Patient and nurse outcomes and the cost of nurses' turnover in Australian hospitals. An adequate supply of nurses is fundamental to all of the National Health Priority disease areas where quality care cannot be delivered without an adequate number of motivated nurses. Designing cost-effective methods of retaining nurses requires understanding reasons why they leave the workforce and the impact this has on patient care and system costs. The findings will assist policy makers and workforce planner ....Patient and nurse outcomes and the cost of nurses' turnover in Australian hospitals. An adequate supply of nurses is fundamental to all of the National Health Priority disease areas where quality care cannot be delivered without an adequate number of motivated nurses. Designing cost-effective methods of retaining nurses requires understanding reasons why they leave the workforce and the impact this has on patient care and system costs. The findings will assist policy makers and workforce planners at both local and national levels, to design strategies to effectively recruit and retain nurses as demands for health care and market competition for staff both increase.Read moreRead less
Reforming healthcare: Nurse Practitioners and workforce redesign. This unique national study investigates the progress, process and outcomes of nurse practitioner service. It brings together peak national nursing organisations and state Chief Nursing Officers and researchers who are known both nationally and internationally for innovative research into nurse practitioner service. It has widespread significance for health service providing an operational platform to implement and evaluate new rol ....Reforming healthcare: Nurse Practitioners and workforce redesign. This unique national study investigates the progress, process and outcomes of nurse practitioner service. It brings together peak national nursing organisations and state Chief Nursing Officers and researchers who are known both nationally and internationally for innovative research into nurse practitioner service. It has widespread significance for health service providing an operational platform to implement and evaluate new roles in health service delivery. It will inform health service modelling, theory building and national strategies to achieve promotion and maintenance of good health. For the first time in the history of Australian health service a new level of provider will be examined close to the point of its inception.Read moreRead less
Improving mental health nurses’ retention and quality of nursing practice. This project aims to improve mental health nurses’ resilience, retention and quality of practice through implementation of a resilience-building program. There is a critical national shortage of nurses in mental health, and attrition of the mental health nursing workforce is due in large part to workplace stressors. As a world-first in the field, the study will compare outcomes for mental health nurses who participate in ....Improving mental health nurses’ retention and quality of nursing practice. This project aims to improve mental health nurses’ resilience, retention and quality of practice through implementation of a resilience-building program. There is a critical national shortage of nurses in mental health, and attrition of the mental health nursing workforce is due in large part to workplace stressors. As a world-first in the field, the study will compare outcomes for mental health nurses who participate in the resilience program with a group of nurses who do not. Extending on a successful pilot, we expect the outcomes to be improved nurse resilience, turnover intention, and quality of nursing practice, and reduced negative psychological impacts of workplace stress. Read moreRead less
Finding meaning in the experience of dementia: The place of spiritual reminiscence work. This project will use spiritual reminiscence work to study the experience of dementia and the spiritual dimension focussing on how people with dementia find meaning and develop coping strategies. Dementia is a significant issue for an ageing society where estimates of prevalence indicate a rise of 254% from 1995-2041. The greatest challenge to people diagnosed with dementia is their search for meaning lead ....Finding meaning in the experience of dementia: The place of spiritual reminiscence work. This project will use spiritual reminiscence work to study the experience of dementia and the spiritual dimension focussing on how people with dementia find meaning and develop coping strategies. Dementia is a significant issue for an ageing society where estimates of prevalence indicate a rise of 254% from 1995-2041. The greatest challenge to people diagnosed with dementia is their search for meaning leading to the development of effective coping strategies as their memory loss and confusion progresses. Outcomes will impact on persons with dementia, staff and carers, with improved quality of life for allRead moreRead less
A new quality of life instrument with older people for economic evaluation. This project aims to develop and validate a new preference-based quality-of-life instrument with applications in aged-care. The new instrument will be developed with older people receiving aged care services, and will focus upon incorporating their values into the measurement and valuation of quality of life for economic evaluation. The new instrument will have immediate applications in quality assessment and economic ev ....A new quality of life instrument with older people for economic evaluation. This project aims to develop and validate a new preference-based quality-of-life instrument with applications in aged-care. The new instrument will be developed with older people receiving aged care services, and will focus upon incorporating their values into the measurement and valuation of quality of life for economic evaluation. The new instrument will have immediate applications in quality assessment and economic evaluation, improving the quality of life and wellbeing of older Australians, and will assist in determining the relative cost effectiveness of new and existing services.
Read moreRead less
Driving health care efficiencies and patient care outcomes by improving communication in acute to primary transitions of care. Communication problems are a major contributor to poor outcomes for patients transferring from acute to primary care, accounting for 41 per cent of preventable hospital readmissions. This project aims to identify risk factors for readmission and barriers to successful transitions of care for high-risk patient groups (including the elderly, paediatric and mental health pa ....Driving health care efficiencies and patient care outcomes by improving communication in acute to primary transitions of care. Communication problems are a major contributor to poor outcomes for patients transferring from acute to primary care, accounting for 41 per cent of preventable hospital readmissions. This project aims to identify risk factors for readmission and barriers to successful transitions of care for high-risk patient groups (including the elderly, paediatric and mental health patients), it will then apply these findings to provide effective, measurable and cost-efficient protocols to improve discharge transition outcomes for patients, carers and health service providers. Research outcomes will have general relevance to Australian healthcare settings and include the development of ‘The Safe Transition Communications Tool.’Read moreRead less
Predictive analytics from at home telemonitoring of vital signs. Predictive analytics from at home telemonitoring of vital signs. This project aims to reduce unscheduled admissions to hospital, by developing statistical models of people’s health using longitudinal measurements of vital signs and questionnaires. Hospital costs are becoming unsustainable and will overwhelm state budgets within thirty years. Telehealth monitoring to manage chronic disease is becoming increasingly routine internatio ....Predictive analytics from at home telemonitoring of vital signs. Predictive analytics from at home telemonitoring of vital signs. This project aims to reduce unscheduled admissions to hospital, by developing statistical models of people’s health using longitudinal measurements of vital signs and questionnaires. Hospital costs are becoming unsustainable and will overwhelm state budgets within thirty years. Telehealth monitoring to manage chronic disease is becoming increasingly routine internationally and should reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and health service costs. To scale up telehealth services nationally, automated means of assessing changes in an individual health status are needed. This project’s automated risk assessment models are expected to identify exacerbations and orchestrate an optimal response from health services to reduce unscheduled admissions to hospital.Read moreRead less
Long term economic impacts of disease on older workers to 2030: Costs to government and individuals and opportunities for intervention. This project will fill substantial gaps in Australian evidence about the health conditions of the future that will keep older workers out of the labour market and diminish their own immediate and long-term livings standards, thereby reducing funds available to government. We will address one of the most significant issues resulting from the fundamental changes t ....Long term economic impacts of disease on older workers to 2030: Costs to government and individuals and opportunities for intervention. This project will fill substantial gaps in Australian evidence about the health conditions of the future that will keep older workers out of the labour market and diminish their own immediate and long-term livings standards, thereby reducing funds available to government. We will address one of the most significant issues resulting from the fundamental changes to the demography of the Australian labour market and one that is regularly raised by the government following the release of the 2002 and 2007 Intergenerational Reports. This project will also examine the interventions that would improve the health of older workers and increase labour force participation over the long term.Read moreRead less
Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss ....Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss. The proposed model, an international first, will be a powerful tool to comprehensively model the cost impacts of illness and simulate policy options related to health and productivity. This will provide answers to critical policy questions for government with potential significant economic benefits.Read moreRead less
Financing aged care in Australia: Mitigating fiscal gaps and maintaining intergenerational equity. Aged care has been identified as a significant contributor to the growing fiscal problems predicted for Australian government finances during the next 10 to 20 years. This project will develop the cutting-edge modelling tools needed to allow Australia to make informed decisions about possible reforms in aged care financing. It will create significant national benefits by allowing detailed assessmen ....Financing aged care in Australia: Mitigating fiscal gaps and maintaining intergenerational equity. Aged care has been identified as a significant contributor to the growing fiscal problems predicted for Australian government finances during the next 10 to 20 years. This project will develop the cutting-edge modelling tools needed to allow Australia to make informed decisions about possible reforms in aged care financing. It will create significant national benefits by allowing detailed assessment of the distributional impact of a wide range of possible reforms, including how the outcomes of any policy change will affect disadvantaged sections of our society, whether different generations will be fairly treated, and the impact by gender.Read moreRead less