8.30am - Registration and Refreshments
9.00am - 'Reframing Your Inner Nurse'
A great deal of really important nursing work occurs 'under the radar' and is invisible to most people except the recipients of the care. Such invisibility and lack of awareness of what we do can have serious consequences for our profession. In this first session you will have an opportunity to reflect on your role as an integral part of the health care team.In particular you will look at:
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What it is that makes the work you do, as a nurse -- as a healer and provider of care, so special.
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The difference you actually make to the lives of others.
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How to improve nurses' image in the workplace, within the health care system, and in society generally.
This session will include activities and will focus on building a strong sense of nurse identity.
10.30am - Morning Tea and Coffee
11.00am - Identifying and Caring for People who are Anxious
When a person is vulnerable, their fears and anxieties may become evident and even magnified. This session will consider the nature of anxiety and recommend practical nursing skills for resolving highly emotional situations.
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Common triggers for anxiety.
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Workable strategies when responding to patients who are fearful and agitated.
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Responding to rude and demanding behaviours.
11.45am - Tips for Dealing with Loss, Grief and Bereavement
Losses people may experience include the loss of property, loss of body image as a result of mutilating surgery or chronic disabilities, loss of employment because of redundancy and loss of homeland due to migration. In your role it is important that you are conversant with the principles of grief and loss so that you can engage in best-practice communication.
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What is grief and how has our understanding of grief evolved?
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Why and when do we grieve?
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What is involved in the grieving process?
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How do you deal with patients and their relatives who are experiencing grief?
12.30 - Lunch Break and Networking
1.30pm - Preventing Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)
VTE is a serious, silent risk that has a significant morbidity. It, can cause heart attack, stroke and paralysis and even death. As evidence emerges, it is clear that nursing practice, such as ensuring the early mobilisation of patients post surgery, can play an important role in preventing such incidents. This session will highlight the dangers of VTE, and what nurses can do to prevent its occurrence, particularly on night shifts.
2.00pm - Morbid Obesity and Best Practice Nursing Care
Care of a morbidly obese person is complex. For example, the high potential for skin breakdown and poor wound healing require intelligent, evidence-based, preventative care. As well, there is serious risk of harm to staff in areas relating to mobility.
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Which risk management strategies need to be considered when caring for a person who is obese?
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How to appropriately select equipment to prevent pressure ulcer development in this patient population.
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Bariatrics – definition and an update What predisposes people to develop obesity?
Discussion of the types of available surgical procedures and the health benefits.
3.00pm - Afternoon Tea and Coffee
3.30pm - Patient Care Errors and Inconvenient Truths - An Update for Nurses
Occasionally, people admitted to health care facilities experience untoward incidents - sometimes with fatal outcomes. Most of these incidents are preventable.
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A review of the human element in clinical mistakes – how does this knowledge guide risk-reducing policies and procedures?
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Is it OK to apologise?
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Practical approaches to the creation of quality improvement policies which are realistic and which genuinely enhance the safety of staff and patients.
4.15pm - Close of Day One of Seminar Program
9.00am - Falls Prevention and the Danger of Beds - Essential Information for General Nurses
Many incidents in Australian hospitals are related to falls. This presentation will provide evidence and guidance with regard to the major issues of entrapment, strangulation and suffocation from the mattress and the bed rails.
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What role do beds play in falls, restraint and even life-threatening entrapment?
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Guidelines for using this equipment safely and correctly.
9.45am - Smart Pump Technology
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Review of the Smart Pump System
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Learn about the components of intravenous medication errors and how to reduce risk.
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Overview of other smart pump technologies for reducing the incidence of life-threatening errors.
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Emphasis on risk identification as a foundation for effective and safe pump selection.
10.30am - Morning Tea and Coffee
11.00am - Using Evidence to Improve Skin Care
This session emphasises the importance for nurses to apply contemporary research findings to enhance skin care and prevent either pressure ulcers or dermatitis associated with incontinence.
11.20am - Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Management
Discussion of pressure ulcers, their prevention, warning signs and management.
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Who is at risk of developing pressure ulcers and why?
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Following in-patient admission, when should the initial assessment occur?
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Summary of nursing assessment and treatment guidelines.
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Understanding the importance of the correct selection of equipment.
12.00pm - Pressure Care Documentation
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An exploration of some tools, which facilitate evidence-based documentation.
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When does the development of a pressure ulcer become an incident?
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What are the implications of such incidents
1.00pm - Lunch Break and Browse the Book Display
1.45pm - Revision of Infection Prevention Control Principles
'The majority of healthcare-associated infections result from cross-transmission related to inappropriate patient-care practices.'
All nurses need to be eternally vigilant about infection prevention. It is essential that nurses regularly update themselves about modern infection control principles. This afternoon session will review and enhance your knowledge about this ever-present aspect of nursing care.
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Review of the disease transmission model
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Applying standard and additional precautions including:
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A review of the correct use of personal protective apparel including indications for use.
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Immunisation of staff and others.
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A review of correct cleaning practices relating to handling equipment such as urinals / stethoscopes etc.
This session will culminate with a demonstration of a correct hand hygiene procedure.
3.00pm - Afternoon Tea and Coffee
3.30pm - Special Situations - Managing an Outbreak of Gastroenteritis
A case study examination of this important topic.
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What is the correct process to follow if an outbreak of gastro-enteritis occurs in your unit?
Time for questions and comments.
4.15pm - Close of Program and Evaluations
Heather Schubert OAMHeather has extensive experience and qualifications in acute care nursing and education including management roles in ICU and CCU. She teaches Basic and Advanced Life Support and has an interest in assisting all nurses – regardless of their training level - to develop enhanced clinical assessment skills and to take a more active role in the management of emergencies. Heather was a founding member of the S.A. Branch of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (previously CACCN), is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, Australia and is on the SA committee of the Australian Resuscitation Council. She has her own business as a Consultant Nurse Educator, is a Clinical Associate of the Adelaide University and has taught aspects of emergency and acute care extensively in metropolitan and rural communities throughout South Australia. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2009 for her services to critical care nursing and education in SA.
Tracy NowickiTracy is currently employed within a major metropolitan hospital in Brisbane as Clinical Nurse Consultant to manage the central equipment service. A significant focus of her role within this department has been to bring innovation in the development of a central equipment service so as to ensure optimal patient outcomes through safe, equitable equipment management, education and maintenance. This service also specialises in pressure injury prevention, management of the Bariatric patient, Falls prevention, bed safety, Smart Pump Technology, skin integrity and risk management.
Tracy has extensive experience in presenting innovative approaches to quality risk management topics. A focus of her teaching is to ensure people have fun in learning.
Fiona O'SheaFiona is a qualified and experienced general and mental health nurse who teaches a range of related topics to nurses at TAFE and University. As well, Fiona is a Clinical Liaison Nurse Specialist - Mental Health, in the Emergency Department of Noarlunga Hospital. Her clinical background includes substantial experience in rural and community mental health settings.
Dr. Jill BeattieNurse Consultant and Educator. Her long-time involvement with medicines and the role of nurses included a two-year research project, which explored the perceptions of RNs about the causes of medication errors. In her doctoral studies she examined how RNs can influence a decrease in inappropriate polypharmacy.
Hugh IronsNurse Consultant and Educator with a Master of Nursing qualification, majoring in community health. He has extensive hospital and community- based experience as a mental health clinician where his clients included those affected by various forms of dementia. Hugh is well known as an informed and engaging teacher and his topics include psycho-geriatric aspects of care. Also, he is the author of the publication “Counselling and Interviewing for Carers: A Basic Guide”.
Michelle BibbyMichelle is a registered nurse with extensive experience in infection control. This includes management of a regional infection control program including coordination of the hand hygiene program. Her qualifications include: Accredited Nurse Immuniser, Victoria; Accredited HIV/HCV Counselor Victoria; and a Certificate in Sterilisation and Infection Control.
