September 27, 2020

Research

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the health and aged care workforce

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on all Australians and notably on the health and aged care professions, changing the way we work and interact with one another.

To gain a better understanding of the effects the Australian outbreak of COVID-19 has had on the nursing, midwifery, and personal care workforce the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, in all states and territories, has partnered with the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre to launch a national COVID-19 Workforce Survey.

As Australia continues to deal with the impacts of the pandemic, share your experiences as a nurse, midwife or personal care worker in the national COVID-19 Workforce Survey.

Your voice is vital in helping us to advocate for improvements that will lead to better workforce wellbeing, job satisfaction and quality of care.

The results from the survey will arm us with a heightened level of preparedness to ensure the health system has the appropriate support and resources for the emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing of the workforce during a pandemic.

Take part in the survey by visiting https://is.gd/covidandwork

Your expectations about continence care in residential aged care homes

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The National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) is currently conducting an Australia-wide survey in collaboration with the Continence Foundation of Australia to explore people’s expectations about continence care in residential aged care homes. The survey is open to:

·         Residents who require continence care in a residential aged care home

·         Carers, family members and friends of people who require or required continence care in a residential aged care home.

This survey will inform a best practice model of continence care in residential aged care homes. We would appreciate it if you would forward this email to your Community Outreach Officer (or similar), for distribution to residents, carers, family members and friends of your residents.  I have attached a short description of the project for individuals that can be used in newsletters or as a template for an email invitation. The relevant link is also below.

Please complete the survey online at https://redcap.nari.edu.au/redcap/surveys/?s=HHFPKKRHNF

The online survey will take approximately 15 minutes. By completing the survey, participants will go in the running to win one of three $40 Coles Myer gift vouchers.  We would be happy to mail you hardcopy surveys with attached postage paid return envelopes at your request.  The survey will close on 10th August 2020.

For further information, please contact Dr Joan Ostaszkiewicz from NARI via email: j.ostaszkiewicz.nari.edu.au.

Review of Restraints Principles

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The Australian Government Department of Health has engaged Australian Healthcare Associates to conduct this survey as part of a review of the  Restraints Principles.

 

The Restraints Principles are new laws that aim to minimise inappropriate use of restraint in residential aged care.  The Restraints Principles are Part 4A of the Quality of Care Principles 2014; if you would like to read them please click here.

Even if you haven’t heard about the Restraints Principles, your feedback is still valuable.

The survey should take you about 20 minutes. Your responses are confidential and will only be visible to the team at Australian Healthcare Associates. If you don’t want to continue with the survey, you can stop at any time. As you work through the survey you will notice a dotted line under some words. Hovering over these words will bring up a definition, to help you interpret and answer the questions accurately.

You can read more about the survey in the information sheet here. Simply click here to indicate to start on the survey.

The survey has four sections:

  1. About you and your aged care facility/organisation (the survey does not identify you or any residential aged care facility)
  2. Practice changes following the introduction of the Restraints Principles
  3. Effectiveness of the Restraints Principles in minimising restraint use
  4. Unintended consequences and opportunities for improvement

Sleep literacy in Australian Health Professionals

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Inadequate sleep is a significant public health issue. A recent parliamentary report recommended that the Australian government assesses the sleep knowledge of health professionals, and develops effective training mechanisms to improve the knowledge of primary healthcare practitioners in diagnosing and managing sleep health problems.

If you are a fully qualified medical practitioner, nurse, psychologist, social worker, occupational therapist, pharmacist or dentist working in Australia, you are invited to participate in this research study, which aims to survey knowledge, practices, and attitudes towards sleep in Australian Health Professionals. For more information please contact the Chief Investigator Dr Cele Richardson at +61 8 6488 3141 or cele.richardson@uwa.edu.au

To participate in the study, visit http://uwa.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vqPKwckURT4YpD

Participants will gain access to a sleep toolkit, which may assist with the management of sleep in their clinical practice.

Approval to conduct this research has been provided by the University of Western Australia, in accordance with its ethics review and approval procedures.

Many more men are dying from COVID-19 than women

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In many countries, male fatalities are twice those of women.

In Italy and China, deaths of men due to COVID-19 are more than double those of women. In New York City, men constitute about 61 per cent of patients who die. Australia is showing signs of similar results.

Clearly, the major variable in severity of COVID-19 is age. But experts say the other major factor is the presence of chronic diseases, particularly heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  These are all more common in men than women, which might account for some of the bias.

Writing in The Conversation, Jenny Graves, Professor of Genetics at La Trobe University, says “the sex bias in COVID-19 deaths is part of a much larger picture – and a very much older picture – of sex differences in genes, chromosomes and hormones that lead to very different responses to all sorts of disease, including COVID-19”.

“We’ve known for a long time that women have a stronger immune system than men. It gives women an advantage when it comes to susceptibility to viruses.”

In China, the marked differences in death rates between men and women mirrors the extreme differences in smoking rate. Almost half of Chinese men smoke compared with only 2 per cent of women. Not only is smoking a severe risk factor for any respiratory disease, but it also causes lung cancer, a further risk factor.

Australia’s Community Sector: Responding to COVID-19

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The NSW Council of Social Service, together with the Councils of Social Service across the country, invite you to participate in the Australian Community Sector Survey – COVID-19 Snapshot.

The survey will provide an invaluable picture of the impacts of COVID-19 on the community sector, as it allows a longitudinal comparison between the sector in late 2019 and now. Your response is vital to give a full picture of the impacts of the pandemic on the sector. The survey closes on 21 July 2020.

The data collected in this survey will help inform the Federal, State and Territory Government, National Cabinet, the COVID Commission and other policymakers about the critical issues affecting the community sector and any gaps in social services emerging during the COVID-19 early recovery period.

The survey also aims to help build sector advocacy relating to resourcing, contracting, funding and capacity to deliver the services needed in our communities.

Follow this link for a full briefing about the Australian Community Sector Survey – COVID-19 Snapshot.