e-news 28 May 2010
Welcome to NWQPHC's electronic newsletter! Each Friday we will email a link to the latest news and updates. If you would prefer your update to be faxed, please contact your local Practice Support Officer
- New to be released in Jun 2010 - Queensland General Practitioner Electronic Recommendation Forms
BreastScreen Queensland in collaboration with GP Links Wide Bay have developed general practitioner electronic recommendation forms (more) - Immunisation Activities for Practice Nurses
APNA together with the Australian Divisions of General Practice, the Australian Government Department (more) - Dedicated GP Hotline
GPs requiring advice and assistance for patients can telephone the Mater Private Emergency Care Centre and speak directly with a senior doctor via a dedicated GP hotline. (more) - General Practitioner Anaesthetists’ Locum Scheme (GPALS)
GPALS is a Locum Scheme especially for GP Anaesthetists throughout rural and remote Australia. Funded (more) - Palliative Care Week 23-29th May 2010.
This year, National Palliative Care Week had a communication theme: “If only I knew…how to talk about dying”. The Palliative Care (more) - Remote Vocational Training Scheme’s call for applications
There have been some significant changes this year, including additional places and new eligibility criteria(more) - AGPAL Quality in Practice Online Learning
On line learning is available now and is complimentary for all AGPAL accredited practices and Divisions (more) - Legislative changes - Nurse practitioners can now write workers' compensation certificates
Under new legislative changes, nurse practitioners can now write workers’ compensation certificates for injured workers with a minor injury (more) - Submit your feedback for the 2010 Queensland Health Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme Review by 11 June 2010 (more)
- Allied Health Visits (more)
- Health Services Newsletters (more)
- Education and Training Opportunities for this Month (more)
- New to be released in Jun 2010 - Queensland General Practitioner Electronic Recommendation Forms
BreastScreen Queensland in collaboration with GP Links Wide Bay have developed general practitioner electronic recommendation forms. The forms were designed to meet the clinical and technological requirements of general practitioners to assist in referring eligible women to the BreastScreen Queensland program for free breast cancer screening every two years.
Women do not need a referral to attend a BreastScreen Queensland service, however research demonstrates that a general practitioner's recommendation is highly influential in a woman's decision to attend for a screening mammogram. Women aged 50-69 years are strongly encouraged to have a free breastscreen every two years. Women aged 40-49 and those over 70 are also eligible to have a free breastscreen.
- Immunisation Activities for Practice Nurses
APNA together with the Australian Divisions of General Practice, the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and the Royal Australian College of General Practioners, has developed online immunisation education modules for practice nurses. These FREE learning activities can be accessed online and used by practice nurses to update their immunisation knowledge. This is an interactive and enjoyable way to learn, and provides useful links to other sources of information - great for nurses in rural or remote areas where access can be an issue. The course is currently hosted through the RACGP's gpLearning website – Please click here should you be interested in this valuable training.
- General Practitioner Anaesthetists’ Locum Scheme (GPALS)
GPALS is a Locum Scheme especially for GP Anaesthetists throughout rural and remote Australia. Funded by the Australian Government, the Scheme is also the facilitator of Government subsidies for rural/remote GP Anaesthetist locum relief.
Host subsidies per GP Anaesthestist requiring relief include:
• $750/day for locum service fees up to 14 days/financial year (i.e. up to $10,500)
• Up to $1500/placement for locum travel costs.
Rural practices/hospitals that arrange their GP Anaesthetist locum privately may also be eligible to access the subsidies. Access is easy - there is no administration fee or hidden costs and the paperwork is effortless (3-5 minutes to complete).
GPALS is also seeking GP Anaesthetists (JCCA accredited or equivalent) or Specialist Anaesthetists to register for locum work. A travel time subsidy of up to $500/placement applies.
For more information, please visit the Australian Society of Anaesthetists at www.asa.org.au, call Dianne on (02) 9327 4022 or send an email to gpals@fed.asa.org.au
- Palliative Care Week 23-29th May 2010.
This year, National Palliative Care Week had a communication theme: “If only I knew…how to talk about dying”. The Palliative Care Association (PCA) partnered with the Australian Library, the Australian GP Network and the Pharmaceutial Society of Australia to “promote the resources and messages of National Palliative Care Week to the wider community”. The Townsville Palliative Care Service ran a wide program to raise awareness of Palliative Care in the general and medical community. Our Occupational Therapists and our Social Workers created programs for dissemination within their own professional communities. Indigenous Liaison Officer Ian Pollard and Palliative Care Consultant Ofra Fried met service providers at TAIHS to share knowledge regarding palliative care and communication issues for Indigenous clients. Dr. Fried and Social Worker Rosemarie Labuschagne held a Community Information Session at the Aitkenvale Library, and Dr. Fried and RN Julie Shepherd addressed the GP Mater evening meeting. Dr. Will Cairns and other staff members also provided a day of outreach Palliative Care Education in Mackay. Everyone finds it hard to talk about dying, probably because it makes us more aware of our own and our loved ones mortality. We worry that we will upset them, or that we will get it wrong and talk about dying with patients when the time is wrong. But often if someone has had a new serious diagnosis they are thinking about dying anyway. Gently guiding them to make some plans for this time, and then being guided by them how and when to next bring up prognosis and dying often works. Sometimes family members are the ones who say “so, how long has he got?” and this opens the discussion. Maintaining and improving our communication skills is important for all medical practitioners, particularly when “breaking bad news”. A useful supplement was provided by the MJA in June 2007 entitled “Clinical Practice Guidelines for Communicating End of Life Issues with Adults in the Advanced Stages of a Life Limiting Illness and their Caregivers”. This is available on the MJA website, at the link: http://www.mja.com.au/public/guides/guides.html#Palliative. With regard to advanced care planning, an exciting Queensland Health wide project currently being implemented is the introduction of Acute Resuscitation Plans (ARP) , which provide direction and documentation about the extent of medical intervention recommended for a patient. ARP forms can be viewed on the TGPN website and your patients may bring one home following an admission.
Often people are worried because they may have seen someone dying in pain or agitated or short of breath and we can try to reassure them that we can generally deal with these symptoms these days with medication. Others worry that they will need to go to hospital, or that they will become a burden on their loved ones, and they can be reassured that their wishes will be taken into consideration as far as is possible, and that many people can stay at home to die, with help from their GP and our palliative care nurses, provided they have a carer at home. Palliative Care Social Workers can also help with carer payments and assist patients with the sometimes overwhelming paperwork, like Wills, EPOA (Enduring Power of Attorney for Personal and Health Matters) and AHD (Advance Health Directive). Social Workers also provide emotional support during an illness and after a bereavement. A referral to the Palliative Care Service can help you care for your patients and their families. Referral forms are on the TGPN Website, www.tgpn.com.au
Please phone Palliative Care Outreach Team with any questions on 47964260. We have nurses, a Community Doctor, Consultants and Social Workers who would be happy to assist your management of these patients. Polly Adams SMO Palliative Care, Ofra Fried Palliative Care Consultant 47964260.
- Remote Vocational Training Scheme’s call for applications
There have been some significant changes this year, including additional places and new eligibility criteria click here to read the fast facts. For enquiries specific to recruitment, please contact Debra Hargreave on (02) 6021 6235 or dhargreave@rvts.org.au.
QUICK LINKS
- General information about RVTS training: click here
- New selection criteria: click here
- Application Documents: click here
- AGPAL Quality in Practice Online Learning
Online Learning is available now and is complimentary for all AGPAL accredited practices and Divisions of General Practice teams. AGPAL has partnered with ThinkGP - Australia's leading provider of online education solutions for health care professionals to bring you six one hour online educational modules on quality improvement and accreditation. Click here to view the online learning
- Legislative changes - Nurse practitioners can now write workers' compensation certificates
Under new legislative changes, nurse practitioners can now write workers’ compensation certificates for injured workers with a minor injury. The Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 defines a ‘minor injury’ as an injury of a person that does not require the hospitalisation of the person as an in-patient to properly treat the injury. When writing certificates for injured workers, nurse practitioners must act in accordance with the Workers’ Compensation Certificate Protocol for Nurse Practitioners which has been created jointly by Q-COMP and Queensland Health. The protocol summarises the conditions under which a nurse practitioner can write a certificate, and the length of time a certificate can be written for. You can download a copy at www.qcomp.com.au. If the patient is not fit to resume their pre-injury duties after a maximum period of 10 calendar days the nurse practitioner must refer the patient to a doctor (usually their GP). Also, nurse practitioners will not be involved in any workplace rehabilitation decisions so will refer patients back to the GP for those services as well.
Q-COMP has created a variety of resources available for both nurse practitioners and GP’s – visit www.qcomp.com.au or call 1300 789 881 for more information.