ACQA Conference
ACQA held its second conference for members on the 12th October 2007. The conference focussed on "QUALITY OF LIFE" for residents.
Speakers come from Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. Delegates came from New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. A comprehensive article has been publish on the ACQA website - Pyjama Paralysis a Success. The network group would like to acknowledge and thank Suzanne Nagle from Tailem Bend Hospital for coming up with such a catchy title.
A number of sponsors and speakers have provided feedback for this newsletter. I would personally like to thank all for such great input.
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Jennifer Freeman
FutureAge Care were pleased to attend the ACQA conference and to have their Senior Consultant Jennifer Freeman, present The Wellbeing Hub: Turning an environment of sickness and disability into a hub of wellbeing and activity. We greatly enjoyed meeting members, networking and sharing ideas and vision for the future.
Our focus is lifestyle and leisure activities and programs for the residential aged care environment. Our services include: consultancy, staff workshops, resident lifestyle programs and a range of audio and visual resources to enhance wellbeing, sensory stimulation and interest.
Visit our interactive website for staff workshop information, resource samples and upcoming events and contact us if you would like to subscribe to our free activity e-newsletter.
www.futureagecare.com info@futureagecare.com
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Karen Abbey is a dietician from Queensland.
"I would like to thank ACQA for the invitation to present at the conference. It was exciting to see so many facilities that are striving for quality in the aged care sector. I was particularly impressed with the interest facilities showed with nutrition and importance it plays in the care process. The networking opportunity was great and I think this is one of the most important aspects of attending a conference - to listen to fresh ideas and share experiences. Nutrition is like all things the more we know the more choices we have to improve the menu and the way we regard food. Food can play an important part in providing stimulation to our residents and enhance their well being.
www.nutcat.com.au
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Nick Heywood-Smith Wellness & Lifestyle
I would like to congratulate ACQA on a great conference. It’s great to see your members so focused on improving outcomes for residents. The presentations were extremely informative and should give all members many ideas to improve their sites and the quality of care that their residents/clients receive. The networking opportunities were invaluable and it definitely helped get our name and brand out to a bigger audience. We were able to make some great interstate contacts which will help us to develop and grow our business and continuously improve what we do. Our business is focussed on the ”Wellness” of our patients and improving their “Lifestyle”. A similar focus to many of the presenters and attendees. (Nick Heywood-Smith, Director - Wellness & Lifestyles)
2007/08 Committee
Following the AGM held on 12th October, the following people now make up the Management Committee for the coming year:
The 4 members remaining on the committee from the previous year are:
- Adele Tilley (Treasurer)
- Terry Wilby (Chairperson)
- Jan Fisher
- Louise Matthews
The 4 new or returning committee members are:
- Judith Pymer (Secretary)
- Darren Pike
- Chris Moran
- Danny Mitroussidis
I'm sure you will join me in congratulating these new members and wish them well in their role directing ACQA over the coming 12 months.
You will be able to see updated profiles on the committee on the website in due course. Below are some introductory comments from some of the committee members:
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Judith Pymer
" I see my role as a committee member as one of contributing to the growth and sustainability of ACQA through discussion and evaluation of proposals/requests of members who will drive the future of ACQA as that is how it has been promoted to me. I believe the committee members have a duty to evaluate each proposal on its merit and act to implement changes required to continue to meet the needs of the members whilst ensuring that the association continues to work towards achieving best practice. I also believe that the members need to take any opportunity to promote the benifits of ACQA to any individual facility in order to maintain sustainability."
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Darren Pike
"I have been involved with ACQA since its incorporation providing both management advice and information technology services. I believe ACQA provides an invaluable service to the aged care industry and that I can bring some management expertise to the Management Committee to assist the association in continuing along its development pathway. I also have a nursing and aged care assessment background and so bring a perspective from someone who has been exposed to the industry from different positions. I have also recently completed the Aged Care Quality Assessor course and am sure ACQA will benefit from this training. It is my goal to see ACQA's membership continue to grow and the quality and scope of services provided to members to continue to be responsive and continually expanding."
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Chris Moran
"I have been involved with ACQA since 2001. I believe that the quality program and networking opportunities provided by ACQA are vital for small facilities to enable the Aged Care Standards to be met. I have seen many developments over the years and am looking forward to participating further through the committee.
I have 18years experience as a Registered Nurse, with over 12yrs in a management role. The last 6 years have been in Aged Care mainly at Jallarah."
Website Update
There have been a number of significant changes to the website functionality over the past few months.
Most significantly, we have implemented the much awaited change to the membership structure. Essentially, this means that every user will now have their own username and login and you can choose what level of permissions each person has in your organisation. Some will need to enter data (Read & Write), others will just need to view the data (Read Only) and some will need to change your organisation details and add/edit/delete your organisation's users (SuperUser). Everyone will be able to participate in the forums though which have undergone some significant usability improvements and they will be able to read reports and other useful information on the website.
We have implemented some video tutorials available to members only to assist you in how to complete the most common of ACQA tasks.
Registers: In response to member need we have now implemented a Complaints Register and Compliments Register. You will find these with the audits and indicators and you will be able to produce graphs on the trends you are experiencing in the same way that you can graph results for indicators.
New Audits and Indicators
A number of audits and indicators are and have been under development during the course of this year.
We have introduced a new audit in October - Incident Monitoring System Audit - this will monitor your system used to report clinical incidents and to ensure that it demonstrates that incidents are actioned, analysed, trended and fed into the continuous improvement system.
Significant changes have been made to the Medication Management System Audit with additional questions included to further assist members to demonstrate compliance with a number of Expected Outcomes.
A Challenging Behaviour Indicator and Pain Management System Audit are also under consideration and planned for implementation in the new year. Have a look at the discussion regarding these two tools in the forums and add your views to their suitability for your organisation or suggest some changes.
Techie Tips
Copying Indicator Graphs into self assessments
A number of members have asked how to copy graphs into self assessment reports.
If you are using Internet Explorer, the process is pretty straightforward.
- Produce the Indicator Graph you need
- Click on the Print View button in the Form Options area
- Using the IE Menu - go to Edit > Select All
- Using the IE Menu - go to Edit > Copy
- Now go to your self assessment or Word and click your cursor where you want the graph to appear
- Go to Edit > Paste and your graph will appear in the document
Victorian Network
An ACQA network meeting was successfully held in Horsham, Vic during November. We had good representation from members and visitors to the meeting. The management committee also met on the morning of the meeting for a productive meeting planning for the coming year.
Due to the growth experienced in Victoria, particularly in the north west of the state, Trish will hold a number of network meetings in Victoria in the coming year. The meeting planner will be available shortly.
