Weekly Update

Dear CRANAplus members,

I hope this email finds you all happy and healthy regardless of where you live.

Our thoughts this week are with the victims of the plane crash in Sydney and their colleagues. CRANAplus has offered its services to the organisation as they grapple with this tragedy, providing health services to patients in the aviation environment is a truly remote area! As we consider the brave nurse and pilot who died this week, we commend all of the health personal that provide services within the aeromedical industry.

I'd also like to encourage all members to lobby hard their senators this week as the 'Unique Identifier' legislation gets debated in the senate, and hopefully approved. This is a change to the privacy Act and will pave the way for Australia's secure, opt in, personally controlled individual electronic health record. This initiative will provide instant access to a patients demographics, medications, allergies and past history regardless of location, a huge step in the right direction, especially for remote health. I sincerely hope we soon have universal access to e-discharge, e-referrals, e-medications and e-pathology for those clients that opt into this measure.

On a personal note I will be commencing as the Manager of Primary Health Care for Royal Flying Doctor Service QLD in August based in Cairns. I’m very excited to be moving further north and working for an iconic organisation like RFDS in such an exciting role. I look forward to catching up with many of you soon, hopefully at this years conference in Adelaide which is going to be huge and a must attend event.

Best regards to you all,

Christopher Cliffe
President, CRANAplus

In a world first – the Centre for Remote Health’s (CRH) Master of Remote Health Practice: Nurse Practitioner Program is set to deliver specialty nurse practitioners to work in Remote and Aboriginal Health in Australia. Developed collaboratively by Flinders University and CRANAplus, the nurse practiioner program has received full accreditation from the NT Nursing and Midwifery Board for five years. Read the full media release on our website here.

Remote Health Practice and Remote Health Management programs - Applications are now open for mid year intake for the Remote Health Practice and Remote Health Management programs. These programs are relevant to those preparing to or working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, remote or small rural health; and for the Master of Remote Health Practice - public health and research. The Master of Remote Health Practice: nurse practitioner has been accredited by the Nurses and Midwifery Board of the Northern Territory. Graduates of this new program will be eligible for national registration as a nurse practitioner.

These programs have been designed to assist health professionals to both transition to the discipline of remote health and continue their professional development in this discipline and context of remote health.

Course information, on line application advice, key dates, book lists are all available at www.crh.org.au
Further information contacts - Caroline at crh.studentadmin@flinders.edu.au 0889514718 or course coordinator Sabina.knight@flinders.edu.au

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Scholarships & Education

CRANAplus/YNA Undergraduate Scholarships
Deadline - 31st August 2010
Each year CRANAplus in partnership with Your Nursing Agency (YNA) offer a total of six $1000 scholarships. These scholarships are available to students who as part of their undergraduate course of study in a health discipline at any Australian university, undertakes a remote location placement.

PHC: Making a difference
25-26 October 2010
This short course has been developed to strengthen health professionals understanding of the social, environmental, structural, political and philosophical issues that impact upon health care provision in remote Australia. The workshop will explore primary health care, its current status and potential in Australian health care as well as the recognition of the importance of integrating health promotion and prevention strategies in remote health settings.

AUSMED: Improving Your Knowledge of Medicines Seminar
As medicines are one of the highest areas of risk for ALL nurses; it is essential that YOU regularly update your knowledge on this key professional area.
Brisbane: 19 - 20 August
Perth: 2 - 3 December
Adelaide: 15 - 16 November

Live Strong: Closing the Gap on Chronic Disease DVD available to order
Live Strong is the latest of the half hour documentary style programs in the Rural Health Education Foundation’s Strong Series.
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing has supported the distribution of this resource. To order your free DVD visit the Rural Health Education Foundation’s website www.rhef.com.au or contact the Foundation on (02) 62325480 or support@rhef.com.au

ASIST Applied suicide intervention skills training
15-16 July 2010 - two day workshop
Melbourne, Vic
Phone: 8841 3000 - Email: mchs@mannchs.org.au

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Articles of Interest

ABORIGINAL HEALTH RECORDS GET CYBER TREATMENT
The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance in the Northern Territory has welcomed a $1.5 million funding boost to expand e-health services to remote Indigenous patients.

PSYCHOLOGISTS TO HELP STAMP OUT INDIGENOUS SMOKING
A Toowoomba medical centre will use psychologists to help reduce the smoking rate amongst the city's Indigenous population.

INDIGENOUS CHILDREN HIT HEALTH PEAK
Indigenous children are the healthiest they have ever been according to a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. More than three-quarters of Indigenous children aged 14 or under are reported to be in excellent or very good health. This is according to the Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People's report, based on information gathered in 2008.

SNOWDON CONSIDERS DISPARATE INDIGENOUS HEALTH CARE
The federal Minister for Indigenous Health, Warren Snowdon, is considering a recent report addressing disparities in hospital care between Indigenous and other Australians after suffering a heart attack.

TWO THIRDS OF SOUTHERN NSW MEN OVERWEIGHT, STUDY FINDS
A health service in southern New South Wales is worried about the number of overweight men in the region. A 2008 study in the Southern Area Health Service region found two thirds of men were overweight or obese.
 

PRIVATE AMBULANCES HAVE 'PROFIT MOTIVE': UNION
The Ambulance Employees Association says it has been kept in the dark about the use of private ambulances in South Australia. It says several private ambulances with interstate number plates are transporting patients between hospitals, aged care facilities and other institutions.

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS UP 16PC IN 5 YEARS
The AIHW report found the ACT remains well behind the national average for elective surgery waiting times. The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found hospital admissions rose significantly between 2004 and 2009.

'UNACCEPTABLE' DELAYS OVER FOLLOW UP TESTS
New figures show WA women with abnormal mammogram results are waiting almost six weeks to get follow up care. The National Accreditation Standard for BreastScreen Australia stipulates that more than 90 per cent of women needing a follow-up appointment should have one within 28 days of their initial screening.

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