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Gerontological nurses on the same page
Professor Traynor and project officer Nicole Britten. Photo: UOW
A common vision for a competency framework for gerontological nursing is on the horizon.
Researchers and nurses have agreed on the content of a competency framework for gerontological nursing.
Associate professor Victoria Traynor, from the University of Wollongong’ s School of Nursing, said the idea of a framework or approach that could be considered standard came from a group of not‐for‐profit aged care providers, called the Nursing in Aged Care Collaborative.
“ The providers were saying:‘ We’ re all doing something slightly different. We think we’ re doing the right thing but everything’ s different, so let’ s come together and develop a common vision’,” Traynor said.
She added a competency framework would give the public reassurance that the aged care industry is going to deliver services of a similar high standard.
“ Developing a competency framework is one way to address all the issues these providers grapple with: recruiting staff, retaining them, deciding what education is delivered to the staff, and what specialist services are offered to older people in nursing homes and the community.”
Traynor said the competency framework could also be used for career development and designing university courses for nurses.
After reviewing the literature to find what competency frameworks and quality standards already existed, UOW researchers held a workshop with 80 senior registered nurses who reviewed a comprehensive list of competencies.
From this, a draft list was created, on which a group of 409 registered nurses gave feedback through five rounds of online consultation.
Traynor said:“ We used a rigorous research approach and developed a competency framework that’ s been wholly endorsed by experts, mainly from Australia but also an international cohort of experts. These are experts who mainly work in clinical practice, but also some academics and researchers in the field.
“ We reached a 95 per cent agreement on the content of the competency framework.” ■
Laughter not best medicine for bladder leakage
Experts are concerned that women are treating incontinence as a normal part of ageing and not as a treatable health condition.
Australian women are willing to tell others about their bladder leakage but the majority simply laugh off the health issue, a new survey has found.
The Continence Foundation of Australia survey of 1000 women aged 30 years or older found that while women with bladder leakage bring up the condition in discussions with girlfriends, almost three in four laughed off the issue and eight in 10 failed to seek help for the problem.
Of particular concern for the foundation was the finding that 85 per cent of women who laughed off bladder leakage mistakenly attributed the condition to ageing or having children.
Academic nurse consultant Dr Joan Ostaszkiewicz, honorary research fellow with the National Ageing Research Institute, said the foundation wants people to know that incontinence, while common, is not normal and should be treated, just like any other health condition.
“ One of the barriers to treatment is a general lack of health literacy about incontinence, even among healthcare professionals and care workers,” Ostaszkiewicz said.
“ Education programs that prepare the healthcare and care workforce don’ t usually include information about therapies to promote continence, or equip students with the knowledge and skills they need in order to conduct a comprehensive assessment. This is a long-standing issue that needs to be tackled at multiple levels.”
Ostaszkiewicz said low literacy about incontinence deters efforts toward prevention and results in missed opportunities for therapeutic consultation. She added it also deters people from seeking help.
“ Prevention is always better than a cure, but early treatment is really key to fixing the problem,” said Continence Foundation of Australia chief executive Rowan Cockerell.
“ People who ignore the issue are often unaware of the impact incontinence has on their lifestyle, whether it be avoiding exercise or limiting social engagements for fear of an embarrassing accident.” ■
4 | nursingreview. com. au