Background
Falls, fall related injuries and hospital acquired deconditioning following admission for medical or surgical illness cause functional decline in older population increasing the risk of rehospitalisation, institutionalisation, and death. Emerging evidence suggests enhanced activity programs in rehabilitation settings focusing on hospital acquired deconditioning can reduce the mortality and institutionalisation on discharge. Although high frequency physiotherapy is effective, there is high geographic variation in the physiotherapy workforce across Australia, and ongoing issues of recruitment and retention. Therefore, exploring alternative methods to support physiotherapy services is required to address inequity of service provision. New workforce alternatives to provide functional exercise need to be explored, such as nursing and pre-registration students in other disciplines, considering clinical risk and scope of practice.
Dr Seema Radhakrishnan leads the Boost 2.0 project - which aimed to determine if implementing an additional, high frequency exercise program by nursing students for older people in subacute care is safe, feasible, acceptable, effective, and cost-effective for the health system. This presentation will present the learnings from the implementation.
About the seminar series
The UNSW Ageing Futures Institute seminar series showcases the innovative research by our members that positively impacts an ageing society.
This webinar series will be recorded, edited and uploaded on the Institute website and leveraged through our social media platforms.
About the presenter
Dr Radhakrishnan is a staff specialist in the areas of Geriatric rehabilitation and chronic pain in Western and Southwestern Sydney. She is a Conjoint Senior Lecturer with the School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney; Senior Clinical Lecturer at Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney; and a member of the Ageing Futures Institute.
Her research interests include models of care, rehabilitation after falls and low trauma fractures in older population, improving health outcomes for older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and implementation of evidence base research into clinical practice.