Centre for Policy on Ageing



The interface of acute and aged care — the role of the nurse in a provincial area
Author(s)	Desley Hegney, Alexandra McCarthy, Mary Beth de la Rue
Journal title	Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 22.2, June 2003
Pages	pp 85-90
Keywords	Nurses ; Management [care] ; Admission [hospitals] ; Hospital services ; Aftercare ; Australia.
Annotation	The issues that arose from pre-admission to post-discharge for people aged 65+ in Toowoomba, Queensland admitted to acute hospital care are investigated. The paper focuses on the role of the nurse in the continuum of health care. It uses data collected from regional service providers, the Department of Health and Aged Care (DHAC), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABs), and a range of other service users and providers. The data indicate that nurses in this provincial area currently play a limited role in pre-admission planning, being mostly concerned with elective surgery, especially joint replacements. While nurses deliver the majority of hospital care, they do not appear cognizant of older people's needs post-discharge. The recent introduction of the model of nurse case management in Australia's acute sector appears to be a positive development that will streamline and optimise older people's health care across the continuum in the Toowoomba area. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-030822209 A
Classmark	QTE: QA: LD:QKH: LD: LN: 7YA
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.