What is the Gut Microbiota? The human body is inhabited by trillions of microbes, mostly bacteria but also viruses and fungi (1). The majority of these microbes inhabit the human intestinal system, which is called the gut microbiota (Figure 1). ...
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Women in leadership: How do you get there?
Healthcare is one of the few industries dominated by female employees, yet in these industries CEO roles are only held by women 37.6 per cent of the time and key management positions are held by women 48.2 per cent of the ...
More »Keeping it in the family: mother, daughter graduate with nursing degrees
“How would you have gone if you had taken your mum to uni, Conor?” recent nursing graduate and mother Lorella McLatchey asks me. As I ponder this, I imagine sitting at the uni bar while my mother stares at me disapprovingly, ...
More »Patients happy with ‘very good’ care in emergency departments
Almost 16,000 NSW emergency department patients were surveyed about their experiences during 2017–18, with 88 per cent or nearly nine in 10 patients rating their experience as ‘very good’ (59 per cent) or ‘good’ (29 per cent). This is down slightly from ...
More »New gerontology framework to ensure skills for nurses
In the wake of the aged care royal commission and a perceived skills shortage in the sector, the University of Wollongong, in partnership with the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, has released the Gerontological Nursing Competencies (GNCs) framework. The framework ...
More »Palliative care nurse blazing a trail to awards
The inaugural Health Minister’s award for nursing trailblazers has been awarded to a Canberra nurse for her work in improving the delivery of palliative care to Australians living in residential aged care. Nikki Johnston, a palliative care nurse practitioner based ...
More »Into the great unknown: voluntary assisted dying in Australia
“You don’t know.” Jac Mathieson, the chief nursing officer at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, found herself saying this a lot when talking about the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act, soon to be law in Victoria. In this instance she was asked, ...
More »Rock ‘n’ roll, push ‘n’ pull: avoiding nurse and patient injuries
Studies show that an average nurse lifts 1.8 tonnes per 12-hour shift, re-positions patients around 69 times a shift and often perform 4 transfers per day. That is a lot of lifting, pushing and pulling and can leave nurses battered ...
More »Economic outlook mixed, health sector wages up: conference
The 9th annual Australian Healthcare Week began in Sydney last week, and nursing and aged care were front and centre. Early in on the first day, the conference was given an economics rundown by Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan, and despite slow ...
More »Keeping our nurses engaged: combatting an ageing workforce
“My kids will kill me for this,” Dan Levitt told the nurses in the crowd at his Australian Healthcare Week talk. “DAY-OH” he sings. The tickled crowd responds in kind. “DAYYYY-OOOHHH,” he continues and goes on to complete the attempt ...
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