Health Sciences

Useful Links

Evidence based sites:

Aged Care Quality Association (ACQA): provides a range of benefits to members. Membership is provided at a range of levels and fees, which are based on the size of your organisation and the services to which you require access.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ): A US site with the  mission to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. Information from AHRQ's research helps people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services. AHRQ was formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

Agree Collaboration:  AGREE stands for "Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation". It originates from an international collaboration of researchers and policy makers who work together to improve the quality and effectiveness of clinical practice guidelines by establishing a shared framework for their development, reporting and assessment.

Australasian Cochrane Centre: : The Australasian Cochrane Centre is one of a number of Cochrane centres established worldwide to co-ordinate the activities of the Cochrane Collaboration. The Centre is based in Melbourne as part of the Monash Institute of Health Services Research and is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.

Bandolier: Bandolier collects good quality evidence under a variety of different headings. They search for systematic reviews of treatments, of evidence about diagnosis, epidemiology or health economics, and abstract it. It is time consuming, and Bandolier has been able to do it only through sponsorship, which is a limiting factor. Sponsorship is acknowledged at the top of each topic heading. The fundamental criterion is that sponsors have no say or control whatsoever.

Centre for Evidence Based Nursing: The Centre for Evidence Based Nursing CEBN) at the University of York is concerned with furthering EBN through education, research and development. Evidence based nursing is the process by which nurses make clinical decisions using the best available research evidence, their clinical expertise and patient preferences, in the context of available resources (DiCenso A, Cullum N, Ciliska D. Implementing evidence based nursing: some misconceptions [Editorial]. Evidence Based Nursing 1998; 1:38-40).

Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing seeks to shape the quality of health care older Americans receive by promoting the highest level of geriatric competence in all nurses. By raising the standards of nursing care, the Hartford Institute aims to ensure that people age with optimal function, comfort and dignity.

National Guideline Clearinghouse� (NGC) is a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National  Institute of Clinical Studies:: The National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) is Australia�s national agency for improving health care by helping close important gaps between best available evidence and current clinical practice.Effectively NICS is helping bridge the gap between what we know (the research findings) and what we do (day to day clinical practice).

University of Iowa College of Nursing:  There are currently thirty-one evidence-based nursing practice protocols. These are available for a nominal fee (not-for-profit) to defray copying and postage expense. We have some quick reference guides and consumer information sheets to accompany some of our protocols. You may request protocols using the Protocols Order Form.

Other useful sites:

ADARDS Nursing Home: The ADARDS Nursing Home is a 36-bed facility for the residential care of people with dementia and the most difficult (or challenging) behavioural problems.

Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency : The Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency (the Agency) is the independent body responsible for managing the accreditation and ongoing supervision of Commonwealth-funded aged care homes.

Aged & Community Services (Australia) The leading national peak body in Australia representing over 1,400 church and charitable organisations providing accommodation and care services to older Australians.

Aged Care Association Australia ANHECA has recently decided to change the name of the organisation to AGED CARE ASSOCIATION AUSTRALIA. As this broader name reflects the changing nature of aged care and more particularly the changing nature of our membership base. The name ANHECA  has served the organisation well over the years, however the name was no longer sufficiently reflective of the broader role being played by providers and the need to ensure that aged care is developed as a continuum across the spectrum of care services and accommodation types.

Aged Care Crisis:  www.agedcarecrisis.com is an independent web site set up for the primary purpose of representing our elderly citizens with regards to aged care issues.

Alzheimer's Australia The peak body providing support and advocacy for the 500,000 Australians living with dementia.

Australian Association of Gerontology: The association�s mission  is the understanding, through scientific study, of the processes and the phenomena of ageing. Further more it seeks to  expand knowledge of ageing and improve the experience of ageing.

Bundoora Extended Care Centre (BECC) Bundoora Extended Care Centre (BECC) provides specialist health and welfare services to elderly and younger disabled people, and Veterans living in the North-East metropolitan region of Melbourne. All clients referred to the Centre have conditions that more commonly affect older people.

Council on the Ageing: (COTA)  National Seniors is the largest seniors organisation in Australia with over 270,000 individuals and 1000 seniors organisations under its umbrella. It protects and promotes the well-being of all older people. It is an independent consumer organisation run by and for older Australia International Journal of Older People Nursing

National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) The centre of excellence in Australia in medical research (biological, clinical and service delivery) into the causes and consequences of ageing and its social accompaniments

Royal College of Nursing (Australia)  A professional body representing nurses from all practice areas throughout Australia. Represented on government committees and health advisory bodies