Workplace safety and how it’s put into practice by aged care staff is under the microscope of Charles Sturt University (CSU) nursing academic Dr Maree Bernoth and information studies academic Dr Annemaree Lloyd.

 

The research will centre on a 100-bed high care facility in the Manning Valley run by the not-for-profit aged care provider, Bushland Health Group Limited.

 

Dr Bernoth, from the University's School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, is visiting the aged care facility on the NSW mid north coast as part of the study into how staff learn about workplace safety and how this understanding impacts their everyday working life.

 

The research project, The affordance of information practices in the shaping and enactment of safety in aged care is a pilot project being conducted over the next four months.

 

Dr Bernoth said, “We hope to extend the project into a larger and more prolonged research project involving other aged care facilities and organisations. We are also hoping to apply for an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project grant next year.

 

“Since the release of the Productivity Commission Inquiry Report, Caring for Older Australians in August, the quality of education and the practices of workers in aged care is an issue on the public agenda.

 

“My visit to the facility from Thursday 29 September will allow me to start data collection for the pilot project. This will involve interviews with the aged care workers over four days. The aged care workers are people involved in caring so they are the best informants about where they access the information that underpins their practice.  

  

“Nursing students from Charles Sturt University do clinical experience with Bushland Health which is committed to quality aged care.”