PNG mental health nurses train in Cairns

A plea for help from mental health nurses in Papua New Guinea has been answered by academics from James Cook University’s World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) for Nursing, Midwifery and Research Capacity Building.

PNG nurses and community health workers wanted to improve their skills and knowledge so they approached WHOCC director Professor Kim Usher at a conference in PNG last year.

“Most of the people who work in mental health in PNG were trained a long time ago and there are few opportunities for continuing professional development in their country,” Professor Usher said.

Papua New Guinea has a mental health facility on the outskirts of Port Moresby, treatment is also offered at Port Moresby General Hospital and in the community.

“We developed a proposal for an AusAID Australian Fellowship Award grant and our team was successful in obtaining a grant to run a mental health course,” Professor Usher said.

The result is a four-week course to be run out of JCU Cairns, which will be attended by 20 nurses and health care professionals from seven Pacific nations - Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Palau, Niue, Cook Islands and Kiribati.

The course starts on July 1 and includes lectures, workshops, clinical visits to public and private mental health facilities and a mental health first aid course. Participants will attend presentations by people living with mental illness and mental health support groups like headspace.

Professor Usher said the course was one way to help improve mental health care delivery in the Pacific.“We are doing this to improve the care of people with mental health generally … there is a shortage of qualified mental health workers and a shortage of ongoing training opportunities in the Pacific,” she said. “We cannot train everyone from every country so we have targeted this course at nurses and professionals who will then go back to their home countries to teach others. Our concern for the future is to give professional people the tools and skills they need to go back to their homes and improve the mental health care of others.”

You can follow proceedings on Twitter @JCU_Nursing #alajcu2013 or view album on our Facebook page at  http://www.facebook.com/JCUNursingMidwiferyNutrition

Australian Rotary Health Indigenous Scholarship Applications now open - closing 28 June

For further information visit https://www.australianrotaryhealth.org.au/Information-About/Programs/Indigenous-Health-Scholarship.aspx

Girl Child Education Fund - Florence Nightingale Teddy Bear

The School of Nursing, Midwifery & Nutrition is a proud supporter of the Girl Child Education Fund (GCEF). The GCEF, a signature initiative of Florence Nightingale International Foundation, supports the primary and secondary schooling of girls under the age of 18 in developing countries whose nurse parent or parents have died. Your donation to the Girl Child Education Fund will go towards school fees, uniforms, shoes and books.

The School recently donated $1000 to the GCEF at the recent Florence Nightingale Luncheon at the International Council of Nurses Congress in Melbourne, which raised over $20,000 in donations for the fund.

You can support the fund by purchasing a Florence Nightingale Teddy Bear. This beautiful fully jointed teddy bear has been hand made with care by the Great British Teddy Bear Company. Florence is 34cm tall and wears a miniature of the blue and white dress once worn by ‘Nightingale nurses’, and carries a replica of her famous lamp. Her khaki canvas bag holds three little bandages so that she can nurse any injured toys she meets as she travels the globe raising valuable funds for the GCEF.

The ICN FNIF Florence Nightingale Teddy Bear is being sold in support of the GCEF, which provides for the primary and secondary schooling of the orphaned daughters of nurses in developing countries, paying for school fees, uniforms, shoes and books. To order your Florence Nightingale Teddy Bear, please go to http://www.gcefbear.com/products/Florence-Nightingale.html

CWAA Rural and Remote Area Primary Health Care Nursing Grant closing 30 June

Each year the CWAA offers the Country Women’s Association of Australia’s Rural and Remote Area Primary Health Care Nursing Grant.  The grant has been created to support a rural nurse or midwife in their continuing professional development, and is a funding program which the CWAA is most proud of.

The amount of the grant is determined each year by the State Member Associations of the CWAA and is based on the nature of the study of the successful grant applicant.

Grant applicants must address the following criteria in their submissions:

• Be an enrolled, registered nurse or midwife who currently works in a rural setting
• Have an interest in and knowledge of issues specific to women and children in rural Australia
• Provide a current CV with two nursing referees.
• Submit a written (500 word) report will be required by the CWAA.

For further information and to download the CWAA Rural and Remote Area Primary Health Care Nursing Grant Application Form visit http://www.cwaa.org.au/grants/

Scholarships and Funding Opportunities for Studies

The Australian College of Nursing [ACN] is the administrator of scholarships funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Scholarships are open to all eligible applicants and it is not necessary to be an ACN member to apply. Please visit the ACN website at http://www.acn.edu.au/scholarships for information on scholarships that are available.

Many universities and private organizations also offer scholarship and award opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. For an extensive search of scholarships and awards offered nationally please visit the MyFuture website at http://www.myfuture.edu.au/The%20Facts/Funding.aspx

New Library Books - May 2013

The following books have recently been added to the JCU Library collection. Each title is also listed in full in the Library Catalogue – Tropicat.  Holds may be placed on titles using Tropicat.

001.4 MACH 2012- The literature review: six steps to success (Machi & McEvoy, 2012, 2nd ed.)

174.2 KER 2013 –Ethics and law for the health professions (Kerridge et al., 2013, 4th ed.)

306.9 LEM 2011 – Understanding dying, death, and bereavement (Leming & Dickinson, 2011, 7th ed.)

355.3450994 DEV - Devotion: stories of Australia's wartime nurses (Siers, 2013)

610.285 DAV – Health information technology (Davis & LaCour, 2014, 3rd ed.)

610.71 MACK - Introduction to teaching and learning in health professions (McKenna & Stockhausen, 2013)

610.711 ALS – Continuing professional development in health and social care: strategies for lifelong learning (Alsop, 2013, 2nd ed.)

610.73 BAR 2013 – Evidence-based practice for nurses (Barker, 2013, 2nd ed.)

610.73 PRA 2013 – Practice development in nursing and healthcare (McCormack et al., 2013, 2nd ed.)

610.73 PRO 2014 – Professional issues in nursing: challenges & opportunities (Huston, 2014, 3rd ed.)

610.73 SCH – Introduction to concept mapping in nursing: critical thinking in action (Schmehl, 2014)

610.7301 REF 2013 – Reflective practice in nursing (Bulman & Schutz, 2013, 5th ed.)

610.73072 ELL 2013 – Understanding research for nursing students (Ellis, 2013, 2nd ed.)

610.73072 FAI – Reading, understanding, and applying nursing research (Fain, 2013, 4th ed.)

610.73072 INT – Introduction to nursing research: incorporating evidence-based practice (Boswell & Cannon, 2014, 3rd ed.)

610.7343 SPR 2014 – Community & public health nursing: promoting the public's health (Allender et al., 2014, 8th ed.)

613.091724 MHE – mHealth in practice: mobile technology for health promotion in the developing world (Donner & Mechael, 2013)

613.2 SCR – Nutritionism: the science and politics of dietary advice (Scrinis, 2013)

615.1 BRA – Medicines management for nursing practice: pharmacology, patient safety, and procedures (Brack, 2013)

616 HOF 2013 – Evidence-based practice across the health professions (Hoffman et al., 2013, 2nd ed.)

616.075 RHO 2014 – Advanced health assessment and diagnostic reasoning (Rhoads, 2014, 2nd ed.)

616.0754 SPA 2014 – Sparks and Taylor's nursing diagnosis reference manual (Ralph & Taylor, 2014, 9th ed.)

616.24 WIL 2014 – Wilkins' clinical assessment in respiratory care (Heuer & Scanlan, 2014, 7th ed.)

616.61 LEW – Understanding chronic kidney disease: a guide for the non-specialist (Lewis, 2012)

658.404 PRO – Project management in health and community services: getting good ideas to work (Dwyer, 2013, 2nd ed.)

Overview of Australian Indigenous Health Status 2012 now available

The 2012 edition of the Overview of Australian Indigenous health status is now available on the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet’s web resource    The Overview provides comprehensive, up-to-date information about the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including: the context of Indigenous health; various measures of population health status; selected health conditions; and health risk factors. It is an excellent teaching resource that provides students with detailed summaries of the major health conditions affecting Indigenous Australians.

As was the case for the 2011 edition, PowerPoint presentations of the Overview’s tables, figures and key facts, along with a PDF of the Overview, are freely downloadable from the HealthInfoNet.