An expert’s guide to help ‘inoculate’ yourself against burnout

How can you help protect yourself against burnout? According to Dr Tom Buckley, an internationally recognised expert on the impact of stress on human health and wellbeing, there are five factors that can help prevent the rising toll of burnout among healthcare workers. Addressing delegates at the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) National Conference […]

Managing challenging behaviours

The stressful nature of a healthcare environment can result in difficult behaviours and may lead to workplace conflict. By approaching challenging behaviours in the workplace with some tools, as well as a positive attitude and assertiveness you can reduce the risk of conflict occurring. Nurse & Midwife Support Stakeholder Engagement Officer Mark Aitken says when […]

Tips to deal with grief during the pandemic

Losing a loved one is difficult at the best of times, let alone during the COVID-19 pandemic, where social distancing and other restrictions are in place. Given many people are unable to grieve or have contact with a partner, friend or family member during their final moments under current circumstances, psychotherapist and lecturer at Edith […]

Expert advice on ways to keep moving amidst isolation restrictions

Despite these being unprecedented times, we should keep up exercise routines albeit solo says Associate Professor Kevin Netto, a human movement and sports science researcher at Curtin University. “It’s really, really, really important that we maintain our health in these challenging times,” he says. “I’m not going to preach to the converted, but we all […]

Why I became an NMHPV Champion

Victorian nurse Melissa Dickinson stumbled across an advertisement for the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria’s (NMHPV) NMHPV Champion Program in 2016 while working at Geelong Private Hospital. She recalls being immediately inspired to take the plunge and sign up for the volunteer role, which involves identifying colleagues in need of support and starting conversations […]

Understanding vicarious trauma

Nursing and midwifery are professions that involve giving part of ourselves at work. By default, we are attracted to the profession because we are natural empaths. In our day-to-day caring, we engage emotionally with our patients and clients. Sometimes this engagement is positive- for example, when a mother gives birth to her first child and […]

6 ways to rejuvenate after a rough shift

It’s been a shocker of a shift. Right now you just want to go home, slip under your doona and shut out the world. But what are some perhaps more helpful ways to deal with the impact of a rough shift? Here are six tips to rejuvenate your mind and body and enable you to […]

Council of Deans supports development of new clinical Placement Evaluation Tool

Clinical placements are vital for nursing students’ education, for workplace culture exposure and to enable translation of theory into practice. However, the quality of nursing students’ clinical education varies greatly with Australian students exposed to negative (Jarvelainen et al.(2018) and positive experiences (Paliadelis & Wood, 2016). The Council of Deans Nursing and Midwifery (Aust & […]