Findings reported in this paper relate to the position of registered nurses as part of an interprofessional team. These findings indicated that, in some instances, local health care teams were limited to a single nurse and Indigenous health care worker/s, while in others the teams were more diverse. In all cases collegial support was available either locally or via telecommunication technology. Understanding the role of each team member, having useful strategies to enhance communication and work collaboratively were identified as essential criteria for "good practice".