According to a report published in March of this year, the well-documented nursing workforce shortage is an international problem. Nurse resignation rates in the USA are around 12-15 per cent per annum, while the annual attrition rates in New South Wales are closer to 20 per cent. Susan Bragg, a PhD student with the School of Health Science, is hoping to explore the reasons why NSW rural registered nurses resign from hospitals by interviewing nurses who resigned from a NSW rural hospital for reasons other than maternity, retirement or geographic relocation. “The idea came to me after I left the hospital system, and then we kept hearing about the nurse shortage. I wondered why no one was listening to the nurses who had resigned. I strongly believe that the nurses who have left the system hold the reason why. I think there are quite a few issues impacting on why nurses leave and hopefully I can summarise those in my thesis and then the system may pay attention.”

Reports on support projects by graduating CSU speech pathology students in a number of Border schools will highlight the annual Speech Pathology Conference starting tomorrow (Wednesday 1 November) in Albury. The projects, completed in primary schools as far away as Corowa, Henty and Holbrook, introduced the latest communication speech and communication techniques into these smaller rural schools through student groups supervised by CSU academic Dr Ruth Beecham. The conference, titled Crossing Borders, allows all speech pathology students completing their studies this year to formally present their own clinical work experiences to peers. The conference will start at 2pm on Wednesday 1 November in the Nowik Auditorium, Guinea St, Albury, and continue to 3.30pm on Thursday 2 November.

“I feel very confident in promoting the University as a great place to work.” Karen Kime is Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) new Indigenous Employment Coordinator. Although she only started in the position in June, already she has held cross cultural training workshops and Indigenous staff forums. “The workshops were about the different communication styles that many of our people have. Things such as eye contact, and women and men’s 'business', are sensitive issues. Silences are often used to show respect. Body language is very different. The forums meanwhile are a fantastic way for our people to be able to get together, to network, learn University processes, and to get some training which is specifically targeted for their needs.” Next up will be the introduction of pathways between TAFE, schools and CSU and the development of a mentoring scheme “to encourage people to see CSU as a potential and relevant employer - where one could have a career. In addition, our people contribute to an interesting and dynamic workforce; one that reflects the cultural makeup of the region it serves.”

Charles Sturt University's (CSU) graduating photography students will hold an exhibition of their photographic works at Albury's Regional Art Gallery from this Friday 20 October. The 11 students works range across a variety of photographic styles and methods, from black and white images, to colour and digital. Photography lecturer Margaret Waller said the exhibition is the culmination of three years of intensive study for Bachelor of Arts Photography students from the Albury campus of CSU. "It is a celebration of the students accomplishments over the past three years and offers the viewer delight and intrigue." The opening of the annual exhibition will commence at 6.30pm with guest speaker Dr Kyla McFarlane from the Monash University Mueseum of Art to give the address.

This year’s National Drama Australia Conference had more drama than usual for Associate Professor Dr John Carroll, who was named the recipient of the 2006 Drama Australia Award for Excellence in Drama Education. The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Associate Professor in Communication Research also launched a new book at the Turning The Tides conference which addressed such issues as online drama, digital performance and drama learning. Professor Carroll says Real Players? coauthored with David Cameron of CSU and Michael Anderson of the University of Sydney is “aimed at drama educators, secondary teachers and the university community, as well as a broader group of people who are interested in what’s happening in new technology and performance. It covers the shift that is going on in how young people are relating to new media, and how they are creatively using alternative channels of information.”

Jane Caldwell, a Charles Sturt University (CSU) PhD candidate enrolled through the School of Clinical Sciences, has been awarded a Certificate of Merit at the 4th Annual Victorian Government State Nursing Excellence Awards. Her supervisors, Dr Elaine Dietsch and Dr Sandi Mackey, are full of praise for Jane’s work. “It is a very, very prestigious award. Jane’s PhD thesis is looking at parenting strengths in vulnerable families, so she is doing it from a positive perspective. In regard to the two thousand dollars she won, she said ‘that will buy heaps of things for the families I visit’. She is highly esteemed by colleagues as well as the families she works with,” said Dr Dietsch. Jane Caldwell describes those families as “great people. They are fabulous families. They don’t have a lot, they don’t have material things but they are rich people in what they give back.”

Trainee primary science teachers from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Murray School of Education (MSE) are making science fun for local school children. Each year CSU students take “practical science activities” to a host school, according to John Rafferty, a lecturer with the School of Education. “Walbundrie Primary School is hosting this year as part of their Small Schools Cluster ongoing commitment to innovation and five schools are coming in by bus. There will be 11 activities in all, with children working with undergraduate teachers on interesting and practical science issues such as a volcano and solar ovens made out of pizza boxes in which they cook little biscuits. It is just a really good example of trainee teachers in the field working with schools with University support. This idea that you go away to university for four years and come out as teachers is a myth, the CSU students are involved with schools the whole time, and the local schools have a big say in their development.”

Charles Sturt University’s Occupational Therapy staff often say occupational therapists (OT) are “experts in doing”, so a day of action seems an appropriate way to promote the profession. Student members of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) OT Club will promote the profession to the Albury-Wodonga community with a day of action that coincides with International OT Day on Friday 27 October. “Occupational therapists aim to help people perform activities that are meaningful and important to the individual and the community, which includes rehabilitation,” said OT Club representative Catherine Umina. During the lunchtime event, students will provide information on occupational therapy and what the profession offers as well as a free barbeque and giveaways between 11.30am and 2pm in QEII Square on Dean St, Albury.

When Friends of Woodstock (FOW) wanted to increase their capacity to understand the needs of their clients and address those needs more appropriately, they turned to Charles Sturt University (CSU). FOW is an Albury-based non-profit organisation which supports people with disabilities and their families, predominately young people and children, by providing early intervention and care services. Earlier this month, FOW signed an MoU with CSU’s School of Community Health. Head of the School Associate Professor Julia Coyle says the MoU will work on several levels. “As well as FOW supporting the teaching of respite care with the nursing students, we have the clinical education honours projects set up for next year, so we hope to have a team of honours students working with them then. There will also be professional development between our academics and their clinicians, and we are undertaking research projects that are of importance to them. That is something we are doing in the School quite consistently, changing our research focus to be much more community driven.”