The NSW Centre for the Advancement of Adolescent Health
Beyond Bandaids: Understanding the role of school nurses in NSW
Working in collaboration with the School Nurses Association of NSW, this project aims to clarify the role of school nurses in NSW and subsequently facilitate ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the impact and outcomes of school nursing.
School nurses will be surveyed to obtain their opinions about their role. This will be used to develop a standardised daily activity log to identify roles actually undertaken over a four week period. Nurses perceived roles will then be compared to activity log reports to identify main duties undertaken, proportion of time spent on activities and common presenting health concerns.
It is anticipated that this research will:
- Increase our understanding of the professional role of school nurses
- Develop a standardised activities log to facilitate ongoing monitoring and evaluation of school nurses activities
- Identify common presenting health concerns
- Contribute to the development of a state / national model of school nursing that will improve young people's access to health care
 Beyond Bandaids brochure
School nurse clinical care monitoring log
School nurse non-clinical care monitoring log
 School nurse clinical and non-clinical care monitoring logs
School nurse monitoring log example
Beyond Bandaids: Project summary report
The GP Strategy
Working primarily in partnership with the Divisions of General Practice, this project aims to improve young people's access to General Practitioners, by enhancing the effectiveness of GP youth health training and access initiatives. This project will improve the quality and outcomes of GP training in adolescent issues through research, mapping, creation of training standards/tools, and evaluation of good practice in youth GP access strategies.
The project is about
- Increasing all DGPs' access to information on current GP professional development pathways, courses and approaches related to youth access by developing a mapping resource of GP youth health education.
- Assisting all NSW DGPs' capacity to plan and develop their youth access initiatives in their area by developing a mapping resource on current youth health initiatives in NSW, outlining 'what works', good practice and lessons learned.
- Increasing networking and information opportunities for NSW DGPs around current youth access and training initiatives, by hosting a DGP youth health networking forum.
- Increasing GP's skills in delivering health care for young people by producing the GP Resource Kit, 2nd edition.
- Assisting training providers' ability to plan and develop youth health-related professional education for GPs, by developing a GP training delivery guide.
- Increasing NSW GP training providers' capacities to deliver quality GP professional development programs and developing youth access initiatives by providing technical support and training.
Click here to download the brochure.
Youth Health Forums
These stimulating half-day forums cover a wide range of adolescent health and well-being issues, appealing to health, education, community, welfare professionals and students. Programmes usually feature four or five key speaker presentations, followed by a panel / open question session. Please refer to our calendar for upcoming events.
To extend Youth Health Forum to the rural and remote areas, as well as to people in metropolitan who were unable to attend the Forums. Youth Health Forums are now being recorded and produced into DVDs so that it can be accessed and viewed at as many locations as possible. To order your copy and find out more about how to run a Regional Youth Health Forum, please refer to resources.
Access Study Phase I
This participatory research project (completed in 2002) explored the issues and barriers affecting adolescents' access to health care services. The document has already assisted services in planning and service improvement. For more information, or to obtain a free copy of the report, please refer to resources.
Access Study Phase II
The next phase of this applied research (following ACCESS Study Phase I) consulted with a wide range of health, welfare and medical services across NSW, analysing different models of youth health service delivery and identifying better practice recommendations in Youth Health.
The Phase II study has produced a research report and two resource documents, to assist policy makers, managers and workers in planning, developing and evaluating services and programs for young people. For more information, to obtain a free copy of the research report or the resource documents, please refer to resources.
Adolescent Health Conference 2006
Young People's Health - what's it going to take?
5th Annual Australian and New Zealand Adolescent Health Conference
Convenor: NSW CAAH and the Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Date: November 13 to 15 November 2006
Venue: Southee Complex, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW
Conference program
Conference presentations
Conference report and photo gallery
Conference focus:
- Public forum - Young people, media and technology: What do we know? What can we do?
- Accredited skills training workshops
- A one day national forum on youth health and well-being by Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)
- Participation of young people and parents
- Interactive poster session and marketplace
Roundtable on Youth Development
As part of its continued commitment to supporting young people in NSW, NSW CAAH was commissioned by the Communities Division of NSW Department of Community Services to host a Roundtable on Youth Development for government and non-government agencies. The roundtable provided opportunities for stakeholders to review current youth development approaches and practices and identify ways of supporting positive youth development in NSW.
Good practice in youth development study
Leading up to this event, the Communities Division, DoCS, has also contracted NSW CAAH to conduct a 'good practice in youth development' study within the South East Sydney region. The project assisted services to undertake self-assessment activities, identify good practice case studies, develop a standard review model for other regions and identify support needed when planning and implementing youth development projects. To obtain a free copy of the study, please refer to resources.
Spinning the Web
Better connections between services working with young people
Spinning the Web's aim is to identify and address information-sharing barriers between services concerned with young people's health and well-being. The Project was designed to improve referral systems, increase organisations' opportunities to work cross-sectorally and identify new partnerships.
Through focus group discussions and surveys, the project explored NSW-based health and other workers' skills and experiences in seeking information on adolescent health-related resources and services, and identified strategies to externally promote their service and programs.
Through the participants' feedback and suggestions, NSW CAAH proposes developing:
- good-practice guidelines and communication strategies for services involved with adolescent health and well-being;
- a user-friendly research tool, so that organisations can replicate the research assessments locally, and
- practical training for workers, to build skills and confidence in information-seeking and service promotion.
To obtain a free copy of the report, please refer to resources.
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