The Australian Ageing Research Agenda the researcher perspective

1
The Australian Ageing Research Agenda the
researcher perspective

• Rhonda Nay
• Professor/Director Gerontic Nursing Clinical
  School and ACEBAC
• La Trobe University /BECC

2
How are we defining Policy?

• Are we assuming practice guidelines are policy?
• If not practice/care again the poor third
  cousin!

3
Where is Care?

• Funding
• not age-related
• Bio-medical
• Healthy ageing
• BUT what about CARE?

4
Care research

• Aged care
• up to 56 acute bed days
• Approx 20 formal care
• Approx 5 high care/ 25 will experience and
  rising
• ? SRSs
• Insufficient health professionals collaboration
  essential BUT research models and outcomes??

5
Care and Policy

• Policy is important to care
• Who will provide
• Under what circumstances
• Skills mix
• In what environment
• Who will fund!

6
Care and Policy

• Across the continuum
• Impact on providers
• Appropriate educational preparation
• Funding to support
• New employment structures and roles
• Collaboration essential

7
Ageing and Practice Issues

• Most Systematic Reviews demonstrate paucity of
  evidence to inform nursing/care
• How can care be evidence-based if no evidence??
• Research/funding essential
• Good care can reduce acute admission/readmission/
  from home or RACF decrease LOS reduce adverse
  advents, reduce RACF admissions costs etc etc
  AND improve QoL in any environment.

8
Re-defining evidence

• Drug effectiveness for dementia RCT
• Maybe?? Co-morbidities
• The experience of dementia for the person, family
  and staff qualitative
• Getting policy and practice - relevant evidence
  and changing practice action research.
• Qualitative research - synthesis

9
How to get the evidence

• Broad range of practitioners and policy makers
  involved in setting research agenda and funding
  processes
• Must be relevant to current and anticipated need
• Must be accessible academic journals not
  necessarily read by practitioners
• Implementation and evaluation of research
  findings

10
Research

• Research teams that reflect rhetoric of holistic
  care eg Virtual faculty (G. Andrews) BUT of
  ALL aspects of AGEING population and people.
• Policy impacts real people not bits of them.
• Advice from end-users to researchers and funders.

11
Research into care

• Most older people will require care
• Do we remember the drugs?
• Machines?
• NO the care that made it bearable and kept us
  feeling human!

12
So

• Understanding cause, prevention, cure
  maintenance therapies essential
• BUT
• So is care
• Rhetoric of consumer participation and holistic
  approaches not matched by research priorities and
  funding

13
Care

• Specialisation fragmentation
• Chronic illnesses dying major challenges
• Collaboration
• Use of IT - Communication across disciplines/
  between client and provider.
• Ethics of care decisions
• The need for understanding good care has never
  been greater

14
Selected references

• A Report to the Australian Health Ministers'
  Conference from Australian Health Care Agreement
  Reference Groups September 2002
  http//www.health.gov.au/haf/ahca.htm
• Flemming K. EBN Notebook Asking answerable
  questions. Evidence Based Nursing 1998
  1(2)36-37.
• Kitson A. Recognising relationships reflections
  on evidence-based practice. Nursing Inquiry 2002
  9(3)179-186.
• Koch, W and Tiaziani, A (forthcoming) Current and
  Future Trends in Gerontic Nursing Research. In
  Nay, R and Garratt, S Nursing Older People
  Issues and Innovations, Elsevier Sydney.
• Pearson, A. (forthcoming) Evidence based practice
  quality through research. In Nay, R and
  Garratt, S Nursing Older People Issues and
  Innovations, Elsevier Sydney.