Can a continuous quality improvement program create culturally safe emergency departments for Aboriginal people in Australia? A multiple baseline study.

Background: Providing culturally safe health care can contribute to improved health among Aboriginal people. However, little is known about how to make hospitals culturally safe for Aboriginal people. This study assessed the impact of an emergency department (ED)-based continuous quality improvement program on: the accuracy of recording of Aboriginal status in ED information systems; incomplete ED visits among Aboriginal patients; and the cultural appropriateness of ED systems and environments.

"Unexpected and Distressing": Understanding and Improving the Experience of Transferring Palliative Care Inpatients to Residential Care.

The survival of patients with advanced cancer, coupled with the increased presence of end-stage chronic illnesses in an aging population, is leading to a demand in palliative care. Due to the ongoing need for acute-pain and symptom control in hospice/palliative care units, few are able to offer long-stay admission for those whose symptoms have stabilized. When a patient no longer requires specialist palliative care services, transfer from an inpatient palliative care facility may then be necessary.

Implementing a working together model for Aboriginal patients with acute coronary syndrome: an Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer and a specialist cardiac nurse working together to improve hospital care.

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) contributes to the disparity in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Improving hospital care for Aboriginal patients has been identified as a means of addressing this disparity. This project developed and implemented a working together model of care, comprising an Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer and a specialist cardiac nurse, providing care coordination specifically directed at improving attendance at cardiac rehabilitation services for Aboriginal Australians in a large metropolitan hospital in Melbourne.

The why of practice: utilizing PIE to analyze social work practice in Australian hospitals.

This research used a collaborative approach to gain a comprehensive, quantitative understanding of the breadth and depth of the social work role in health care. Data was collected from individual interviews with all employed hospital social workers (N = 120) across five Melbourne, Australia health networks about their most recently completed case. This data was coded using a revised version of the Karls and Wandrei (1994) Person-in-Environment (PIE) tool to retrospectively analyze the reasons for social work involvement over the course of the case.

Responding to a "window of opportunity": the detection and management of aged abuse in an acute and subacute health care setting.

Aged abuse can manifest as physical harm, sexual assault, intimidation, blackmail, and social deprivation, misappropriation of funds or property, and neglect. The extent of the problem is difficult to assess in health settings due to underreporting and the fragility and reluctance of the elderly in being able to discuss the issue with health care providers. This appears to be related to the fact that perpetrators are frequently family members with resulting issues of aged dependency, family loyalty, and fear of the consequences of reporting.