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The views and opinions expressed in our blog series are those of the authors and are not necessarily supported by CareSearch, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health.
The reality for some time in respect to continuing to provide quality health care is “Work smarter not harder”. The health dollar is becoming like a Northern White Rhinoceros , still in existence but rare. There is ever increasing scrutiny about how both of these prized possessions are used and treated. Continued investment is regularly linked to reportable outcomes, whether it be in the case of the Rhinoceros an increase in their numbers or for the health dollar reduced overall cost. You are more likely these days to find the CEO of a hospital having an MBA in hospital administration than being a senior clinician. As this is a reality we need to develop strategies / programmes that do have clinically reportable outcomes that they will comprehend.
Aileen Collier is a lecturer in Palliative and Supportive Services, Flinders University. Her research sits at the interface of social science and health research and is focused on human agency and safety and quality of palliative care. She also teaches in the Flinders University post-graduate program.
What advice can I offer you about nursing, research and improving health care? Nurses, as the backbone of our health services, need to be highly responsive to direct patient care needs. If improvements in palliative care are to be realised however, we also need to enact what colleagues Jane Phillips and Meera Agar have recently described as “exemplary leadership”. Our health care systems are complex, in constant flux and driven by efficiency and cost effectiveness. We need to take an active role in policy development as well as critically adapting ‘top-down’ policy and evidence-based initiatives within local settings. In this environment, nurses simply cannot afford not to be able to make sense of research findings.