Jones, Kate Wide spread media newsprint articles suggest our emergency medical departments are in a state of crisis. The purpose of this article is to examine a snapshot of emergency medicine performance data to provide some context in which to respond to this issue.

Jones, Kate The shortage of registered nurses in Australia necessitates that management move their attention towards those organisational dynamics, which improve the retention of nurses, reducing the potential for high turnover from hospital to hospital. Organisational culture should be considered in the favor of nurses, considering that the model of acute care service provision used by hospitals expects registered nurses to be the professional body entrusted to provide around the clock and continuous patient care.

Jones, Kate The insights into the physiology of the chronic pain are presented, considering the fact that the physiology of pain and the range of personal factors that influence pain are complex. Even though substantial evidence suggests that strategies could be applied to assist chronic pain patients to endure some of the effects of long-term pain, a pain management strategy that works for one person might not be effective for another.

Jones, Kate Aboriginal people who live with the effects of extreme poverty face high barriers to a quality of life that other Australians enjoy. Aboriginal people have poor health that is directly linked to unmet housing needs, absent or structurally impaired kitchen, bathroom and laundry facilities, malnutrition, unemployment, and poor education retention.

Jones, Kate Patients need both time and support if they are to participate in a model of shared medical decision making with their physicians. This paper explores the implications of patient centred care, identifies a significant barrier to patient participation in decision making, and suggests recommendations for an ethical approach to the provision of decision making support.

Jones, Kate One of the tensions touching the physician - patient relationship today is the physician's ability to correctly interpret what the patient psychologically and emotionally needs from the medical consultation following the diagnosis of chronic or serious illness. The analysis of the issue goes beyond the concern of what information is given to a patient and begins with the importance of good communication.

Jones, Kate The family unit is entrusted with the responsibility to nurture life. It is intended by our Creator to be a nurturing, loving place where the family members, through mutual respect, learn the significance of relationship. The ethical problems for nurses in responding to concerns of child abuse are discussed here, with a call to the whole community to invest in creating a safer place for children.

Jones, Kate This article is especially concerned with aspects of neonatal care where considerable uncertainty in prognosis preceding death creates unique ethical dilemmas. Emphasis is initially given to the dynamics of uncertainty, and the need for medical care to be administered with compassion, and follows with the idea that ethical principles can guide difficult decisions by forming a symbolic navigational compass.

Jones, Kate An underlying tenet guiding this article is that every person is unique. Whilst a philosophical uncertainty exists in knowing how to discuss important issues for people facing death, we can be guided by our faith, ethical reflection, and the published and public material of dying people, and their carers.

Jones, Kate The quality of communication and the authenticity of interaction are undoubtedly tested in the midst of difficult and challenging circumstances. When patient harm occurs, and health care outcomes fall well below governing best practice standards, the way in which this is managed has a lasting impact on patients and their families. This is true whether or not the problem was due to an error, or a failed plan of treatment, and was unintentional and unforseen.

Jones, Kate In Victoria, a complex maze of issues govern the accessibility of appropriate support for people with a severe disability or serious illness, be it financial assistance, or a range of rehabilitative services. This article is a continuation from the previous article printed in the last issue of the Bulletin - Crisis: Young People Living in Aged Care Homes.

Jones, Kate Too many young people live in aged care nursing homes in Australia because there is a shortage of suitable alternatives. The Young People in Nursing Homes National Alliance confirms this, and advises that one young person is admitted into nursing home care every day. Part two of this article will follow in the next issue of this Bulletin.

Webber, Ruth; Jones, Kate This paper is about how three Catholic agencies carved out and adapted over time a role for themselves in assisting in the recovery after the Victorian bushfires of 2009. It tracks the process from the time the Archbishop of Melbourne commissioned Catholic Social Services Victoria to survey the bushfire affected areas and work out where there were gaps in services that the Catholic agencies could fill. A significant amount of funding was allocated to the provision of (...) services by Catholic agencies for a period of up to three years in the bushfire affected regions. This was seen as a Catholic response to an extraordinary natural disaster. This was organisationally difficult because there are in excess of sixty Catholic welfare services in Victoria and it was necessary to determine who would be best able to meet the gaps and deliver appropriate services.1 It was clear that the aim was not to replicate or compete with existing services, it was to meet real needs and to do this in a cooperative and collegial way with existing players. (shrink)