Tag Archives: conference

Poster for 2022 FNQ/CHHHS Research and Innovation Symposium

1 Reply

The 2022 FNQ (Far North Queensland)/CHHHS (Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service) Research and Innovation Symposium is scheduled for Friday 16 September.

https://cairns.health.qld.libguides.com/chhhs-researchsymposium/home

Read all about it: cairns.health.qld.libguides.com/chhhs-researchsymposium/home

This blog post is to simply plonk online the content, JPEG and PDF of a poster that will be presented at the symposium (share or perish!).

@CairnsHelp (brocures are so last century)

key message Share & Connect with Local Support Services

how? search for “CairnsHelp” as one word
or go to linktr.ee/CairnsHelp
or access @CairnsHelp via social media
or scan the QR code

background & rationale

Wouldn’t it be handy for clinical staff and the people they support if there was a comprehensive list of community support agencies in one easy-to-access, easy-to-share place?

Using a free social media platform (linktree) a comprehensive list of support agencies – not just health-specific – has been collated in one place.

Phone numbers and links to agency websites are provided.

The list is reviewed/updated twice a year and PRN. Uptake and use of the site is measured and reported on to determine whether it is of use to the Cairns community.

method

After a cautious small trial in April 2021, application was made via the CHHHS Mental Health & ATODS Leadership meeting in May 2021 to amplify the trial.

In August 2021 the CHHHS Executive approved further roll-out via a lanyard swing-tag QR Code.

Since early 2022 the emphasis has shifted away from the QR code to simply suggesting that people search for “CairnsHelp” as one word.

To determine impact and usefulness of the strategy, data has been gathered on how often the linktr.ee/CairnsHelp site has been accessed.

results (data from April 2021 to August 2022)

The linktr.ee/CairnsHelp site has been accessed over 2700 times; nearly 23% click through to a listed site.

75% of site access is direct/via QR code, 19% is via Google, and 6% is via other search engines or social media.

79% of site access is on a mobile device, 21% is via desktop.

evaluation & implications for practice

The linktr.ee/CairnsHelp site has had a modest amount of uptake in its first seventeen months of use.

As it has required only a modest amount of time to establish and share the site and minimal funding support, this is – to date – a reasonable return on investment.

Further monitoring of uptake will be required to determine whether or not this innovative idea is worth sustaining.

thank you for funding the swing tags and poster

CHHHS Mental Health and Alcohol Tobacco & Other Drugs Service

presenter

Paul McNamara BN MMHN FACMHN
Clinical Nurse Consultant
Consultation Liaison Psychiatry Service

CHHHS (Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service) Research and Innovation Symposium, 16 September 2022

cairnshelpposterDownload

Citation

Look, I’m under no illusions that this poster is in competition with highfalutin peer-reviewed academic publications, but conference posters are citable (is that even a word?) PRN. Thus:

McNamara P. (2022, September 16). @CairnsHelp (brocures are so last century) [Poster presentation]. 2022 Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service Research and Innovation Symposium, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. https://cairns.health.qld.libguides.com/chhhs-researchsymposium

End Notes

That’s it. As always, feedback is welcome via the comments section below.

Paul McNamara, 23 August 2022

Short URL meta4RN.com/symposium

Top 5 Tips for #ACMHN2018 Delegates

1 Reply

In October 2018 hundreds of mental health nurses will descend on Cairns for the 44th ACMHN International Mental Health Nursing Conference. As part of pre-conference publicity ACMHN have put their “Top 5 Tips for #ACMHN2018 Presenters” online [link].

That got me thinking that it might be helpful to have some “Top 5 Tips for #ACMHN2018 Delegates”, ie:  a local mental health nurse’s suggestions on what to do when you’re NOT at the conference. FNQ (Far North Queensland) is worth exploring – be sure to tack-on some rest and recreation time before and after the conference.

With no further ado, please read on…

Top 5 Places for a Drink

Mondo www.mondoonthewaterfront.com.au
Mondo is my favourite place for afternoon drinks or lunch. It’s a 500m walk from the conference venue. The location is fantastic, with views across Trinity Inlet and nearly always a cool breeze.
Local’s tip: If you do decide to eat here try the sizzling fajita. Yum!

Hemingways www.hemingwaysbrewery.com
Hemingways opened in June 2018, and sits in a beautifully restored/repurposed dockside cargo shed. It has an industrial chic look and feel about it, and they make their own beers on site. Hemingways is less that 200m from the conference venue… stumbling distance 🙂
Local’s tip: craft beer not your thing? the AIX Rosé is delicious!

Salt House salthouse.com.au
A 10 minute walk from the conference venue, Salt House has a new deck that overlooks the marina and a larger area where there is often live music. It’s cool and casual, and a favourite with the after-work crowd.
Local’s tip: have the Bloody Mary oyster shooter!

RSL www.cairnsrsl.com.au
Do you have an image of a RSL as a dingy old place full of dingy old people? Forget it! From the conference venue take a 10-15 minute stroll along the lively, cosmopolitan esplanade to take a seat at the light and breezy bar with tilt-up windows.
Local’s tip: the bar’s resident willy wagtail is called Russell

Vine Room www.facebook.com/thevineroomurbanprovedore
Situated just across Florence Street from the RSL, Vine Room is an open air, slightly elevated spot for an afternoon/evening drink. Watch the dive trips come in from the reef with a cool beverage.
Local’s tip: if you’re with 3 or 4 others grab one of their platters for a nibble

Top 5 Places to Eat

Fusion www.fusionartbar.com.au
Less than 200m from the conference venue, this groovy little place is great for just a drink, but the food is too yummy to miss. My favourites are the tapas dishes, which the friendly staff will match to your wines if you ask them to.
Local’s tip: the specials are nearly always amazing!

Splash www.splashrestaurant.com.au
This seafood restaurant on The Nard (local speak for “The Esplanade”) is a great spot to watch the world go by while eating delicious things. It’s a 10-15 meander from the conference venue.
Local’s tip: the seafood chowder is a delicious and surprisingly cheap meal; if you want to treat yourself have the Morton Bay Bugs in garlic butter

Iyara www.facebook.com/IyarabySakare
The best Thai restaurant in Cairns is also on The Nard, but is a bit harder to find than the others. Look for the casual and fun Courtyard at street level. The door to the stairs taking you up to Iyara is to the right of the entrance to Courtyard. It’s a very good restaurant, and if you’re seated on the balcony you’ll be able to see the blinking lights of the shipping channel snaking out to sea.
Local’s tip: the starter that has a prawn, lime and peanuts wrapped in a betel leaf is fantastic!

Tha Fish www.thafish.com.au
Situated on the boardwalk of The Pier, Tha Fish overlooks the marina – it’s a 5-10 minute walk from the conference venue. Great food, great wine list and great service.
Local’s tip: order from “tha fish list” where you choose from one of 5 fishes and one of 5 cooking styles

Ochre ochrerestaurant.com.au
If you found Mondo you can find Ochre – it’s just another 50m or so along the boardwalk that fronts Trinity Inlet. A creative menu using lots of native Australia ingredients. Classy!
Local’s tip: if there are two or more of you have a tasting platter (be sure to include the salt and pepper quail)

Top 5 Things to Do in Cairns

The Lagoon/Boardwalk www.cairns.qld.gov.au/esplanade
The boardwalk is a nice stroll, and well used by locals and visitors alike. If you do the whole thing it connects Hemingways to the mangroves near the airport, but that’s not much fun in full sun. Around sunrise or sunset it’s pretty nice though.
Local’s tip: there are a couple of avenues of large trees that converge at the lagoon – go via the shade if it’s sunny!

Rusty’s Markets www.rustysmarkets.com.au
The markets are a couple of blocks from the conference venue fronting both Grafton and Sheridan Streets. They markets are well-worth a visit on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. There’s a bit of standard hippy bling near the Grafton Street entrance, but the cool stuff is the food in the middle and Sheridan Street end of the markets.
Local’s tip: buy a few tropical fruits you’ve never tried before – the stallholders are generous with showing/telling you how to eat them

The Tanks www.tanksartscentre.com
If there’s a show on at The Tanks that coincides with your trip to Cairns get there. Tank 5 is a fantastic venue to see bands/other acts. If there are no live shows that appeal sus-out any art exhibitions. The Tanks are about $10-15 in an Uber or $20-25 in a taxi from the conference venue. There’s also a bus (see below).
Local’s tip: the botanic gardens are next door if you’re doing a day trip

The Beaches travelnq.com/cairns-beaches
It shits me when people say Cairns doesn’t have a beach. It doesn’t have a beach in the CBD, but then neither does Sydney. But you don’t hear people say Sydney doesn’t have a beach. The nine Cairns beaches are all north of the city. If you don’t have a hire car, take the sunbus to the beaches of your choice: www.sunbus.com.au/cairns
Local’s tip: stinger season usually starts in November, but they can come early some years.

The Red Arrow www.cairns.qld.gov.au
For a sweat-inducing but beautiful walk head to The Red Arrow near The Tanks/botanic gardens. Green exercise is better for mental health than gym-based exercise, and when you’re puffing for breath looking down on the airport/city from Mount Whitfield you’ll notice a smile pass over your lips between gasps.
Local’s tip: your accom provider may be able to provide a bike for you to get there – if so you can do the whole trip on designated bike tracks away from nasty killer cars [maps here]

Top 5 Trips out of Cairns

Great Barrier Reef www.cairnsattractions.com.au
You can see the Great Barrier Reef from outer space or from a boat from Cairns or Port Douglas. Boat trips are much cheaper than rocket trips, but it’s worth paying a bit extra for one that goes to the outer reef – that’s where the cool stuff is. Snorkelling is pretty easy unless you’re very unfit.
Local’s tip: don’t pre-book your trip, watch the day-to-day weather forecasts before booking – ideally you’ll go on a day when the wind is 10kmh or less.

Daintree Rainforest/Cape Tribulation www.destinationdaintree.com
You can do this as a day trip in a hire car easily. Here’s my special secret itinerary which, until now, I’ve only ever shared with family and friends: 

Wake up early. An early start means you beat the tourist buses heading up to the Daintree. It doesn’t have to be a pre-dawn take-off, but this is written as if you’re in the car and driving at 7:00am(ish) – if you’re not on the road before 8:00am you’re too late.

Drive north up Sheridan Street/Captain Cook Highway. If you didn’t get proper coffee before you left town, too bad: get it in the Daintree instead.

You’ll drive past all the suburban beach turnoffs and Palm Cove in the way out of town. Relax. By leaving early you can see any of them on the way back.

Drive through Ellis Beach. About 15-20 minutes later you’ll see the signs/parking area for Rex Lookout. Stop there for photos and fresh air. Lovely.

Keep driving north, don’t turn off to Port Douglas: keep going towards Mossman. If you’re REALLY desperate for coffee you can try your luck in Mossman, but it’s better to keep driving. 

20-30 minutes later you’re at the ferry that crosses the Daintree River. Get a return ticket, and officially start to relax. You’ve beaten the traffic. You’re in a lovely part of the world.

You’ve crossed the river now. Chill. Soon after you get off the ferry you’ll see the sign pointing to Florence Lookout on the right. Take the turn. Take some photos.

Now you’re less than half an hour away from stopping for breakfast. Keep driving north until you get to Thornton Beach. There’s a place next to the beach that makes good coffee and breakfast. You can take your time.

Along the way there a free boardwalks. Take the time to walk along all of the free ones. There’s a commercial boardwalk/skywalk thingy too. You’ll see it advertised. It’s good, but so are the free boardwalks. You can choose to go on the paid boardwalk/skywalk on the way back if you want to.

Putter your way to Cape Tribulation. There are lovely beaches there – check with a local on whether it’s safe to get in the sea (irukandji likely to be a bigger risk than crocs).

Take your time. Late brunch/early lunch in Cape Trib. Soon the tourist buses will start arriving. You don’t care, you’re turning around and leaving Cape Trib now.

Enjoy the drive south. Turn -off/stop wherever you want. Make sure you stop in at that tropical fruit ice-cream place you saw on the way up.

After you’ve crossed the river again, plan to drop into Mossman Gorge on the way home. If you couldn’t swim before, you can here: fantastic clear, cold, croc-free fresh water.

How’s the time going? You’ll be time to have a look at Port Douglas: make sure. to get photos @ Four Mile Beach, somewhere down the other end of Macrossen Street near the Courthouse Hotel. Hang a right, and go up to the lookout. 

Take your time driving home. Be sure to stop at Rex Lookout again (the light has changed, it looks different, there may be hang-gliders). 

Do you have time to stop at Ellis Beach? It’s more about the beach than anything else.

Do you have time to stop at Palm Cove? It’s more about the bars and restaurants than anything else, but there is a nice jetty for a walk, and an irukandji net to allow safe(ish) swimming. 

There a few more beaches on the way back to Cairns. They all have different looks/qualities, visit whichever you like: most are only 10 minutes off the highway, Yorkeys Knob is more like 15.

That’s it.. 

Have fun! 

Mossman Gorge www.mossmangorge.com.au
Mossman Gorge is beautiful. If you can’t get to The Daintree for whatever reason go here instead – it’ll give you a good taste of the wet tropics with the bonus of cultural context.
Local’s tip: if you’re feeling the heat/humidity pack your togs – the croc-free water is always cool in Mossman Gorge

Port Douglas www.tourismportdouglas.com.au
Port is a pretty town which somehow maintains a small town feel despite all the tourist infrastructure. It’s definitely worth staying in Port for a night or two if you have time.
Local’s tip: the Sunday morning markets and Sunday arvo session at The Courthouse are fun

The Waterfall Circuit www.millaamillaa.com
This is another do-able as a day trip in a hire car thing. It’s lovely up on the tablelands, and a good way to see the good stuff is to ignore the advice of TLC and DO go chasing waterfalls. There’s a map in the link above,
Local’s tip: if you’re up that way definitely drop into the Mungulli Creek Dairy for cheese, chocolate and other yummy stuff

End

That’ll do for now.

My meta4RN website does not accept paid advertising – in fact, I pay a bit more each year to have a website without advertising. This is a prelude to say that my “Top 5 Tips for #ACMHN2018 Delegates” are just my opinion. It’s OK to ignore or disagree with my suggestions or – better still – add your suggestions in the comments section below… if enough people do add their suggestions, I’ll create another category: Top5 Reader Suggestions. 🙂

See you in Cairns for #ACMHN2018!

Paul McNamara
27th August 2018 [Twitter pics/updates on 9th September 2018]
Short URL: meta4RN.com/tips

Mental Health and Cognitive Changes in the Older Adult

1 Reply

This afternoon I’m presenting at Ausmed’s Cairns Nurses’s Conference. The title of the presentation is “Mental Health and Cognitive Changes in the Older Adult”.

The only real point of this blog post is to leave a copy of the powerpoint presentation online, so that those attending the conference can revisit the slides PRN. Here it is:

And here’s the spiel from the Ausmed website
www.ausmed.com.au/course/cairns-nurses-conference

Mental Health and Cognitive Changes in the Older Adult

As we get older, the likelihood of undergoing alterations to brain function is high. This may include normal neurodegenerative changes as well as abnormal deteriorations. Separating normal from dysfunctional degeneration when screening and assessing an older adult is essential for quality nursing care planning. This session will look at:

  • What are normal age-related changes to the brain and consequent behavioural signs?
  • How are these changes different to the onset of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, psychosis or bipolar disorder?
  • Age appropriate assessment tools for effective mental health assessment
  • Benefits of brief psychosocial interventions
  • What practical behavioural strategies may improve outcomes for a person with a mental health disorder and cognitive changes?

About the presenter:

Paul McNamara has extensive experience providing clinical and educative mental health support in general hospital and community clinical settings. He holds hospital-based, undergraduate and post-graduate qualifications, is Credentialed by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN), and has been a Fellow of the ACMHN since 2007. Paul is a very active participant in health care social media, and is enthusiastic about nurses embracing “digital citizenship” – more info via his website http://meta4RN.com

ausmed16

End

That’s it. Short and sweet.

I hope this is of some use/interest to those who are attending the conference, and (maybe) some people who are not able to get along.

As always, feedback is welcome in the comments section below.

Paul McNamara, 15 December 2016

Short URL: https://meta4RN.com/Ausmed16

 

Twitter is a Vector (my #ACIPC16 presentation)

Leave a reply

This post is a companion piece to my oral presentation at the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control 5th International Conference, 20 -23 November 2016, Pullman & Mercure Melbourne Albert Park. The conference hashtag is #ACIPC16. The function of the online version is to be a collection point to list references/links.

prezi1The Prezi is intended as an oral presentation, so I do not intend to include a full description of the content here.

Regular visitors to meta4RN.com will recognise some familiar themes. Let’s not call it self-plagiarism (such an ugly term), I would rather think of it as a new, funky remix of a favourite old song. Due to this remixing of old content I’ve included lots of previous meta4RN.com blog posts on the reference list (which, in turn, makes the reference list look stupidly self-referential). Anyway, with that embarrassing disclosure, here is the abstract and list of references  for the Prezi https://prezi.com/fcjda3fh9etr/twitter-is-a-vector

Abstract

Using Twitter in your profession (aka Twitter is a Vector*)

Communication is an inherent part of being a health professional. Over time we have our adapted to the communication technologies available to us: telephones, fax machines, emails and videoconferencing. Yet, for some of us, there seems to be hesitation to use one of the technologies of our time – social media – in a similarly confident manner.

Perhaps you have heard a health professional say something like, “Twitter doesn’t interest me – I don’t care what Justin Bieber had for breakfast.” Those people speak that way because they don’t have a clear understanding of the difference between personal, official and professional use of Twitter.

This presentation is a blatant hard-sell regarding professional use of social media. Examples of professional use of Twitter being used to augment education, conferences, health promotion, academia and the profile of health professionals will be presented.

Please use the conference hashtag – #ACIPC16 – if live-Tweeting during this presentation.

prezi2References

#ACIPC16 hashtag data http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/ACIPC16

Australian College of Nursing (n.d.) Social media guidelines for nurses. Retreived from http://www.rcna.org.au/WCM/…for_nurses.pdf

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. (2014, March 17). Social media policy. Retrieved from http://www.ahpra.gov.au/News/2014-02-13-revised-guidelines-code-and-policy.aspx

Casella, E., Mills, J., & Usher, K. (2014). Social media and nursing practice: Changing the balance between the social and technical aspects of work. Collegian, 21(2), 121–126. doi:10.1016/j.colegn.2014.03.005

Citizen Kane DVD cover. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.currentfilm.com/dvdreviews4/citizenkanedvd.html

Facebook. (2015). Facebook logo. Retrieved from https://www.facebookbrand.com/

Ferguson, C., Inglis, S. C., Newton, P. J., Cripps, P. J. S., Macdonald, P. S., & Davidson, P. M. (2014).  Social media: A tool to spread information: A case study analysis of Twitter conversation at the Cardiac Society of Australia & New Zealand 61st Annual Scientific Meeting 2013. Collegian, 21(2), 89–93. doi:10.1016/j.colegn.2014.03.002

Fox, C.S., Bonaca, M.P., Ryan, J.J., Massaro, J.M., Barry, K. & Loscalzo, J. (2015). A randomized trial of social media from Circulation. Circulation. 131(1), pp 28-33

Gallagher, R., Psaroulis, T., Ferguson, C., Neubeck, L. & Gallagher, P. 2016, ‘Social media practices on Twitter: maximising the impact of cardiac associations’, British Journal of Cardiac Nursing, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 481-487.

#IP2016 hashtag data: http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/IP2016/analytics/?hashtag=IP2016&fdate=09%2F24%2F2016&shour=00&smin=00&tdate=10%2F01%2F2016&thour=00&tmin=00

Instagram. (2015). Instagram logo. Retrieved from https://help.instagram.com/304689166306603

Li, C. (2015). Charlene Li photo. Retrieved from http://www.charleneli.com/about-charlene/reviewer-resources/

lifeinthefastlane. (2013). #FOAMed logo. Retrieved from http://lifeinthefastlane.com/foam/

McNamara, P. (2016, October 21) Why on earth would a Mental Health Nurse bother with Twitter? (my #ACMHN2016 presentation). Retrieved from https://meta4RN.com/ACMHN2016

McNamara, P. (2016, October 15) Learn about Obesity (and Twitter) via Nurses Tweeting at a Conference. Retrieved from  https://meta4RN.com/obesity

McNamara, P., & Meijome, X. M. (2015). Twitter Para Enfermeras (Spanish/Español). Retrieved 11 March 2015, from http://www.ausmed.com.au/es/twitter-para-enfermeras/

McNamara, P. (2014). A Nurse’s Guide to Twitter. Retrieved from http://www.ausmed.com.au/twitter-for-nurses/

McNamara, P. (2014, May 3) Luddites I have known. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/luddites

McNamara, P. (2013) Behave online as you would in real life (letter to the editor), TQN: The Queensland Nurse, June 2013, Volume 32, Number 3, Page 4.

McNamara, P. (2013, October 25) Professional use of Twitter and healthcare social media. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/NPD100

McNamara, P. (2013, October 23) A Twitter workshop in tweets. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/tweets

McNamara, P. (2013, October 1) Professional use of Twitter. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/poster

McNamara, P. (2013, July 21) Follow Friday and other twitterisms. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/FF

McNamara, P. (2013, June 7) Omnipresent and always available: A mental health nurse on Twitter. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/twit

McNamara, P. (2013, January 20) Social media for nurses: my ten-step, slightly ranty, version. Retrieved from http://meta4RN.com/rant1

Moorley, C., & Chinn, T. (2014). Using social media for continuous professional development. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(4), 713–717. doi:10.1111/jan.12504

Nickson, C. P., & Cadogan, M. D. (2014). Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM) for the emergency physician. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 26(1), 76–83. doi:10.1111/1742-6723.12191

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2010, September 9) Information sheet on social media. Retrieved from http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?record=WD10%2F3224&dbid=AP&chksum=qhog9%2FUCgKdssFmA0XnBlA%3D%3D

Screenshot 1 “Trump: Twitter helped me win but I’ll be ‘restrained’ now” from http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/12/media/donald-trump-twitter-60-minutes/

Screenshot 2: “Melania Trump rebukes her husband “all the time” for Twitter use” from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-melania-trump-60-minutes-interview-rebukes-twitter-use/

Tonia, T., Van Oyen, H., Berger, A., Schindler, C. & Künzli, N. (2016). International Journal of Public Health. 61(4), pp 513-520. doi:10.1007/s00038-016-0831-y

Twitter. (2015). Twitter logo. Retrieved from https://about.twitter.com/press/brand-assets

Wilson, R., Ranse, J., Cashin, A., & McNamara, P. (2014). Nurses and Twitter: The good, the bad, and the reluctant. Collegian, 21(2), 111–119. doi:10.1016/j.colegn.2013.09.003

Wozniak, H., Uys, P., & Mahoney, M. J. (2012). Digital communication in a networked world. In J. Higgs, R. Ajjawi, L. McAllister, F. Trede, & S. Loftus (Eds.), Communication in the health sciences (3rd ed., pp. 150–162). South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

End 

Finally, a big thank you to the  Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control 2016 conference organisers for inviting me to #ACIPC16. Special thanks to the Chair of the Scientific Committee Brett Mitchell (aka @1healthau on Twitter).

prezi3That’s it. As always your comments are welcome.

Paul McNamara, 18th November 2016

Short URL: meta4RN.com/ACIPC16