Nurse practitioner standards project : report to the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council

The aims of the project have been to conduct research that will inform a description of the core role of the nurse, core competency standards for the nurse and standards for education and program accreditation for nurse preparation leading to regsitration and authorisation.

Doing literacy online : teaching, learning and playing in an electronic world

The essays in this volume provide an international perspective on persistent and emerging questions related to the use of online technologies for teaching and learning. They demonstrate that online literacy practices can be understood only when they are examined within their social, political, economic, cultural, and historical contexts.

Handbook of teacher education : globalization, standards and professionalism in times of change

This book provides an international review of the current state of teacher education, with chapters from an international group of teacher educators. It focuses on major issues that are confronting teacher educators now and in the next decade. These include the impact of globalization on the profession of teaching, and how teacher education must deal with changing accountability requirements from governments and establish a set of minimum standards acceptable to enable a person to teach. The work also considers aspects of the three major phases of teacher education: the period prior to commencing in the profession, successful induction into the profession, and the ongoing professional development of teachers. Finally, it identifies ways in which new technologies can be used to improve the training and ongoing development of teachers. Cases from different countries are used to provide a rich base of data to help us understand how the profession is moving onwards.

Microworlds and mathematics: playing with melodies

The author looks at the effects of replaying a sequence of sounds or musical notes in reverse temporal order. He presents some programming ideas which illustrate how to use MicroWorlds and Logo programming to play a tune forwards, backwards and even upside down.

Beyond compliance: ACE and the disability standards for education in 2005.

The Disability Standards for Education 2005 make it unlawful for an education authority to discriminate against a person on the grounds of the person's disability, and providers of adult and community education (ACE) are specifically noted as education authorities in the Standards. Most ACE providers, working as they do from a community development basis, would consider themselves to be non-discriminatory. The devil, nevertheless, is in the detail, and it is one particular detail of the Standards that this article considers – Part 7: Standards for student support services. Research has indicated that this is an area with which ACE providers are likely to have problems. This article looks firstly at the place of people with a disability in ACE, and then at some of the provisions of the Standards as they relate to student support. Evidence to support the discussion is taken from three research projects into ACE provision for people with a disability. These studies are outlined before the author moves on to some of the issues indicated in the research. Further, some suggestions are made for compliance, and the need for ACE providers to go beyond compliance and consider advocacy to support the inclusion of people with a disability into ACE.

Henk Maier's we are playing relatives : a survey of Malay writing

Four scholars and about fifteen other participants gathered at Monash University on 7 June 2007 to discuss Henk Maier's 'We are playing relatives: a survey of Malay writing' (KITLV Press, Leiden, 2004).

Nurse practitioner standards : an Australian and New Zealand research collaboration

This paper will report the findings from research conducted in Australia and New Zealand to inform development of standards for nurse practitioner education and practice competencies. In New Zealand and Australia the nurse practitioner is a new and unique level of health-care provider. The shifting boundaries caused by health-care reform have created impetus and demand for development of new models of health-care, but have also created some uncertainty regarding nurse practitioner standards, education and models of care. The title, Nurse Practitioner, is now legislated in New Zealand and most jurisdictions in Australia but there is scant research to inform development of nurse practitioner standards. This research, sponsored by the Australian Nursing Council and the Nursing Council of New Zealand, was conducted to develop generic standards that could be applied for the education, authorisation and practice of nurse practitioners in both countries. The study involved collection and triangulation of data from a range of sources across Australia and New Zealand including: in-depth interviews with 15 nurse practitioners from different geographical and clinical contexts; curriculum survey of all nurse practitioner courses in the two countries and interview with convenors of these courses; collation of the authorisation/registration processes and policies from states and territories in Australia, New Zealand and internationally. These data were analysed within and across the data modalities to provide information on standards for nurse practitioner practice and education. Findings from the study included identification of the core role of the nurse practitioner as it is expressed in New Zealand and Australia and generic standards for nurse practitioner competencies, education and authorisation. These findings will standardise expectations, support mutual recognition of nurse practitioner authorisation across the two countries and make an important contribution to the current international debate on nurse practitioner standards and scope of practice.

The need for best practice standards in electronic governance of patient medical records to facilitate innovation

Background : Optimising the use of electronic data offers many opportunities to health services, particularly in rural and remote areas. These include reducing the effect of distance on access to clinical information and sharing information where there are multiple service providers for a single patient. The increasing compilation of large electronic databases of patient information and the ease with which electronic information can be transferred has raised concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of such records.
Aims & rationale/Objectives : This review aims to identify legal and ethical standards for areas of electronic governance where a lack of clarity may currently impede innovation in health service delivery.
Methods : This paper describes best practices for storage and transfer of electronic patient data based on an examination of Australian legislative requirements and a review of a number of current models. This will firstly allow us to identify basic legal requirements of electronic governance as well as areas of ambiguity not fully addressed by legislation. An examination of current models will suggest recommendations for best practice in areas lacking sufficient legal guidance.
Principal findings : We have identified the following four areas of importance, and shall discuss relevant details:
1) Patients' right of ownership to electronic patient records. 2) Custodial issues with data stored in centralised health care institutions 3) IT Security, including hierarchical level access, data encryption, data transfer standards and physical security 4) Software applications usage.
Discussion : Our examination of several models of best practice for the transfer of electronic patient data, both in Australia and internationally, identifies and clarifies many unresolved issues of electronic governance. This paper will also inform future policy in this area.
Implications : Clarification will facilitate the future development of beneficial technology-based innovations by rural health services.
Presentation type : Poster