Hospital readmissions under the spotlight in timely new research, monotremes take centre stage with new grant win to tackle diabetes, and China brings in the literature luminaries to help further culture and language preservation.
Grant to shed light on hospital readmissions
Dr Tiffany Conroy has been awarded the annual Australian College of Nursing (ACN) Research Grant of $10,000, which she’ll use to reduce the steady rate of preventable hospital readmissions – more than 600,000 in Australia each year.
A leading cause of readmission is failure in fundamental care following initial hospitalisation, resulting in infection, pressure injury, constipation or delirium that can lead to readmission, yet there are no current approaches that focus on this area.
The ACN grant will fund research to explore the experiences of older adults who have suffered an avoidable hospital readmission.
She will be presented with her award at the Australian College of Nursing, National Nursing Forum in Hobart on 21 August.
Championing opportunities in Chinese literature
Associate Professor Karen Orr Vered recently returned from Xi’an, China where she was one of four international speakers invited to present in the prestigious Chang-an Lecture Series sponsored by the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Shaanxi Normal University.
The series was part of a selective summer seminar for academic staff and postgraduate students from across China, with a theme of Literary and Cultural Theory.
Associate Professor Orr Vered’s paired presentations, ‘Culture, Childhood, and Children’s Media’ and ‘Children’s Media and Global Cultural Exchange’ culminated in a discussion of opportunities for developing Chinese narrative and intellectual property for export in the area of children’s media. An influential and lucrative arena, she says it provides a host of opportunities particularly through television content for broadcast, streaming, and transmedia application.
The event also provided an educational experience for speakers, with international guests learning much about Chinese culture and history through the hospitality of colleagues, staff, and students.
Grant set to further diabetes knowledge
Professor Briony Forbes was awarded a grant by the Diabetes Association to further her research into peptides produced by platypuses and echidnas, and their potential to help people with type 2 diabetes manage their blood glucose levels.
Professor Forbes’ project, ‘Characterisation of two novel mammalian long acting GLP-1 peptides’, was one of seven South Australian research projects to be awarded from a pool of $450,000 in research that was announced at a National Diabetes Week event at SAHMRI on 19 July 2019.