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There is a need to ensure that healthcare organisations enable their workforces to use digital methods in service delivery. This study aimed to evaluate the current level of digital understanding and ability in nursing, midwifery, and allied health workforces and identify some of the training requirements to improve digital literacy in these health professionals. Representatives from eight healthcare organizations in Victoria, Australia participated in focus groups. Three digital frameworks informed the focus group topic guide that sought to examine the barriers and enablers to adopting digital healthcare along with training requirements to improve digital literacy. Twenty-three participants self-rated digital knowledge and skills using Likert scales and attended the focus groups. Mid-range scores were given for digital ability in nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals. Focus group participants expressed concern over the gap between their organizations' adoption of digital methods relative to their digital ability, and there were concerns about cyber security. Participants also saw a need for the inclusion of consumers in digital design. Given the widening gap between digital innovation and health workforce digital capability, there is a need to accelerate digital literacy by rapidly deploying education and training and policies and procedures for digital service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015 Nippita and colleagues developed a novel system to classify women undergoing induction of labour ( IOL), which sought to overcome the problems of indication-based classification. We explored the utility and feasibility of this new system at Monash Health in Melbourne. We found overall induction rates of 24.7% compared with the New South Wales rates of 25.4% reported by Nippita et al. The classification system was easy to apply because it uses routinely and accurately collected data. There was no misinterpretation of the classification groups. The system provides a robust means for auditing IOLs and reviewing their appropriateness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To establish the prevalence of perineal pain, the effects of pain on postnatal recovery, analgesia used to relieve pain and the perceived effectiveness of such analgesia at the Royal Women's Hospital, Victoria, Australia., Design, Setting and Participants: We conducted structured interviews of 215 women in the postnatal ward of a tertiary hospital, within 72 hours of a vaginal birth., Findings: The structured interviews revealed that 90% of women reported some perineal pain, with 37% reporting moderate or severe pain. The degree of perineal trauma predicted women's ratings of perineal pain on a visual analogue scale, with more severe trauma related to higher pain scores. Over a third of women experienced moderate or severe perineal pain, particularly when walking (33%) or sitting (39%), while 45% noted that pain interfered with their ability to sleep. Women reported moderate or severe perineal pain when they undertook activities involving feeding their infant (12%) or caring for their infant (12%). Women used a range of analgesia, including a combination of ice packs (69%), oral analgesia (75%), narcotic analgesia (4%) and anti-inflammatory suppositories (25%). The majority of women rated these forms of analgesia as effective and identified very few side effects., Key Conclusions: Following vaginal birth, women commonly reported pain from perineal trauma. This pain affected women's ability to mobilise and was relieved by a variety of agents. Side effects from analgesia were rare., Implications for Practice: The prevalence of perineal pain and the associated impact on women's recovery from childbirth warrants midwives' proactive care in offering a range of effective pain relief options to women., (Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)