Monthly Archives: August 2020

Cairns Nursing and Midwifery Awards 2020

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To celebrate the World Health Organisation declaring 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) established an inaugural award celebration which is proudly sponsored by the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation (FNQHF)

The awards were established to formally recognise the excellence in nursing and midwifery across CHHHS.

There were more than 100 very competitive nominations across all five categories which were short-listed by a committee, and then were assessed against the criteria by a judging panel that included:
Debra Cutler, Executive Director Nursing & Midwifery Services, CHHHS
Tony Williamson, Chief Executive Officer, FNQHF
Andrea O’Shea, Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Cairns Services
Tracey Morgan, Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Rural and Remote Services

Award winners were announced on 12th May 2020 to coincide with International Nurses Day via an online event – the physical distancing/social distancing requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow a face-to-face presentation at the time. On Monday 3rd of August we finally had the opportunity to present winners of the Nursing and Midwifery awards with their trophies in person.

The five award winners are:

Excellence in Workforce – Alison Weatherstone

Alison is the Midwifery Unit Manager at Innisfail’s Maternity Department. Alison’s nomination outlined an outstanding commitment to improving work environments to ensure a safe, collaborative and collegial workplace.

Excellence in Clinical Practice – Therese Howard

Therese is a Sexual Health Nurse with Tropical Public Health Services and was nominated for her commitment and advocacy in her work with the Queensland Health Syphilis Register. Therese has dedicated the last 10+ years of her career doing this work and has done so in a respectful, friendly, supportive and efficient manner.

Excellence in Education – Paul McNamara

Paul is the Clinical Nurse Consultant with Consultation Liaison Psychiatry Services and demonstrates an outstanding commitment to teaching and learning. A familiar face on the CHHHS Facebook page with his “Clean hands, clear head” initiative, Paul dedicates a lot of his time educating and supervising colleagues whilst also keeping up with his Instagram/Twitter/Facebook page meta4RN.

Excellence in Leadership – Kelly Pollock

Kelly is the Nurse Unit Manager at Tablelands Community Health. Since Kelly has started in her role, she has inspired the team to develop their skills in the area of patient centred care so they can offer the best practice for patients and community clients.

Excellence in Research – Bronwyn Hayes

Bronwyn is the Clinical Nurse Consultant Transplant Coordinator for CHHHS and integrates knowledge and evidence into practice to improve patient outcomes. In 2016, Bronwyn completed her PhD with her thesis focused on workforce issues in Australian and New Zealand haemodialysis units.

L-R: Kelly Pollock, Paul McNamara, Bronwyn Hayes, Alison Weatherstone, Debra Cutler, Tony Williamson and Therese Howard

Four Notes

  1. Many thanks to those who generously took the time to nominate me and my colleagues – it was genuinely surprising to be nominated, and was very humbling and gratifying to be recognised. Thank you.
  2. A huge thank you too to the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation who supplied the trophies and the prize of enrolment, flights and accommodation at next year’s Australian College of Nursing’s National Nursing Forum.
  3. The text above is a slightly altered copy and paste of emails that were sent in May following the online presentation and August after the in-person presentation. I’m plonking it here on the blog so that it is searchable/able to be found in future… after all, if it’s not googleable, did it really happen?
  4. Would have I created this blog post if I wasn’t amongst the award winners? I don’t know – maybe. It’s ‘on-brand’ to promote nurses/nursing recognition via this blog: I have made a habit of celebrating Nurses on the Australia Day Honours list in recent years (see here). That said, it does feel like a bit of a brag, but it is something I’m proud of, not ashamed of.

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That’s it. Thanks for reading – as always, you are welcome to leave feedback in the comments section below.

Paul McNamara, 28 August 2020

Short URL meta4RN.com/awards

Are there smartphone apps specifically for people who experience eating disorders?

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Q: Are there smartphone apps specifically for people who experience eating disorders?
A: Yes. Three*
1. Rise Up + Recover www.recoverywarriors.com/app
2. Recovery Record – RR www.recoveryrecord.com
3. MindShift www.anxietycanada.com/resources/mindshift-cbt

Q: Is this the shortest blog post in the history of humans?
A: No. Please read on for elaboration, geeky stuff and a disclaimer (look for the red asterisk* below).

Elaboration

Recently I was chatting with someone who experiences an eating disorder and was asked whether there were any apps specific to their circumstances. I was a bit busy at work, and only had time to to check-out Australia’s digital mental health hub Head To Health, and found nothing specific to eating disorders there. A few things pop-up on a google search, but when you’re a health professional you need to be careful about prescribing digital technologies. As articulated in editorials, letters, journal articles and blogs, health professionals have a responsibility to do no harm, and provide credible, evidence-based information if giving advice re apps, websites or other digital technologies.

Geeky Stuff

Fairburn and Rothwell (2015, p. 1038) took a systematic approach to clinical appraisal of eating disorder apps, and concluded, “The enthusiasm for apps outstrips the evidence supporting their use.” Ouch.

But that was way back in 2015, some people are still giving eating-disorder-specific app development a go, and digital therapeutics evolve quickly, so I thought it was worth doing a search of credible sources anyway.

After searching Head To Health, later (in my own time boss) I had a look at the Queensland Eating Disorder Service (QuEDS) resource page, the Butterfly Foundation website, and the Eating Disorders Victoria site and couldn’t find recommendations for apps. I then signed-up for ORCHA (“the world’s leading health app evaluation and advisor organisation“) and did a search there – that yielded poor results. Searching ORCHA for “eating disorder” was too broad and yielded a list of food/diet-related apps. Searching ORCHA for “anorexia nervosa” yielded two apps that had a green rating – one was a NHS/UK-only app, and when I clicked the other one on the App Store the top review spoke about their weight-loss. It might be a good app, but I’m afraid to share it here. That sort of thing would probably be laughed-off with an eye roll by someone who is living with an eating disorder and is in a good head space, but could really throw a spanner in the works for someone who isn’t in a good head space. The mortality rate of eating disorders is a worry, so primum non nocere.

Then I stumbled into the Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorder (CEDD) website and found a resource called “Navigating Your Way to Health” and, lo and behold, found this on page 33:

Using apps can be a handy way of helping you in your journey to recovery. We’ve listed some FREE apps here that might be useful. The following apps have been designed to help people with eating disorders to empower you to be in control of your recovery.
> Rise Up + Recover 
> Recovery Record – RR 
> recoveryBox 
> MindShift 

Disclaimer*

Although it was listed in the resource above, I left the recoveryBox app off my list at the top of the page because as at 09/08/20 (today) their website isn’t working. The app is still available on the App Store, but as the website is out of action, I’m guessing the app isn’t being updated any more. “Navigating Your Way To Health” was published in 2016 and, as noted above, digital therapeutics evolve quickly. It seems they devolve quickly too.

I’m pretty confident this is credible information as of right now, but who knows what reviews are underway or what apps are in development? Not me. For all I know there will be a fantastic Australian app co-produced by consumers/survivors, clinicians and academics tomorrow. I hope so. Just in case, check in on CEDD if you’re reading this after 09/08/20.

As noted in my recent blog post regarding the stepped care model (“One. Step. Beyond.” meta4RN.com/step) the concept of “one size fits all” doesn’t apply in mental health recovery. On the same theme, apps can be a useful addition to other strategies and useful for maintenance/relapse prevention. They should not be relied on alone if someone is experiencing significant symptoms of poor health.

I won’t pretend for a moment to have any special insight into what is a useful app for people who are experiencing an eating disorder, and don’t really have the time, skill-set or funding to undertake an independent review. I do trust the credibility of CEDD though, and if they say these apps are OK, who am I to say otherwise?

As originally noted in September 2012 (see number 13 here: meta4RN.com/about), the views and opinions I express here or on related social media portals do not represent the views of my employer. That really should be taken for granted, but anyway…

One last thing in this section: I don’t have any financial/other ties to any of the organisations or apps named above.

References

Daya, I., Hamilton, B. and Roper, C. (2020), Authentic engagement: A conceptual model for welcoming diverse and challenging consumer and survivor views in mental health research, policy, and practice. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 29(2): 299-31.
doi: 10.1111/inm.12653

Fairburn, C.G. and Rothwell, E.R. (2015) Apps and eating disorders: A systematic clinical appraisal. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 48: 1038-1046.
doi: 10.1002/eat.22398

Ferguson, C., Hickman, L., Wright, R., Davidson, P. & Jackson, D. (2018) Preparing nurses to be prescribers of digital therapeutics, Contemporary Nurse, 54(4-5): 345-349.
doi: 10.1080/10376178.2018.1486943

Hunter Institute of Mental Health and the Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorders (2016). Navigating Your Way to Health: A brief guide to approaching the challenges, treatments and pathways to recovery from an eating disorder. NSW Ministry of Health.
via cedd.org.au/begin-recovery 

Neumayr, C, Voderholzer, U, Tregarthen, J, Schlegl, S. (2019) Improving aftercare with technology for anorexia nervosa after intensive inpatient treatment: A pilot randomized controlled trial with a therapist‐guided smartphone app. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 52: 1191– 1201
doi: 10.1002/eat.23152

Søgaard Neilsen, A. & Wilson, R.L. (2019) Combining e‐mental health intervention development with human computer interaction (HCI) design to enhance technology‐facilitated recovery for people with depression and/or anxiety conditions: An integrative literature review. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(1): 22-39.
doi: 10.1111/inm.12527

Wilson, R.L. (2018) The right way for nurses to prescribe, administer and critique digital therapies, Contemporary Nurse, 54(4-5): 543-545.
doi: 10.1080/10376178.2018.1507679

End

That’s it. Thanks for reading down this far 🙂

As always, you’re welcome to leave feedback in the comments section below.

Paul McNamara, 9 August 2020

Short URL meta4RN.com/app

 

Liaison in the Time of #COVID19

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This page is an accompaniment to a brief presentation at the Inaugural ACMHN Consultation Liaison Special Interest Group online webinar via zoom – it is just a place to plonk things that I’ll talk about in case anyone wants to clarify anything for themselves.

So, here goes:

As noted on a previous blog post, Queensland’s population is much bigger than Australia’s smaller states/territories, but falls a long way short of Australia’s two largest states. 

 

Queensland’s population size compares better to New Zealand, Ireland, Norway and Singapore than other Australian states and territories.

 

All the data below is true as of 1 August 2020 (as you probably know, 1st of August = the Horses Birthday in Australia).

 

It is interesting to compare the number of Covid-19 cases across similar-sized populations. Obviously there are many differences between the populations too – not the least of which is land area – so I’m doubtful that a proper epidemiologist or public health professional would put much stock in this comparison. That disclaimer aside, it is noted that Queensland has a larger population than New Zealand – which is held-up as a shining-light of Covid-19 control – but, to date, has a lower incidence of Covid-19 positive people.

 

I’m not sharing the data about number of Covid-19 deaths as a macabre version of State of Origin or the Bledisloe Cup. It’s not a competition. It’s certainly not a game. Thousands of families across the world are in mourning. That said, isn’t it interesting how low Singapore’s death rate is compared to that of Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Norway? Both New Zealand and Queensland have been very fortunate to date in limiting the number of deaths.

 

Comparing the number of new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours (as at 01/08/20) is also interesting.

 

Links to Data Sources
New Zealand
Ireland
Queensland
Norway
Singapore 

 

In the session there will be mention of the “Clean Hands. Clear Head.” strategy to embed anxiety-management into everyday clinical practice. More info about his via the blog post and video of the same name: meta4RN.com/head

 

Also in the session there will mention of “Positive Practice Environment (the other PPE)” Again, there is more info about this via a blog of the same name: meta4RN.com/PPE

 

Finally, here is a link to the Prezi that was used to make the video. My understanding is that all these pretty Prezis will stop working at the end of 2020 when everyone stops using flash (just letting you know in case you’re looking at this page in 2021).

 

In Support of our Victorian Colleagues

 

End

That’s it. I hope some of this info is of interest. As always, you’re welcome to leave feedback via the comments section below.

Paul McNamara, 3 August 2020

Short URL: meta4RN.com/zoom