It has been a busy time for education recently. The Renal Care Skills set for ENs I spoke about in my August column has been endorsed by the National Quality Council and is now available through the Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council (CSHISC). You can find out who will be delivering it by contacting your State/Territory Training Authority.

I was recently invited to participate on another Industry reference group for the CSHISC to explore the impact of oral health on the Australian population. Like many of you, I’m sure, I don’t really like dentists very much but there I was in a room filled with dentists and dental hygienists discussing the state of Australians teeth and mouths. I found myself subconsciously doing a check. When was the last time I went to the dentist; do my teeth look ok; and should I excuse myself and give them another clean?

Seriously though, it was a very interesting group that led to quite an informative discussion around oral health and its impact on Australians from young children through to the elderly population. Did you know that dental caries are the second most costly diet-related disease in Australia, comparable to the economic impact of heart disease and diabetes? As nurses we know that oral diseases cause a substantial amount of pain and can impact heavily on a person’s quality of life.

Nurses and midwives are being asked to be part of an alternative workforce to assist the oral health care workforce to address an increasing demand for oral health care services as we care for people from birth to death. All nurses, including child and maternal health nurses, midwives, community health nurses, nurse practioners, mental health nurses and Al Ns already play a very important role in the care of Australians oral health and through this project it is anticipated we will have a much bigger impact on our patients’ oral health. I will keep you posted on the progress of this important project.

Just a quick reminder that our new ‘Asthma Management’ tutorial is FREE to members for the month of November and also please keep the feedback coming. I do love hearing from you all.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under medical plans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.