16 June 2021
Article from April 2021 edition of INPractice
These are exciting times for the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, which is set to shape the nursing and midwifery professions on a global scale.
The small Adelaide team of distinguished health researchers is the product of a partnership between the University of South Australia and the ANMF (SA) Branch) and the Rosemary Bryant Foundation. The centre was established and funded by the ANMF (SA Branch) to strengthen the role of nursing and midwifery through the development of a research-driven, evidence-based platform of health care.
In late 2020, the Research Centre conducted a national COVID-19 Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Survey of 13,410 nurses, midwives and other health care workers to gauge how they had been impacted by the pandemic.
When clinicians were asked about their personal health and safety, 45% reported they were moderately or extremely concerned. When asked about their psychological wellbeing, 44% were moderately or extremely concerned. Nearly 1 in 5 clinicians had sought mental help support from external providers.
Now the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre is tailoring the same survey for a global rollout through the Registered Nurses Association Ontario and Nursing Now. Nursing Now is a global campaign to raise the status and profile of nursing – one which has the backing of the World Health Organization and the International Council of Nurses.
“127 countries are members of Nursing Now and all will be invited to participate and distribute to their nursing and midwifery communities.” said RBRC Director and Professor of Cancer Nursing at UniSA Marion Eckert.“We are quite excited that the Centre will have an opportunity to hear from nurses and midwives working across the globe. The survey will also be translated into different languages.
“One aspect unique to the international survey is that we have COVID-specific questions but we also have some validated tools in there focused on workforce wellbeing, job demand and job resources, burnout and intentions to leave the profession. This provides a really good opportunity to establish some benchmark data and see how nurses and midwives from different regions of the world are faring.
“It also allows us to build models to show how health system policies and decision-making to manage the COVID-19 crisis is directly and indirectly impacting the wellbeing of the health system’s largest workforce,” Prof Eckert explained.
The countries involved include the US, Russia, China, much of Europe and Asia, Africa and Latin and South America.
“It really is an incredible opportunity to partner with such strong organisations championing the critical role nurses and midwives play in our community. We’ve started with a focused South Australian initiative (a nursing and midwifery workforce wellbeing survey in 2017 and 2019), then we had the opportunity to go national (the COVID-19 Nursing and Midwifery and Wellbeing survey) and now we’re having global reach and impact,” Professor Eckert says. “We are working in partnership with these leading agencies to inform and drive change through influencing policy.
“The research we are producing will potentially be able to drive some of that agenda.”
The Research Centre and the Foundation are named after Rosemary Bryant AO, Australia’s first Commonwealth Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, Emerita Director of Nursing at the RAH and honorary Iife member of the ANMF (SA Branch).
The Centre, based at UniSA, has developed a comprehensive research program focused on advancing the discipline of nursing and midwifery, and patient care in the domains of population and public health, workforce reform, safety and quality, clinical practice, patient outcomes, and integration into education.
The Centre has recently been awarded official ‘Centre’ status by the University of South Australia.
“For us, it’s a marker of recognition and credibility. To us it is saying that through the lens of the university our team’s work is significantly contributing to what UniSA is about and its future direction,” says RBRC Research and Strategy Manager Greg Sharplin.
“Within five years, we’ve built upon the esteemed achievements of Dr Rosemary Bryant’s work in health care and in nursing and midwifery in particular, and are now making a significant contribution to the research side of the profession. It’s an honour for the team to have been on this journey, and it’s a testament to their hard work that UniSA has recognised and acknowledged that we meet the criteria as a research centre.
“We are here to contribute to the national and international conversation on how to improve the nursing and midwifery workforces, and how to build capacity and capabilities in research to inform the delivery of clinical care to our community. We will look for any opportunity where we can do this because, to us, this is how our research can make a difference.”
“It’s saying ‘you’re making a difference, you’re having an impact, you’ve got global reach’, tackling the challenges across health to inform policy and drive change,” Professor Eckert adds.
“I don’t know if there are many centres like the Rosemary Bryant across Australia, I don’t know if there’s any actually … so this is a real coup for us to get the Centre status at the University of South Australia.”
Recent discussion papers produced by the centre include the integration of evidence-based practice in aged care, and another on burnout within the professions which found that the Australian nursing and midwifery workforce was emotionally exhausted and over-extended BEFORE COVID-19.
A third paper explored underutilisation and other challenges facing nurse practitioners and advanced practice roles in Australia.
"We have had various manuscripts that have been published, that have informed models of care, evidence based care and policy," Professor Eckert says.
"One, interestingly enough, was a report on the incidence of skin cancer and the role nurses can have in prevention, assessing people in the community, particularly in primary health care.
"From there, we've had a pick-up from a Not for Profit Agency who'd like to work with us to translate the evidence of the critical role community nurses have across Australia in delivering preventative health."
UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences Lecturer in Nursing Dr Kathy Hill is adopting an approach to use Discrete Choice Methodology to gain an understanding of the renal workforce, wellbeing and considerations to support and grow this area of workforce speciality.
“One of the challenges in the health system is that when you have these highly skilled speciality groups, groups of clinicians, the challenge is to retain, support and grow them at all stages of their career, and critical to this is to make sure that senior members are supported to pass on skills to those new to learning these highly specialised crafts,” Professor Eckert says.
“So Kathy’s undertaking some research to get an understanding of some of the challenges of that workforce, knowing they’re an ageing workforce, not dissimilar to other specialities streams and therefore it is hoped that the lessons learned may be transferable.
“How do they balance work and life? What are some of the competing priorities? How do these change over time? And how can we use this information to optimally support staff.
“One of the exciting things we are on the eve of is we are about to progress predictive risk modelling in the acute care sector,” Professor Eckert adds.
“Looking at predictive risk modelling in hospitals rather than looking at retrospective data all the time.
“Being proactive around safety of care, rather than reactionary to adverse outcomes.
“It is an exciting and critical area of research that will demonstrate the value of predictive analytics to report risk and reduce harm.”
“The exciting thing for the RBRC now is that our research is making a difference in the real world, is growing its global reach, and the team is viewed as trusted, highly-skilled and focused on improved health care for all”.
Professor Eckert will be presenting at this year's Annual Professional Conference - A Force for Change.
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