Latest Nursing News

A MOTHER of four has been struck off as a nurse for having sex with a vulnerable teenage prison inmate under her care. Kelda Anne Brown, 42, from Mudgee was banned from the profession after her husband discovered love letters from the 19-year-old prisoner and informed the authorities.

NEARLY half of the nurses working on hospital psychiatric wards are themselves suffering from mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, a study says. The findings, which experts describe as "disturbing", suggest nurses on the wards suffer mental illness at a rate eight times that of the general community, and almost double that of police and paramedics.

It takes dozens of lives to save just one - a fact Sydney chef Marcelo Cardoso knows only too well. On Sunday, January 6, the 28-year-old was knocked from his scooter by a taxi driver in the inner city suburb of Zetland. He suffered massive internal injuries and spent two days on life support, four days in Intensive Care, endured three emergency surgeries and spent six weeks in St Vincent's Hospital, struggling to survive. Now, six months on, he credits his life to the 13 hospital staff who nursed him back to health.

Niroshan Wijeyeratne has watched many middle-aged men say goodbye. He has watched them grip their mother's hands as they struggle to draw their last breaths, watched them weep over the shrunken bodies of the women who first pushed them into the world. ^[+video]

THE state’s chief nurse says more men is the answer to the looming nurse shortage. Catherine Stoddart, who is WA’s Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, says nursing is perfect for men who are after a high-adrenalin, physical profession that is flexible, never boring and allows them to travel the world. Only 8.8 per cent of WA’s 35,000 nurses are male – lower than any other state in Australia.

NURSES and midwives are set to get a three per cent pay rise annually for the next three years without the threatened loss of hundreds of jobs previously demanded by the State Government, averting threats of pre-election industrial action. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation had launched a public awareness campaign with advertisements about the need to retain staffing levels as part of a campaign linked to their enterprise bargaining negotiations.

NEWLY registered Bundaberg nurse Lucinda Boardman is one of 25 students to secure a spot on a new midwifery program. The bachelor of midwifery program is centred around a continuity of care model that is used in private midwifery practices in Australia. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announced the program in June and said the scheme was a dream position for successful graduate nurses, who would be paid to specialise in, study and grow maternity services.

We have nurses who specialise in breast care and palliative care so why not nurses who specialise in other things? Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, for example?

The Australian Nursing Federation has a new name and a new look. Australia’s largest health union has changed its name to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) and it’s unveiled a contemporary logo design.

THE North West's health service has been recognised state-wide for an initiative which tackles a shortage of doctors in rural areas. The nurse practitioner model, which was recognised last week in State Parliament, was developed as a hybrid role which allows nurses to perform beyond their traditional scope as registered nurses to provide higher duties in the absence of doctors.