Nursing & Midwifery
Research Overviews
Birth l CBR l Performance Appraisal l ERT l Gender tech l Clinical Practice l Clinical Reality l APW l SBHCs
Women's experience of moving away from their remote and rural NSW Communites to birth - Dr Elaine Dietsch, Pam Shackleton, Carmel Davies, Margaret Alston & Margaret McLeod
This research was enabled due to receipt of funding by the Nurses and Midwives Board of NSW and participants living in rural and remote areas shared their stories of haing to move away from their communities to birth.
In one generation, the closure of maternity services in rural areas has caused women, midwives, medical practitioners, enrolled nurses working in maternity units and rural communities to reframe healthy pregnancy and childbirth into a condition that necessitates specialist anaesthetic and obstetric services.
A review of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) literature and health care models - A/Prof Ann Bonner
This research was enabled due to receipt of a $32,980 NSW Institute of Rural Clinical Services and Teaching grant
Demand for rehabilitation services has grown enormously over the last 10 years, due to improved survival rates following illness and trauma, the increasingly ageing population, and an increase in elective orthopaedic surgery. Rehabilitation clinicians have identified that Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) may meet these growing needs however; the incorporation of CBR into rural, remote and indigenous settings in NSW is not necessarily simple or straightforward. There are few CBR services existing in Australia, and currently there are no rural CBR service models operating in NSW. This project will critically analyse the literature to identify and recommend optimal approaches for CBR in rural and remote communities of NSW.
Testing two-way performance appraisal instruments which aims to facilitate best practice by casual nursing staff - A/Prof Ann Bonner
This research was enabled due to receipt of a $9,880 Faculty of Science Research Grant
This project is phase two of a four phase intervention study to promote best practice with regard to the work of casual nurses and the development of positive work environment for all nursing staff. Following on from phase I (problem clarification), this phase (II) seeks funding to support the testing of a two-way performance appraisal tool with casual and permanent nursing staff at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. The performance management incorporates feedback between casual and permanent nurses in clinical areas, and is based on information that casual nurses have identified as essential for safe practice and professional development.
Health indicators in people with chronic kidney disease following introduction of erythropoietin replacement therapy - A/Prof Ann Bonner
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex chronic illness that impacts on an individual’s quality of life (QOL) and ability to perform activities of daily living; CKD requires significant nursing intervention. Little is known about QOL, how active these individuals are, and whether fatigue contributes to their activity levels. This longitudinal study will be the first to investigate these health indicators in people with CKD following the introduction of erythropoietin replacement therapy (ERT). If the results reveal an improvement over a 12 month period, this research will provide evidence for changes to renal nursing practice which will improve patient outcomes, and provide pilot data to support a larger multi-centre project.
Gender, technology and technological change in nursing practice: Implications for recruitment and retention in the perioperative context - Amanda Stott
This research was enabled due to receipt of a $5000 Faculty Seed Grant
Previous research has shown that the enormous technological change that has occurred in surgery during the past fifteen years has dramatically changed the nature of perioperative scrub and circulating nursing work, work that is traditionally undertaken by a dominantly female nursing workforce. This research aims to explore similarities in, and differences between, male and female perioperative nurses' perceptions of the changes that have occurred in the nature of their work, along with factors that initially attracted them to perioperative work, and factors that influence their job (dis)satisfaction and their intentions to remain in, or leave, their jobs. The findings will inform the Australian Health Workforce Perioperative Working Party, which was established during 2004 to develop strategies aimed at redressing the current critical national shortage of perioperative nurses.
Nursing Practice and the reality of the clinical setting - Cathy Maginnis & Lyn Croxon
This research was enabled due to receipt of a $3000 EFPI Seed Grant
This study seeks to identify if there is a link between learning outcomes for first year nursing simulated clinical (laboratory) classes and real-world clinical placements. Clinical laboratories are commonly used to assist students to develop clinical nursing skills through simulation of the clinical experiences. Little research has been conducted into the effectiveness of clinical laboratory classes for nursing students and whether the laboratory classes play a role in linking theory to practice. This study will inform the pedagogy of clinical nursing laboratories and examine whether the disparity between theory and practice does in fact exist in this case.
Are we preparing nursing students for the reality of the clinical practice setting? - Cathy Maginnis & Lyn Croxon
This research was enabled due to receipt of a $5000 Faculty Seed Grant
The focus of this study is to identify if there is a correlation between what first year nursing students learnt in clinical laboratory classes before their clinical placement and what they practiced and observed in the clinical setting.
The Student Experience: A longitudinal evaluation of the Academic Preparation Workshop (APW) - Heather Latham, Janice Manners & Judith Anderson
This research was enabled due to a receipt of a $19, 030 Equity Enhancement Project Grant, from CSU.
The overarching research question guiding this project is ‘How effective is the APW in addressing the identified obstacles (that is, situational, dispositional and institutional) limiting the access to and participation in university education for rural and remote Enrolled Nurses, through the voice of the student experience?’
Since 2003, APWs have been developed in collaboration between CSU School of Nursing and Midwifery, the Greater Southern Area Health Service (GSAHS), the Greater Western Area Health Service (GWAHS) and the Moira Health Service to address the identified obstacles limiting the access of rural and remote AHS Enrolled Nurses to the CSU Bachelor of Nursing by Distance Education. The proposed project is significant in that it engages and gives recognition and value to the voice of the APW program participants (rural and remote students).
The voice of the student experience will assist in determining the effectiveness of the APW in overcoming the identified barriers (obstacles) of access to and participation of Area Health Service Enrolled Nurses from rural and remote equity target groups.
In addition, the longitudinal summative evaluation, aims to provide new information, insights and understandings into the effectiveness of APW in relation to retention and success equity performance indicators, as well as access and participation. Hence importantly, as this is a longitudinal evaluation, all four of these equity performance indicators will be evaluated, as five students from the 2003 APW Cohort have now successfully graduated form the Bachelor of Nursing by Distance Education.
A Comparison of School-Based Health Care: International Case Studies - Dr Denise Seigart
Dr Denise Seigart is a visiting scholar from Mansfield University in Pennyslvania, USA.
This project will be a collaborative research endeavour involving faculty at Mansfield University, Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Australia, and faculty at Nipissing University in Canada. A comparison of school-based health care in these countries will be carried out throughout the 2008-2009 academic year. This is an extension of research completed by Dr Denise Seigart at Cornell University while completing her doctoral studies.
In an effort to remedy the problems related to delivering adequate health care to children, many US states have implemented School-Based Health Centres (SBHCs). It is important for evaluators to critically examine the services provided by SBHCs and other school-based care models, such as those offered by Australian community health nurses in schools, to promote effective provision of health care services so that quality care can be provided to as many children as possible (Scully & Hackbarth, 2005). Given that school-based health centres are still relatively rare in the United Staes, and the fact that we as a nation do not provide health care to all our citizens, I am interested in examining the differences in health care systems, provision and funding of health care, cultural differences and differences in attitudes towards health care provision for children. This is the objective of this study, in addition to fostering professional networks and inter-cultural exchange.