Blacktown

Sexuality, Ageing and Dementia: a quick look forward in residential aged care

August 15, 2024 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

Aged care trainer Helen Samphier will be presenting on sexuality and ageing with dementia at the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association’s upcoming Aged Care Seminar in Blacktown.

It can be said that the topic of sexuality in residential aged care has been something of an “elephant in the room”.

As the raft of aged care reforms drive an increasingly consumer-directed, person-centred approach to all aspects of care, it is inevitable that appropriately supporting sexuality-a basic human need- will become something that providers and staff will need to be ready for.

It is a myth that older people do not have, or want sex. Whilst statistics are very limited and nuanced, some of the available data shows that sexual activity is important to about 79% of men and 66% of women over 60 years of age. Further, many men and women are sexually active in some way, into their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. These needs do not cease when a person enters care.

The sector’s legislative & regulatory framework is already highlighting the importance of sexuality. The Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards require that “the provider and workers recognise the rights, and respects the autonomy, of older people, including their right to intimacy and sexual and gender expression”.

This is a large topic, and the session does not aim to cover it in its full depth. Rather, we will look at some of the key issues in which those of us in the sector need to prepare for, including:

New Aged Care Quality Standards & Aged Care Act – more focus on the “person”
Sexuality as a human need
Sexuality and ageing
Key impacts of dementia on expressing and meeting sexuality needs
Disinhibition and dementia
LGBTIQ people & ageing – key issues
Diversity – key expectations of aged care providers
Key potential ethical issues
Importance of staff attitudes

This session will be part of the upcoming Aged Care Seminar presented by the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association in Blacktown. You can register for this seminar here.

Blacktown emergency nurses raise safety concerns

March 3, 2023 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

Nurses from Blacktown Hospital emergency department and surrounding Western Sydney hospitals gathered at the end of night shift at 7:30am to call for safety improvements to be expedited to ensure all staff feel safe in the workplace and highlight the need for nurse-to-patient ratios.

NSWNMA members at Blacktown, Cumberland and Westmead hospitals highlighted grave concerns following a serious violent incident in Blacktown emergency department two weeks ago.

During night shift, an emergency nurse was allegedly threatened and chased by a patient with a syringe inside the department, after a doctor was allegedly assaulted. Access to personal duress alarms were limited at the time and a fixed duress alarm was not operational. Fortunately, NSW Police were onsite and able to assist staff.

NSWNMA Blacktown Hospital branch member and ED nurse, Jason Temu highlighted the importance of mandated ratios of 1:3 in ED and better safety measures in the ED department.

“We’re advocating for safer staffing levels and for increased safety within our department.”

Jason also spoke about the increased safety risk presented to ED nurses at Blacktown Hospital:

“There’s always an increased risk within our department and treating patients with behavioural challenges, but the staff are only human as well and we’re highlighting their concerns for safety.”

Michael Whaites, NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary said:

“We’ve got a situation here [at Blacktown] where the duress systems have been shown not to be working. We’ve got members here from Auburn, Westmead and Cumberland and we’re hearing similar stories that the duress systems just aren’t up to scratch.”

Blacktown Hospital branch members raised concerns about the adequacy of safety systems with Western Sydney Local Health District and sought urgent action to address the issues raised by emergency staff.

Poor ED staffing continues to impact patient care

May 4, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim 1 Comment

Ongoing pressure inside public hospital emergency departments (EDs) has prompted renewed calls by the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) for staffing ratios to be mandated on every shift.

The NSWNMA wants the NSW government to introduce a ratio of one nurse to every three ED treatment spaces to improve patient care, backed by Bureau of Health Information (BHI) figures that show patients’ rating of overall care in December 2020 to June 2021 fell below 2019-20 levels.

According to the BHI, overall ED patient experiences were significantly lower than the state average at Blacktown Hospital, Inverell Hospital and Nepean Hospital.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, said the data showed ED staff were unable to check on as many patients while they waited for treatment in John Hunter, Wollongong, Belmont, Westmead, Nepean, Shellharbour and Wyong hospitals, which all performed worse than the NSW median.

“We’ve indicated to the government numerous times how tough conditions have become inside many emergency departments due to chronic understaffing issues,” said Mr Holmes.

“Short staffing was impacting on patient care and safety well before the pandemic and these results show how it was exacerbated during COVID-19 peaks.”

The BHI data indicated one in five ED patients (19%) statewide said they received contradictory information about their condition or treatment.

At Inverell Hospital in the New England, only 42 per cent of patients thought ED staff worked ‘very good’ together, while 54 per cent said they had enough time to discuss their health issue with staff.

“There’s been no reprieve for our public sector nurses and midwives across the state, and we’re continuing to see them reduce their hours or leave nursing and midwifery entirely,” said Mr Holmes.

“The volume of overtime they’re being asked to do, growing skills mix issues and recruitment delays are continuing to take a toll. We need nurse-to-patient ratios of 1:3 on every shift in our emergency departments and the NSW government needs stop relying on its decade-old staffing model that no longer reflects the volume of work necessary to meet demand.

“It’s not good enough. NSW patients deserve better health care and staff deserve safe working conditions.”

Western Sydney Rallies for ratios

May 18, 2021 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

Nurses and midwives rallied outside four Western Sydney hospitals, outraged by the NSW government’s rejection of nurse-to-patient ratios across the state.

The government’s refusal of any workplace improvements has prompted nine branches of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) to participate in rallies outside Auburn, Mount Druitt, Westmead and Blacktown Hospitals, along with community nurses from across the region.

NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary, Judith Kiejda, said members were fed up their calls for safe patient ratios had been ignored for a decade.

“The NSW government is refusing to support nurses and midwives who are run off their feet and buckling under excessive workloads,” Ms Kiejda said.

“Our members tell us they are regularly working short-staffed, unable to replace sick leave at short notice, and many nursing vacancies are being left unfilled.

“The NSW government has the power to improve patient safety in our hospitals. It must follow Queensland, Victoria and the ACT by introducing shift-by-shift ratios, improved conditions and fair pay.”

Hospital-wide support for maternity staff

February 1, 2021 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

Members across all services strongly supported the stand taken by Blacktown maternity unit staff.

Blacktown Hospital branch president Katie Conciatore said the deaths of newborns had affected all parts of the hospital.

“Obviously, dealing with death in a hospital is a part of the job,” she said.

“However, when it’s in an area that doesn’t see death often, you wouldn’t find many unaffected by that and looking to do something to improve the situation.

“People are happy to support each other because we have been having these same fights over staffing across different departments for years and got nowhere.

“Everyone is over being short-staffed and under-resourced.

“The infant deaths just capped it off – particularly because staff in maternity services have been warning management about this for years.

Many nurses from areas such as theatres, emergency, surgical and aged care attended the  branch meeting and supported us, Katie said.

“After the vote, in the time it took me to walk over to the hospital executive to hand them the resolution and notice that we were walking, the crowd of nurses and midwives in Hospital Street was probably double the number I expected,” she said.

“Some of them came with signs such as ‘Aged Care Nurses Support Midwives’.

“They didn’t stand to immediately benefit from showing solidarity. Everyone was saying, it’s the midwives now but we are next.”

Stewards’ vital role

Blacktown branch laid the groundwork for cross-hospital solidarity by building a network of stewards in all services.

The branch has 20 stewards across the hospital, including a number in maternity services at the time of the action.

“Each time we have issues affecting a particular service – ICU, ED, surgical ward, aged care ward – we can alert stewards across the hospital,” Katie said.

“They can quickly share info to members and go around their units to talk to people.

“This allows us to get people to a meeting quickly. The meeting was called in the morning and held with a huge attendance in the afternoon.”

Walkout sends a strong message

February 1, 2021 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

Blacktown Hospital midwives take strong action to protect the health and safety of mothers and babies in their care.

NSWNMA branch steward Rachel O’Donnell said members discussed the pros and cons of action before the NSWNMA branch meeting vote.

“How would we go about it? And how would it benefit us?

“Once we understood how it would work, and how we could ensure it would not leave the wards without any staff, people were worked up enough to support it,” Rachel said.

“There wasn’t a lot of trust in management because we had been trying to work with them to solve staffing issues for at least 18 months. They had made a lot of empty promises and none of us wanted it to drag on any longer.”

Representatives of midwives and the branch met with Western Sydney Local Health District management on the morning of the action.

Management offered to employ another 15 midwives but would not commit to a time frame. The LHD also wanted to send all other issues off to a committee of managers and midwives for more discussion.

The branch called a meeting where “the feeling was that we had to send a clear message that we were ready to stand together to fight for what was right for patients and staff.”

“We wanted to keep the issue in the spotlight so management couldn’t keep delaying things.”

The walkout covered the birthing unit and maternity ward along with members from outside the maternity service such as theatres and general medical wards.

“We did a lot of work to spread the word and gain support throughout the hospital,” Rachel said.

“We already had a lot of support from theatres because we work closely with them. Our branch officials were always really supportive; they sent messages to other wards and got positive feedback from them.

Union reps on the wards looked at the day sheets and worked out the numbers who needed to stay behind during the action.

An overwhelming vote in favour of action

The vote took place at the end of morning shift and was overwhelmingly in favour. The afternoon staff walked out as a group and gathered outside the hospital for a short, lively meeting. “It was a very positive atmosphere,” Rachel said.

She and others expected to be ordered back to work by the Industrial Relations Commission.

“But when the order finally came, it was a blow to some of the midwives and created some uncertainty. Some of them were asking, does this mean we’ve lost?

“However, most knew they had sent a strong and unified message to management. I think it was cathartic for the midwives to stand up and tell management they had had enough.”

Rachel says the dispute has strengthened ties between midwives and their union, the NSWNMA.

“Before this dispute we knew the union was there but didn’t really know how we could engage with them or how exactly they could help us,” she said.

“Now there is a more positive feeling that the union can help us when we’re really stuck.

“A lot of the staff see the union as more accessible and realise together we are the union.

“The people from the union office were great. They were there for us when we needed them and they let us make our own decisions.

“They helped us advocate for the staffing levels we know mums and babies need. Without their guidance and support we definitely wouldn’t have got anything like we did.

“There’s still a lot of work to do but this whole process will help to improve the care we can provide to mothers and babies and that was always our goal.

Rachel said the new, modern maternity wing was welcomed by all and it was a relief to now see new positions finally being advertised that were needed to staff it properly.

“The birthing unit is quite excited about the prospect of getting an after-hours clinical midwifery educator. It will help relieve the pressure on midwives in terms of educating students and provide better support for students.

“It is also important to have achieved an agreement that the Midwifery Unit Manager 1 will not be expected to perform MUM 3 duties while she is on leave because we can now have the NUM 1 working effectively.”

Staffing lags behind births

Since 2015, births at Blacktown Hospital have increased 52 per cent, while staffing has only risen 11 per cent.

Blacktown was averaging11.5 births every 24 hours last November, with often only seven midwives rostered per shift. Meanwhile, at Westmead Hospital, midwives were assisting with an average 13.7 births in 24 hours, with 10 midwives rostered per shift. Blacktown midwives were being rostered for multiple day and night shifts of up to 64 hours over seven days despite 56 hours being the maximum allowed.