- Have you completed the APNA Workforce Survey?
- Action required for user of Bp Premier
- New findings link access and acceptance barriers with partial childhood vaccination
- Most Australian childcare have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, new PAEDS report shows
- Shingles vaccination recommendation
- Doctors are helping more people to do the bowel screening test
Have you completed the APNA Workforce Survey?
The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) wants to hear from as many nurses as possible who work outside a hospital and in the community for their Annual Workforce Survey. It’s the best way to make sure politicians and policymakers hear about the unique challenges you face in primary healthcare and your aspirations for your career. You don’t need to be an APNA member to take part. As a thank you for your time, APNA is entering all completed surveys into the draw for one of two $1,000 Red Balloon gift vouchers.
You have until Tuesday 31 December to be in it to win it!
Start the Workforce Survey now: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7920219/f6abb86044ec
Action required for users of Bp Premier
Orchid SP1 Revision 1 (introduced in January 2024) included new functionality to support updated Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) mandatory reporting requirements. Due to these changes, Services Australia has started to phase out support for older versions of the AIR Web Service API since Thursday 5 December 2024.
To continue to interact with the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), your practice must be on Orchid SP1 Revision 1 or later. Practices that do not upgrade will receive an error message when trying to connect to the AIR.
New findings link access and acceptance barriers with partial childhood vaccination
The National Vaccination Insights project has published key findings from a forthcoming report that could help explain the gradual and concerning decline in childhood vaccinations among children in Australia.
The team behind the project – comprising social science researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, NCIRS and the University of Sydney Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation (SABII) research group – conducted a nationally representative survey of 2,000 parents to understand the barriers to uptake of National Immunisation Program (NIP) vaccines among children under 5 years of age.
Most Australian children have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, new PAEDS report shows
Newly published findings from the latest national paediatric COVID-19 serosurvey, show 94% of children and adolescents aged up to 15 years had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the conclusion of the surveillance period on 5 December 2023.
Researchers from the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) network and NCIRS analysed 1,065 blood samples collected from children undergoing anaesthetic procedures between 1 November 2023 and 5 December 2023 to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in these population groups across Australia.
Shingles vaccination recommendation
One in three people will get herpes zoster (shingles) in their lifetime – and the symptoms can be debilitating. A 2-dose course of Shingrix vaccine is available for free under the NIP for:
- people aged 65 years and over
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years and over
- immunocompromised people aged 18 years and over with eligible medical conditions.
Doctors are helping more people to do the bowel screening test
Doctors are helping more people aged 45 to 74 to screen for bowel cancer by directly issuing National Bowel Cancer Screening Program kits to patients. The program mails free kits to people, but many people don’t return samples for testing. Having a ‘bowel screening chat’ with a trusted health professional means people are more likely to do the at-home test. It gives them confidence to complete the test and helps them take control of their preventive health.
There are also benefits to screening with the program. It means people automatically receive a kit in the mail every 2 years, until they turn 74. They receive reminders to complete the kit; and automatic follow-up if they get a positive test result. Read about the positive impact that clinics are having on people who haven’t screened or are overdue for screening.