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December
Evidence into Action prize for paper on local anaesthetic use in emergency department
A collaborative effort between Melbourne Health and Austin Health has won a NICS Evidence into Action award for Ms Jia Jia Shen, Associate Professor David Taylor and Dr Jonathan Knott at the recent Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney.
David Taylor presented the team's paper, ‘Bupivacaine in the emergency department: underutilized and scope for improved patient care’, and described his team’s work in undertaking an audit of local anaesthetic use in two metropolitan hospital emergency departments, together with a survey of emergency department doctors which identified significant barriers to changing practice in the use of bupivacaine. These barriers were found to be related to clinician behaviour such as habit and preference, and system issues such as cost and availability. Based on the available evidence, the team made a number of recommendations for improvements in clinical practice.
Download the Melbourne Health-Austin Health team's abstract:
Download the Melbourne Health-Austin Health team's presentation:
NICS awards Evidence into Action prizes at national conferences for presentations that best demonstrate closing an important evidence-practice gap to improve health care in Australia.
October
NICS awards Evidence into Action prizes at Using Evidence: Using Guidelines Symposium
Congratulations to Dr Christine Connors, Program Director, Northern Territory Preventable Chronic Disease Program; Dr Peter New, Head of the Spinal Rehabilitation Unit at Caulfield General Medical Centre; and Ms Ellen Reid of Amyloidosis Australia for winning NICS Evidence into Action awards at the NICS Symposium last month.
Christine Connors and co-author Fran Vaughan’s paper, CARPA standard treatment manual: Supporting best practice in the bush, detailed work undertaken to develop and implement guidelines via the Central Australian Remote Practitioners Association (CARPA) Standard Treatment Manual, demonstrating a multi-level approach to bridging the gap between the best available evidence and current clinical practice in Indigenous health care.
Dr Peter New and co-authors Janet Weir-Phyland and Alyson Svenson were awarded a prize for their poster, Let’s take the pressure off! An integrated inpatient pressure ulcer prevention program. The poster explained how work undertaken at a local level with limited resources, helped to bridge the gap between the best available evidence and current clinical practice in pressure ulcer prevention.
Ms Ellen Reid’s paper, Amyloidosis awareness, demonstrated her work as a consumer to bridge a significant gap between the best available evidence and current clinical practice in amyloidosis care.
September
Emergency Care Closing Gaps grants
The NICS emergency care community of practice is offering four 'emergency care: closing gaps grants’ of $7,500 each.
Through these grants, NICS aims to support individual emergency care nurses to undertake a project to improve the use of evidence in Australian emergency care practice, and to develop expertise in evidence implementation.
Applications
Applications close 30 October 2006.
Details of suitable projects, eligibility and the application process:
Applications should be submitted using
More information
A teleconference for applicants wishing to discuss the grants will be held on Thursday 21 September 2006 at 1:30pm EST. To register for this teleconference, email your name to cop@nicsl.com.au by Tuesday 19 September and we will send you dial-in details.
August
Emergency Care Community of Practice - Mental Health-Emergency Care Interface Project Report now available
The Mental Health-Emergency Care Interface Project, which was the first major initiative of NICS’ Emergency Care Community of Practice (EC CoP), involved 41 teams from across Australia. Teams of mental health and emergency department clinicians worked together to improve mental health care for people presenting to emergency departments. The project’s outcomes are now presented in a summary poster and a full report.
- Mental Health-Emergency Care Interface Project 2004-2006 Poster (PDF, 49KB)
- Mental Health-Emergency Care Interface Project 2004-2006 Report (PDF, 1274KB)
To learn more about NICS' Emergency Care Community of Practice, visit the Community's program page.
July 2006
NICS and the NHMRC to join forces
The future of the National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) looks even brighter following the announcement on 24 August 2006 by the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Tony Abbott, that in 2007 NICS will join the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Uhrig review outcome a positive one for NICS
The announcement comes in the wake of the recent review of NICS against the principles of the Uhrig Report. The review was part of a rolling assessment of more than 160 statutory authorities and public sector bodies commissioned by the Australian Government. The review aimed to identify issues surrounding existing governance arrangements and to provide frameworks for future performance and accountability.
NICS’ work in implementing evidence will continue. The main change will involve transfer of the governance function from the current NICS Board to the chief executive officer of the NHMRC, Professor Warwick Anderson. The NICS office will remain in Melbourne.
The NHMRC has been reviewed recently and is now an independent statutory agency within the Health and Ageing portfolio, subject to the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997.
May
NICS launches new resources for health professionals
NICS has recently launched two resources to help clinicians and health executives employ evidence-based practice within health care settings.
Identifying Barriers to Evidence Uptake was developed for use by health professionals and executives who want to increase evidence uptake in specific clinical areas. The guide aims to provide health professionals with basic information about the techniques and tools that can be used to identify barriers to change at a local level.
Taking Action Locally: Eight steps to putting cancer guidelines into practice was developed with the Australian Cancer Network and offers guidance to those responsible for implementing cancer guidelines. It takes what is currently known about ways to implement guidelines, and sets out the key issues for people faced with the challenge of putting evidence-based cancer guidelines into practice.
“Although it’s now widely recognised that ‘best practice’ needs to incorporate the best clinical evidence, the potential challenges of applying evidence can be overwhelming,” said Dr Heather Buchan, NICS’ Chief Executive Officer.
“NICS’ two new guides have been specifically developed to provide support and practical advice on identifying and overcoming the obstacles.
“They will assist health professionals and executives to achieve best practice across all levels of their health care services,” Dr Buchan said.
As Australia’s national agency for closing gaps between best evidence and current clinical practice, NICS is constantly working to provide practical tools and support to help clinicians to bridge these gaps.
Identifying Barriers to Evidence Uptake, Taking Action Locally, and a range of other practical tools for health professionals can be downloaded from NICS’ website.