Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Chris Middleton - AMA President
There is apparently some doubt about the origin of the exhortation "May you live in interesting times". It is popularly thought to be an old Chinese curse but whatever its origins, it could be considered particularly apposite to the fortunes of AMA Tasmania in the last 12 months or so. Nevertheless, at the end of 2009 we strangely find ourselves with an air of almost exuberant optimism and very much looking forward to the future. Per ardua ad astra as they say in the Air Force.
My thanks to all of our members and supporters but I would especially like to acknowledge the hard-working members of AMA Tasmania Branch Council for their invaluable contributions, advice and personal support to me during the year. I must also make special mention of the sterling work of Tony Steven, who joined us as CEO this year, along with April and the other members of the team in the office at AMA house in Hobart.
It has indeed been a somewhat hectic and trying year with one thing and another and I have no doubt that we are all very much looking forward to a few days of R & R over the next week or two.
At this late stage of proceedings I still have a mountain of work to deal with and there is the outstanding and not insignificant issue of making my own small contribution to national financial recovery before December 25th. With these inexorable imperatives looming large I will sign off here with the customary yuletide invocation.
Merry Christmas to all and Best Wishes for 2010.
Chris Middleton.
Deans Desk - Professor Alan Carmichael
Coming to the end of the year we tend to reflect on the past and plan for the coming year. At the School of Medicine, there has been no time for reflection, as we unpack to complete the move into the new Medical Sciences 1 Building, in preparation for an exciting start to 2010. The School of Medicine will vacate the Medical Science Building at Sandy Bay, however the Clinical School building will continue to house the Royal Hobart Hospital Clinical School staff and a number of facilities such as the Pathology Museum and Library. The remaining School staff and the Faculty of Health Science will also move to the Medical Sciences 1 Building which will also be the new home for the Menzies Research Institute. I would hope to be able to show readers this facility in the new year.
The Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Medical Research and Bachelor of Paramedic Practice will be delivered from the new building in 2010. The Bachelor of Paramedic Practice is a new degree offered by the School of Medicine. This degree is nationally recognized and will be delivered as a Fast Track degree, consisting of 3 semesters per year for 2 years. Professor Adrian West and Mr Mike McCall have developed the course structure and content and will co-ordinate the delivery of the new degree.
A progressive move is being undertaken by the Faculty of Health Science to separate the position of the Head of School of Medicine from that of Dean. I am delighted to advise Professor James Vickers has been appointed Head of School of Medicine commencing 1 January 2010. James needs no introduction to the wider community; he makes major contributions in his role as Professor of Pathology and Co-Director of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre. He has been Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Health Science and Deputy Director of both the Menzies Research Institute and the TSOM. I welcome Professor Vickers to his new role and I look forward to working with him in 2010.
Sadly the School is loosing a valued member of staff. Associate Professor Michael Maskrey will be retiring from the School, Michael is one of the longest serving members. He joined the School in 1973 and has both a distinguished career at the University of Tasmania as a physiologist, a teaching academic, and a researcher into respiration and energy metabolism which has continued until the present time. He was integral in the introduction of the new MBBS degree and played key roles in
admissions and unit coordination, and has served as Head of Physiology and
Head of Medical Sciences on a number of occasions. His teaching is central
to several School courses and has launched generations of physiologists into
scientific and medical careers. His research interests have been reflected
by visiting scientific positions at a number of institutions in Europe, USA
and other regions and he has served widely as a scientific reviewer and
office bearer in professional societies. Michael will be missed as he enters retirement.
Mr David Lees also retires this year. David is known to most, who have studied and worked in the School through his contributions in clinical photography, media and presentation production, computer support and work in the teaching and research support areas. We wish both Mike and Dave all the best in their retirement.
Congratulations to John Burgess on his appointment as Clinical Professor. In addition to his role at the Royal Hobart Hospital Endocrinology, John continues to make major contributions to teaching at the Royal Hobart Hospital Clinical School.
Nurse Practitioners – AMA Tasmania supports collaboration
Dr. Andrew Jackson. Branch Councillor.
This article was originally published in The Examiner 27th November 2009.
Doctors and nurses have worked together to provide care for the sick and injured since the foundation of modern professional nursing was laid by Florence Nightingale when she published “Notes on Nursing” 150 years ago this year.
This collaboration has matured and strengthened over the years in step with revolutionary advances in medical science and is due in no small part to the high regard and mutual respect which characterises the relationship between the nursing and medical professions.
Doctors and their patients have benefited without question from the increasing professionalism of nurses, their progressively advancing skills, and the ability of specially-trained nurses working in teams to perform some of the work that was previously done by medical practitioners.
The Nurse Practitioner (NP) represents a further development in contemporary nursing practice and also in career advancement for nurses.
Doctors want to be sure that this development further improves the standard of patient care. With this in mind, it is essential that the introduction of NPs does not compromise the effectiveness of the doctor, the continuity of care of the patient, nor destabilise the strength of the doctor-nurse team.
The community would not want any of these things to happen.
It is important to understand that doctors and nurses have different training and discrete roles. They are not interchangeable.
Consider this in relation to the Unique Function of the nurse as defined by highly-regarded and awarded US Army Nurse Virginia Henderson in 1966. “The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge, and to do this in such a way to help him gain independence as rapidly as possible”.
Henderson was also one of the first nurses to point out that nursing does not consist of merely following a physician’s orders, a notion that doctors abandoned long ago.
Unfortunately Australian governments have provided no good evidence from overseas to show that the widespread introduction of NPs has improved quality of care, safety, or lowered health costs, particularly in the UK.
Governments have also seemed unaware of the nursing revolution occurring in your local general practice.
For nearly a decade, nurses working as part of a team with your GP have been taking on new roles previously the province of doctors such as in immunisation, women’s health, wound care, chronic disease care planning, and patient recall management. GPs together with their practice nurses continue to look for new ways to expand the nurse’s role.
Until very recently the crucial concern of the AMA was that governments were about to legislate and permit NPs to examine, diagnose, prescribe restricted medication, and provide ongoing medical management of patients, independently of their doctor.
In its July submission to the Senate inquiry into the Midwives & Nurse Practitioners’ Bill (2009), the AMA called for a formal legal requirement that NPs (and midwives) must work in collaboration with medical practitioners. This recommendation has now been accepted and both the community and nurses concerned about quality and safety in medical patient care will welcome this critical step.
