Academic literature on the topic 'Nursing Study and teaching Victoria Melbourne'

Background Responsibilities of critical care nurses for management of mechanical ventilation may differ among countries. Organizational interventions, including weaning protocols, may have a variable impact in settings that differ in nursing autonomy and interdisciplinary collaboration. Objective To characterize the role of Australian critical care nurses in the management of mechanical ventilation. Methods A 3-month, prospective cohort study was performed. All clinical decisions related to mechanical ventilation in a 24-bed, combined medical-surgical adult intensive care unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a university-affiliated teaching hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, were determined. Results Of 474 patients admitted during the 81-day study period, 319 (67%) received mechanical ventilation. Death occurred in 12.5% (40/319) of patients. Median durations of mechanical ventilation and intensive care stay were 0.9 and 1.9 days, respectively. A total of 3986 ventilation and weaning decisions (defined as any adjustment to ventilator settings, including mode change; rate or pressure support adjustment; and titration of tidal volume, positive end-expiratory pressure, or fraction of inspired oxygen) were made. Of these, 2538 decisions (64%) were made by nurses alone, 693 (17%) by medical staff, and 755 (19%) by nurses and staff in collaboration. Decisions made exclusively by nurses were less common for patients with predominantly respiratory disease or multiple organ dysfunction than for other patients. Conclusions In this unit, critical care nurses have high levels of responsibility for, and autonomy in, the management of mechanical ventilation and weaning. Revalidation of protocols for ventilation practices in other clinical contexts may be needed.

The aims of the present study were to understand enablers to participation in postgraduate education for primary care nurses (PCNs), and to explore how postgraduate education has advanced their nursing practice. Cross-sectional questionnaires were mailed out in April 2012 to current and past students undertaking postgraduate studies in primary care nursing at The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Questionnaires were returned by 100 out of 243 nurses (response rate 41%). Ninety-one per cent (91/100) of the respondents were first registered as nurses in Australia. Fifty-seven per cent were hospital trained and 43% were university educated to attain their initial nurse qualification. The respondents reported opportunities to expand scope of practice (99%; 97/98), improve clinical practice (98%; 97/99), increase work satisfaction (93%; 91/98) and increase practice autonomy (92%; 89/97) as factors that most influenced participation in postgraduate education in primary care nursing. Major enablers for postgraduate studies were scholarship access (75%; 71/95) and access to distance education (74%; 72/98). Many respondents reported an increased scope of practice (98%; 95/97) and increased job satisfaction (71%; 70/98) as an education outcome. Only 29% (28/97) cited an increase in pay-rate as an outcome. Of the 73 PCNs currently working in general practice, many anticipated an increase in time spent on the preparation of chronic disease management plans (63%; 45/72), multidisciplinary care plans (56%; 40/72) and adult health checks (56%; 40/72) in the preceding 12 months. Recommendations emerging from findings include: (1) increased access to scholarships for nurses undertaking postgraduate education in primary care nursing is imperative; (2) alternative modes of course delivery need to be embedded in primary care nursing education; (3) the development of Australian primary care policy, including policy on funding models, needs to more accurately reflect the educational level of PCNs, PCN role expansion and the extent of interprofessional collaboration that is evident from research undertaken to date. Nurses with postgraduate education have the potential to increase their scope of practice, take on a greater teaching role and provide more preventive and chronic disease services in primary care. Policies aimed at increasing access to education for nurses working in primary care would strengthen the primary care nursing profession, and enhance the delivery of primary health care services in Australia.

This paper aims to observe how the Australian COVID-19 restrictions influenced higher education, teachers’ and students’ lives. Before the pandemic, the higher education sector was the largest serviced based sector in Australia and overly depended on international students’ fee income. The academic year of 2020 started as usual with 141703 higher education enrolments of overseas students, mainly students from Asia. However, they did not arrive due to the strict border closure. Travel restrictions were put in place from China from 1 February 2020, later from other countries worldwide. That significantly affected international students' travel from Asia directly before the start of the new academic year. Consequently, many institutions have transitioned from campus-based courses to online delivery. Besides, numerous academic lecturers and professional staff have been invited to the expression of interest in a voluntary and, of course, involuntary redundancy program. Most vacant positions have been frozen, and various saving programs have been implied. Owing to the toughest rules and strictest restrictions, Australian borders remained closed for over 600 days. Melbourne was under six lockdowns totalling 265 days since March 2020, which resulted in the author’s experience of three semester-long remote teaching at one of the biggest and most prominent universities in Melbourne without any personal contact with international students. The author lived and worked in Melbourne during the COVID-19 era, so this study is based on her perspectives and experiences extended with a wide empirical evaluation of secondary data about the Australian academic sector between 2020 and 2021.

Background: Nurses played a critical role in providing care for patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: This study aimed to explore perspectives of Australian palliative care nurses regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of care for patients with advanced illness, or at the end of life. Methods: The authors conducted a survey of palliative care nurses in ward- and consultation-based roles at a metropolitan health service in Victoria, Australia. Findings: A total of 24 out of 39 nurses completed the survey. Responses included strong themes of fear of COVID-19 and sadness about separating dying patients from their families. Conclusion: Delivery of palliative care changed at an individual and service level. Importantly, there were strong themes of adapting to change and ‘soldiering on’ with the core business of palliative care.

Clinical Registries are established to provide a clinically credible means for monitoring and benchmarking healthcare processes and outcomes, to identify areas for improvement, and drive strategies for improving patient care. Clinical Registries are used to assess changes in clinical practice, appropriateness of care and health outcomes over time. The American Heart Association Policy Statement in April 2011 called for expanding the application for existing and future Clinical Registries, with well-designed Clinical Registry programs. Concurrently, in Australia, and similarly within the United States and United Kingdom, there has been an increased focus on performance measurement for quality and patient safety. Within Victoria, the Victorian Clinical Governance Policy Framework outlines clinical effectiveness as one of the four domains of Clinical Governance As Clinical Registries evaluate effectiveness and safety of patient care by measuring patient outcomes compared with peers, the use of Clinical Registries data to improve a health service’s quality of care seems intuitive. A mixed methods approach was utilised, involving (1) semi-structured interviews and (2) documentation audit in this study conducted at Austin Health, a major tertiary teaching hospital in North-Eastern metropolitan Melbourne, affiliated with the University of Melbourne and various research institutes within Austin LifeSciences. Although many studies have highlighted the benefits of data collected via individual Clinical Registries, [5,6] the level of voluntary medical staff participation in Clinical Registries at a health service level is yet to be established. The aim of this study was to document the level of medical staff involvement for Clinical Registries within a major tertiary teaching hospital, and the level of reporting into Quality Committees within the organisation. This study demonstrates that along with a very high level of medical staff participation in Clinical Registries, there is a lack of systematic reporting of Registries data into quality committees beyond unit level, and utilisation of such data to reflect upon practice and drive quality improvement. Abbreviations: CREPS – Centre for Excellence in Patient Safety; CSU – Clinical Services Unit; HOU – Heads of Unit; VASM – Victorian Audit of Surgical Mortality.

Over the past decade, several Australian universities have offered a double degree in nursing and paramedicine. Mainstream employment models that facilitate integrated graduate practice in both nursing and paramedicine are currently lacking. The aim of the present study was to detail the development of the Interprofessional Graduate Program (IPG), the industrial and professional issues that required solutions, outcomes from the first pilot IPG group and future directions. The IPG was an 18-month program during which participants rotated between graduate nursing experience in emergency nursing at Northern Health, Melbourne, Australia and graduate paramedic experience with Ambulance Victoria. The first IPG with 10 participants ran from January 2011 to August 2012. A survey completed by nine of the 10 participants in March 2014 showed that all nine participants nominated Ambulance Victoria as their main employer and five participants were working casual shifts in nursing. Alternative graduate programs that span two health disciplines are feasible but hampered by rigid industrial relations structures and professional ideologies. Despite a ‘purpose built’ graduate program that spanned two disciplines, traditional organisational structures still hamper double-degree graduates using all of skills to full capacity, and force the selection of one dominant profession. What is known about the topic? There are no employment models that facilitate integrated graduate practice in both nursing and paramedicine. The lack of innovative employment models for double-degree graduates means that current graduate program structures force double-degree graduates to practice in one discipline, negating the intent of a double degree. What does this paper add? This is the first time that a graduate program specifically designed for double-degree graduates with qualifications as Registered Nurses and Paramedics has been developed, delivered and evaluated. This paper confirms that graduate programs spanning two health disciplines are feasible. What are the implications for practitioners? Even with a graduate program specifically designed to span nursing and paramedicine, traditional organisational structures still hamper double-degree graduates using all their skills to full capacity, and force the selection of one dominant profession.

ABSTRACTBackground: In the next decades of the twenty-first century, the global aging of populations will challenge every nation's ability to provide leadership by qualified health professionals to reshape and improve health care delivery systems. The challenge for educators is to design and deliver courses that will give students the knowledge and skills they need to fill that leadership role confidently in dementia care services. This paper explores the ways in which a curriculum can develop graduates who are ready to become leaders in shaping their industry.Method: The Master of Health Science – Aged Services (MHSAS) program at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia is applied as a case study to describe the process by which the concept of leadership is applied as the key driver in curriculum development, teaching practices and learning outcomes.Results: Evaluation instruments employed in a variety of purposes including teaching, curriculum planning and unit appraisal are discussed. Challenges for the future are proposed including the need for postgraduate programs in dementia to seek stronger national and international benchmarks and associations with other educational institutions to promote leadership and a vision of what is possible and desirable in dementia care provision.Conclusions: In the twenty-first century, effective service provision in the aged health care sector will require postgraduate curricula that equip students for dementia care leadership. The MHSAS program provides an established template for such curricula.

The blended online digital (BOLD) approach to teaching is popular within many universities. Despite this popularity, our understanding of the experiences of students making the transition to online learning is limited, specifically an examination of those elements associated with success. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of students transitioning from a traditional mode of delivery to a more online approach in an inaugural BOLD Bachelor of Nursing program at a regional multi-campus institution in Victoria, Australia. Fifteen students across two regional campuses participated in one of four focus groups. This qualitative exploration of students’ experience contributes to contemporary insights into how we might begin to develop programs of study that help students develop self-regulation. A modified method of thematic analysis of phenomenological data was employed to analyse the focus group interview data to identify themes that represent the meaning of the transition experience for students. This qualitative exploration of students’ experience contributes to contemporary insights into how we might begin to develop programs of study that help students develop self-regulation.

TO THE EDITOR: Goddard et al, authors of ?People with an intellectual disability in the discourse of chronic and complex conditions: an invisible group??1 are to be congratulated for raising discussion about one of the most vulnerable groups in Australia with respect to their receipt of optimal health care. The authors conclude that ?developing interventions and strategies to increase the knowledge of health care workers . . . caring for people with intellectual disabilities will likely improve the health care needs of this population and their families?. In relation to this identified need for health professional education and training in the care of people with intellectual disabilities, we would like to draw the attention of your readers to some work undertaken by the Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria (CDDHV) to address this issue. The CDDHV works to improve the health and health care of people with developmental disabilities through a range of educational, research and clinical activities. In recent years there has been an increasing awareness of the need for health professional education in this area. Moreover, as people with disabilities often have chronic and complex health and social issues, focusing on their health care provides a platform for interprofessional education and a springboard for understanding the essential importance and value of interprofessional practice. Recently, the CDDHV has taken a lead role in developing a teaching and learning resource that focuses both on the health care of people with disabilities and on the importance and value of interprofessional practice. This resource promotes and facilitates interprofessional learning, and develops understanding of the health and health care issues experienced by people with disabilities and those who support them. ?Health and disability: partnerships in action? is a new video-based teaching and learning package, produced through an interprofessional collaboration between health professionals from medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, paramedic practice, health science, social work, speech pathology, dietetics and dentistry. Those living with a disability are the experts on their own experience and so their direct involvement in and contribution to the education of health care professionals is essential. The collaboration between those featured in the video stories and health professionals has led to the development of a powerful resource that facilitates students and practitioners developing insights into the health and health care issues encountered by people with developmental disabilities. We also believe that through improving their understanding of, and health provision to, people with disabilities and those who support them, health professionals will acquire valuable attitudes, knowledge and skills applicable to many other patients in their practice population. Jane M Tracy Education Director Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria Melbourne, VIC

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify the challenges anticipated by clinical staff in two Melbourne health services in relation to the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying in Victoria, Australia. MethodsA qualitative approach was used to investigate perceived challenges for clinicians. Data were collected after the law had passed but before the start date for voluntary assisted dying in Victoria. This work is part of a larger mixed-methods anonymous online survey about Victorian clinicians’ views on voluntary assisted dying. Five open-ended questions were included in order to gather text data from a large number of clinicians in diverse roles. Participants included medical, nursing and allied health staff from two services, one a metropolitan tertiary referral health service (Service 1) and the other a major metropolitan health service (Service 2). The data were analysed thematically using qualitative description. ResultsIn all, 1086 staff provided responses to one or more qualitative questions: 774 from Service 1 and 312 from Service 2. Clinicians anticipated a range of challenges, which included burdens for staff, such as emotional toll, workload and increased conflict with colleagues, patients and families. Challenges regarding organisational culture, the logistics of delivering voluntary assisted dying under the specific Victorian law and how voluntary assisted dying would fit within the hospital’s overall work were also raised. ConclusionsThe legalisation of voluntary assisted dying is anticipated to create a range of challenges for all types of clinicians in the hospital setting. Clinicians identified challenges both at the individual and system levels. What is known about the topic?Voluntary assisted dying became legal in Victoria on 19 June 2019 under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017. However there has been little Victorian data to inform implementation. What does this paper add?Victorian hospital clinicians anticipate challenges at the individual and system levels, and across all clinical disciplines. These challenges include increased conflict, emotional burden and workload. Clinicians report concerns about organisational culture, the logistics of delivering voluntary assisted dying under the specific Victorian law and effects on hospitals’ overall work. What are the implications for practitioners?Careful attention to the breadth of staff affected, alongside appropriate resourcing, will be needed to support clinicians in the context of this legislative change.

Communication skills are essential to the practice of medicine, and are now included in most medical curricula. Training in communication skills requires an experiential approach to teaching and assessment that focuses on mastery of performance. Simulated patients were introduced to the Communication Skills course for third year medical students at The University of Melbourne in 1995. This thesis describes the evaluation from the first two years of their use, and is set within the body of literature regarding this innovative educational method. The fundamental research question was: Did the introduction of simulated patients represent an improvement and enrichment in the teaching of communication skills to third year medical students? A qualitative evaluation was undertaken by focus groups with students, tutors and simulated patients, and by student questionnaire. (For complete abstract open document)

This study investigated childbirth education programs in Victoria from the perspective of the educators themselves. Prior to the study the Ministerial Review of Birthing Services in Victoria (1990) entitled “Having a Baby in Victoria” identified shortcomings in the childbirth education programs offered to expectant women and their partners. The study sought to interpret the experiences of the childbirth educators with regard to the development, implementation, delivery and evaluation of their programs.

When Australian law teaching began in 1857, few lawyers in common-law systems had studied law at university. The University of Melbourne's new course joined the early stages of a dual transformation, of legal training into university study and of contemporary common law into an academic discipline. Victoria's Supreme Court immediately gave the law school what was known in America as 'diploma privilege': its students could enter legal practice without passing a separate admission exam. Soon university study became mandatory for locally trained lawyers, ensuring the law school's survival but placing it at the centre of disputes over the kind of education the profession should receive. Friction between practitioners and academics hinted at the negotiation of new roles as university study shifted legal training further from its apprenticeship origins. The structure of the university (linked to the judiciary through membership of its governing council) and the profession (whose organisations did not control the admission of new practitioners) aided the law school's efforts to defend both its training role and its curriculum against outside attack.
Legal academics turned increasingly to the social sciences to maintain law's claim to be not only a professional skill, but an academic discipline. A research-based and reform-oriented theory of law appealed to the nascent academic profession, linking it to legal practice and the development of public policy but at the same time marking out for the law school a domain of its own. American ideas informed thinking about research and, in particular, pedagogy, although the university's slender financial resources, dependent on government grants, limited change until after World War II. In other ways the law school consciously departed from American models. It taught undergraduate, not graduate, students, and its curriculum included history, jurisprudence and non-legal subjects alongside legal doctrine. Its few professors specialised in public law and jurisprudence, leaving private law to a corps of part-time practitioner-teachers. The result was a distinctive model of state-certified compulsory education in both legal doctrine and the history and social meanings of law.

This research project examines perceptions and attitudes towards science of a group of Technical and Further Education students studying Beauty Therapy at Victoria University. Many members of this group displayed a high level of science anxiety as described by Mallow, (1978). They lacked confidence in their science ability and were very anxious about passing the science units in their Beauty Therapy courses, despite having successfully passed science subjects at school. Previous observations on Beauty Therapy students showed that most succeeded in their science units but still lacked confidence in their ability to apply their knowledge. The science units in Beauty Therapy are complex and require a detailed knowledge of Human Biology, Anatomy, Physiology, Skin Biology, Cosmetic Chemistry, and Microbiology. The participants in the study were interviewed using a semi-structured interview working together with a questionnaire to establish background information. The probes covered the participants’ experiences in science at school together with their attitudes towards science and influences from other areas. The aim was to identify factors which undermined the confidence of these participants. The interviews were recorded and the transcripts were analysed for themes using a progressive coding process. The themes were grouped into clusters. The study showed clearly that the participants’ confidence in their science ability was undermined by their school experiences in science. It related to attitudes and pedagogies employed by a particular science teacher in their secondary school. Participants described enjoying science previously. Particular aspects identified were an inability to get help when they needed it; the use of sarcasm or derogatory remarks to discourage questions; boring lessons mostly composed of copying notes from the board or textbooks; lack of relevance and a lack of enthusiasm displayed by the teacher. This led to a situation where participants dreaded their science lessons and in some cases truancy.

The Australian Catholic University (ACU National at www.acu.edu.au) is a public university funded by the Australian Government. There are six campuses across the country, located in Brisbane, Queensland; North Sydney, New South Wales; Strathfield, New South Wales; Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT); Ballarat, Victoria; and Melbourne, Victoria. The university serves a total of approximately 27,000 students, including both full- and part-time students, and those enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Through fostering and advancing knowledge in education, health, commerce, the humanities, science and technology, and the creative arts, ACU National seeks to make specific and targeted contributions to its local, national, and international communities. The university explicitly engages the social, ethical, and religious dimensions of the questions it faces in teaching, research, and service. In its endeavors, it is guided by a fundamental concern for social justice, equity, and inclusivity. The university is open to all, irrespective of religious belief or background. ACU National opened its doors in 1991 following the amalgamation of four Catholic tertiary institutions in eastern Australia. The institutions that merged to form the university had their origins in the mid-17th century when religious orders and institutes became involved in the preparation of teachers for Catholic schools and, later, nurses for Catholic hospitals. As a result of a series of amalgamations, relocations, transfers of responsibilities, and diocesan initiatives, more than twenty historical entities have contributed to the creation of ACU National. Today, ACU National operates within a rapidly changing educational and industrial context. Student numbers are increasing, areas of teaching and learning have changed and expanded, e-learning plays an important role, and there is greater emphasis on research. In its 2005–2009 Strategic Plan, the university commits to the adoption of quality teaching, an internationalized curriculum, as well as the cultivation of generic skills in students, to meet the challenges of the dynamic university and information environment (ACU National, 2008). The Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) Program at ACU Canberra Situated in Australia’s capital city, the Canberra campus is one of the smallest campuses of ACU National, where there are approximately 800 undergraduate and 200 postgraduate students studying to be primary or secondary school teachers through the School of Education (ACT). Other programs offered at this campus include nursing, theology, social work, arts, and religious education. A new model of pre-service secondary teacher education commenced with the introduction of the Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) program at this campus in 2005. It marked an innovative collaboration between the university and a cohort of experienced secondary school teachers in the ACT and its surrounding region. This partnership was forged to allow student teachers undertaking the program to be inducted into the teaching profession with the cooperation of leading practitioners from schools in and around the ACT. In the preparation of novices for the teaching profession, an enduring challenge is to create learning experiences capable of transforming practice, and to instill in the novices an array of professional skills, attributes, and competencies (Putnam & Borko, 2000). Another dimension of the beginning teacher experience is the need to bridge theory and practice, and to apply pedagogical content knowledge in real-life classroom practice. During the one-year Graduate Diploma program, the student teachers undertake two four-week block practicum placements, during which they have the opportunity to observe exemplary lessons, as well as to commence teaching. The goals of the practicum include improving participants’ access to innovative pedagogy and educational theory, helping them situate their own prior knowledge regarding pedagogy, and assisting them in reflecting on and evaluating their own practice. Each student teacher is paired with a more experienced teacher based at the school where he/she is placed, who serves as a supervisor and mentor. In 2007, a new dimension to the teaching practicum was added to facilitate online peer mentoring among the pre-service teachers at the Canberra campus of ACU National, and provide them with opportunities to reflect on teaching prior to entering full-time employment at a school. The creation of an online community to facilitate this mentorship and professional development process forms the context for the present case study. While on their practicum, students used social software in the form of collaborative web logging (blogging) and threaded voice discussion tools that were integrated into the university’s course management system (CMS), to share and reflect on their experiences, identify critical incidents, and invite comment on their responses and reactions from peers.