Knowledge, perceptions and expectations of nurses in e-health: results of a survey in a children's hospital

We surveyed all nurses working at a tertiary paediatric hospital (except casual staff and those who were on leave) from 27 hospital departments. A total of 365 questionnaires were distributed. There were 40 questions in six sections: demographic details, knowledge of e-health, relevance of e-health to nursing profession, computing skills, Internet use and access to e-health education. A total of 253 surveys were completed (69%). Most respondents reported that that they had never had e-health education of any sort (87%) and their e-health knowledge and skills were low (71%). However, 11% of nurses reported some exposure to e-health through their work. Over half (56%) of respondents indicated that e-health was important, very important or critical for health professions while 26% were not sure. The lack of education and training was considered by most respondents (71%) to be the main barrier to adopting e-health. While nurses seemed to have moderate awareness of the potential benefits of e-health, their practical skills and knowledge of the topic were very limited.

Introducing evidence-based family assessment and therapy in child and youth mental health services: Applying systemic principles to maintain, sustain and build capacity

The purpose of this article is to overview the context of the mental health service in which we work, and family therapy's status prior to and after the impact of changes wrought by the introduction of the National Mental Health Policy. We then explore some key issues that we think contribute to the persistence of the occlusion of family therapy in child psychiatric services; and the strategies that we developed and are continuing to develop to support change, finally, we describe the use of a family assessment instrument that we believe is central to our change strategy.

Developing a protocol for the use of telenursing in community health in Australia

As the first step in developing a protocol for the use of video-phones in community health, we carried out a feasibility study among clients with a range of health needs. Clients were equipped with a commercially available video-phone connected using the client's home telephone line. A hands-free speaker-phone and a miniature video-camera (for close-up views) were connected to the video-phone. Ten clients participated: five required wound care, two palliative care, two long-term therapy monitoring and one was a rural client. All but two were aged 75 years or more. Each client had a video-phone for an average of two to three weeks. During the six months of the study, 43 client calls were made, of which 36 (84%) were converted to video-calls. The speaker-phone was used on 24 occasions (56%) and the close-up camera on 23 occasions (53%). Both clients and nurses rated the equipment as satisfactory or better in questionnaires. None of the nurses felt that the equipment was difficult to use, including unpacking it and setting it up; only one client found it difficult. Taking into account the clients' responses, including their free-text comments, a judgement was made as to whether the video-phone had been useful to their nursing care. In seven cases it was felt to be unhelpful and in three cases it was judged helpful. Although the study sample was small, the results suggest that home telenursing is likely to be useful for rural clients in Australia, unsurprisingly, because of the distances involved.