SYNERGY Nursing & Midwifery Research Grand Rounds - June 2024

Join our nursing and midwifery forum!

The forums provide a fantastic networking platform with attendees from various departments across health and academics from the universities.

This forum will be held on Webex and at Meeting Room 1, Level 2, Building 8, The Canberra Hospital.

The forum will be recorded and made available on the SYNERGY website.

Attending this forum will contribute to 1 CPD hour (1 hour) toward your nursing or midwifery registration for the year.

Presentations

2pm

How audit affects nurses and how this affects audit

Presented by: Gabrielle Michl

Gabriella is a registered nurse and University of Canberra honours graduate. Her area of research has been the nursing experience of audit, which was the central focus of her honours thesis. She has clinical experience in general practice, acute medical wards, and now works in the emergency department at North Canberra Hospital. She hopes to pursue further research both in audit processes and in emergency nursing.

Audit and feedback cycles of nursing care serve to align nursing practice with best practice, with the goal being optimal care of patients through evidence-based standards, procedures and protocols. The collection of data (audit), its analysis and its feedback to nursing staff can however become confounded from the intended goal of improving patient care, instead becoming a tick-box exercise to meet upstream demands, from direct managers to national accreditation. As such, audit and feedback have been observed as resented among nursing staff, who have mixed feelings around the processes due to their ‘tick-box’ nature rather than their practical application towards improving patient outcomes. These mixed feelings and the shift of focus of audit and feedback can lead to the whole process being undermined.

An integrative systematic review was undertaken to identify the impact of audit and feedback on the professional role of the nurse, and their psychological wellbeing, alongside a qualitative analysis of nurse perspectives about audit of their clinical documentation.

2.30pm

Management and Outcomes of Women Presenting with Reduced Fetal Movement at a Tertiary Hospital: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Presented by: Victoria Chard

Victoria begun her career as a Registered Midwife in March, 2022, following the completion of a Bachelor of Science in 2016 and Bachelor of Midwifery in 2021. After six years of tertiary education, her interest in research and policy lead to an Honours Scholarship in Heath Sciences at the University of Canberra. Liaison with her supervisor, Professor Deborah Davis facilitated her research into reduced fetal movements, a 'hot' topic in the Midwifery and Obstetric field since the Safer Baby Bundle initiative was launched in 2019. Tori now wishes to focus on her clinical and professional development; however, would consider a PhD in the future.

Reduced fetal movement (RFM) is being used as a marker for stillbirth prevention, however, research into the perinatal outcomes and clinical management is limited and conflicting. The aim of this study is to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of women presenting with reduced fetal movements and to describe the management and clinical outcomes of these women and their babies. While there is evidence to suggest a link between maternal and neonatal morbidities and increased risk of adverse outcomes, management of women with reduced fetal movements and indication for expedited birth is unclear and variable. Continued research into reduced fetal movements and the development of concise hospital policies are required to better understand, manage and improve outcomes for women and babies.

Questions?

Please direct any questions to synergy@act.gov.au