We are continuing our association with the Nurses for Nurses Network (NFNN) which in the past has seen our involvement in educational events on cruise ships. As these are on hold for the foreseeable future so the new way of delivering these educational events is a move to land based facilities that can offer a unique experience.

From 1st to 3rd September we are participating in a Nursing Retreat to be held at O'Reilly's Rainforest Resort located behind the Gold Coast in the Lamington National Park.  The drive from Canungra to the resort (some 20 plus Km of narrow winding road) is through some spectacular country, as you steadily gain elevation and enter a completely magical world.  The road ends at the resort, set high up in the mountain where the climate is much cooler, but the reception is warm. 

​Full details of the event are on our website, as well as the Nurses for nurses website. All bookings and arrangements  will be managed by NFNN. If more convenient fees can be paid in increments, details on their website.

​As with cruise events, travel and accommodation are not included in the conference price, and you will need to contact O'Reilly's Resort to book your accommodation direct, however NFNN have arranged for a reduced rate for participants for the days of the conference. The code will be supplied when you register for the retreat.  You may wish to stay longer.  (When we spend time there we don't want to leave!) 

Meantime we are continuing in a reduced capacity with ALS courses, and some specialty seminars but with greatly reduced numbers to avoid a situation where we are required to increase social distancing and have to cancel events because of too many participants.

Our New Zealand business has been closed, as travel has become risky and uncertain with the threat of extended quarantine being required.  This has been a very sad ending to a wonderful episode of our lives, but unavoidable. It has however, allowed us to devote more time and energy to our local activities and to try new methods of delivering educational content to our customers; some work, some need more tweaking!  And we are also enjoying the time in our own home, at long last able to have flowers in the garden, which previously could not survive our frequent and prolonged trips abroad.  As well as the NZ visits we were keen cruise takers, both for NFNN work and privately. 

​Like so many others, we have suffered many downsides, but also some good from the pandemic. Our hope for the future is that we all survive this event, and a lasting freedom from the virus is possible.

Meantime, please keep safe, and do all you can to protect your loved ones.  

What a year!
Started out well enough, but mid-March during a lecture tour in New Zealand it went belly up in a big way. We had to cancel the remainder of the jobs and head for home in a hurry. After some anxious days waiting to get a flight home we were able to get seats on one of the last flights across the Tasman and go into home quarantine for 14 days.  We spent the time cancelling seminars and refunding our clients.
Sadly the New Zealand business has not recovered and will have to be shut down indefinitely. 
Our activities in Australia have been limited to small groups, but will be held we hope more often due to the constant threat of having to abandon events at short notice if the outbreaks of Covid19 continue which seems likely.
None of the three Education at Sea cruises for 2020 could go ahead, and the future of cruising is very much a mystery. Our thoughts go out to all those cruise staff who are now redundant; many thousands just in Australia.  Some of our favorite ships have been cut of for scrap.
We also think of our nursing colleagues who have been working under such a heavy, threatening work-load this last year.  Hopefully that will ease somewhat during the new year if the vaccines come on line and make a difference to the threats you have had to face,
Many of you will be celebrating Christmas in a very different way this year, unable to join with family and friends as you have been able to in past years.  Perhaps we will have to be content with phoning or Skype calls to our loved ones who are absent.
​We wish you one and all a happy Christmas and New Year and continued good health.   

October already, and now able to resume some activities so long as we maintain social distancing and have a COVID19 management plan in place, but more importantly adhere to that plan to minimise the risk of cross-infection should we have an infected person who is unaware of their condition in our gathering.

Coming up next week we have our Cardiac Arrhythmias seminar. With the limited audience we are able to accommodate there are many who missed out, and for that we are truly sorry.  We will look at repeating this event in the near future.

The Acute Cardiac Care course will run from 19th to 23rd October, again with reduced numbers. To partially overcome the limited class numbers a second course for undergraduate students only has been scheduled for November, and this also is full.  When we finalise the 2021 schedule it will include additional courses early in the year while students are on the semester break.

Meantime, stay safe everyone please.  We cannot let our guard down too soon with this pandemic or there will be a huge cost for our impatience.

Covid19 continues to rule all our lives for the foreseeable future unfortunately, though we in Queensland have been less restricted than our southern neighbors.  We really feel for those on the border who have far more complications to deal with. The unpalatable truth is that we are not like;y to defeat this virus for some time, even IF a vaccine is developed capable of giving long-term immunity.  Meantime our economy has suffered a terrible blow which will take many years to recover from.

Interesting that vitamin D3 may offer some lessening of the severity of Covid19 infection which is slowly gaining a degree of validity with more and more conservative physicians as the limited trial data is presented.  

Also some better outcomes for those who receive high flow oxygen via nasal prongs rather than positive pressure  ventilation (less trauma to lungs).  Similar result to that previously noted with ARDS patients.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meanwhile is taking full advantage of the Covid19 distraction to further their agenda, which doesn't fare well for Australia (or any other country for that matter). Please be kind and considerate towards our Chinese Australian citizens and visitors; they are not the CCP, and are not deserving of any blame for the actions of that dictatorship.  Our economic recovery will be damaged no doubt due to the deteriorating situation, but may be aided in the long run by the reduction in international trade with China if our manufacturing industry can be resurrected.  It will mean higher prices so we may have to forego non-essential commodities, but I'm sure we will survive.
​
Our video productions have had some success, and we have resumed some events with reduced numbers which has worked OK.

Our plans for New Zealand work late 2020 are going to need a big change due to the restrictions on travel between Australia and New Zealand. It is not going to be feasible to undertake any work across the Tasman until well into 2021, so we may be able to do a few more events at home.  

Keep well everyone until we meet again.

Graham & Anne 

Well, so much for the 2020 plans!
COVID-19 put put a big stick in the spokes of that wheel.
Went OK at first - then middle of March during a lecture tour in New Zealand it all came undone for us.  The remainder of the tour was cancelled and we were initially unable to get back to Australia and looked like becoming unwilling residents of NZ for the duration of the lock down when the travel restrictions were introduced with little warning. Luckily Air New Zealand were allowed another 24 hours of operation and got us home to Australia where we spent two weeks in quarantine.  The time was spent cancelling plans and refunding customers while wondering 'where from here?'

We decided it was time to try our hand at video production, as there was no indication how long it would be before resuming our usual activities. What a steep learning curve! With no previous involvement in this medium it was a matter of starting from scratch. Many failures later and adding a large amount of additional IT gear, Anne is now in production at last. 

There are three videos currently offered for purchase online with more to come. These are for personal viewing only, but commercial licences are planned for the future as well.

Rural and remote nurses who have less opportunities to further education due to travel expense and other restrictions to their attending live education events may find these a big help.

Starting this month we have commenced resumption of some activities and if all goes well we will add to the list of courses for the remainder of the year.

And of course we need to complete the NZ events which were postponed.

Keep safe everyone.

​Graham & Anne

The 2020 schedule of events is ready to publish at last!
We have been so busy this has been on the back-burner for a little while however we finally got time to devote time to the task.

We will be doing all our seminars and workshops as well as courses in our own training room from this point onward.  This has allowed us to reduce the prices as there are no expensive hotel charges to factor into our pricing.  The downside is that space is limited and we can only accommodate a much smaller number of attendees, so events may sell out faster than ideal.  If demand is higher than anticipated we will try to repeat events more often.

​There are few events left this year, but we will be occupied the last half of November doing the cruise to Papua New Guinea for Nurses for Nurses and we hope to see some previous and current clients on the cruise with us.  This will be our first time visiting PNG, and have been assured by the organiser that the ports of call are all safe and an incredible experience, so we are looking forward not only to the cruise but the shore days as well. 

We hope to have some relaxation over the Christmas New Year period, then join a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II around southern Australia and New Zealand. Contact is problematic during the cruises but we do manage to reply to most within a few days when in ports-of-call.  We are out of phone contact during these times so we urge anyone trying to reach us to use email only. 

Early February our courses commence again, then March will see us off to New Zealand again for work, then back to Australia and continue our events here.

We will be sending out a Newsletter shortly with the full list of events to everyone on the mailing list, until then keep smiling!

​Another 10 DAY CRUISE with Anne, but be quick as this is filling quickly and numbers are limited.  Destination is PNG!
EDUCATION AT SEA​ - Recognition and Clinical Assessment of the Deteriorating Patient
19 November - 29 November 2019 - Brisbane to Brisbane visiting Papua New Guinea
P & O Pacific Aria - great little ship, friendly staff and good facilities. We checked it out last December!
Costs: Conference Registration $890.00
Please note: Conference registration does not include accommodation or travel cost.
Bookings:  All bookings for this event are being handled by Education at Sea 
(Travel Direct Australia) Please contact Helen, Jason or Elita on +61 (02) 6674 2577
Cruise bookings contact Nurses for Nurses at 07 4151 3884 or Webpage: 
https://www.nursesfornurses.com.au/events/234/Recognition-and-Clinical-Assessment-of-the-Deteriorating-Patient-PNG

Happy New Year to all!

The old year is almost finished and a New Year is about to begin, so time to add to this blog.

We have had a little time to relax in the lead up to 2019, and time for reading and researching the latest developments in health, or should that be ill-health?

The statin drug debate continues but the conclusions are becoming more clear-cut in spite of resistance to new knowledge by those who really need to adjust their attitude to the issue.

We have come across this most interesting video from the Australian Broadcast Commission (ABC) which is several years old but summerises the issue very clearly.

Then we found the second video highlighting the the outcome of this program for the presenter where she tells about the response from opponents to the truth; very scary!

We urge you to watch and perhaps it will help you personally if you or your family members are in any way affected.  But please don't expect to be able to have any impact in your clinical practice for the current guidelines are hopelessly behind the times and unlikely to change any time soon in the face of such opposition. Keep safe!

Saturated Fat & Cholesterol Documentary -  https://youtu.be/1pfGTBXkq3g

The resulting response is explained by Dr. Maryanne Demasi in her address - 'Statin Wars: Have we been misled by the evidence?' -   https://youtu.be/BzTjPuikhQE

If these two videos wet your appetite, take a look at the video on the work of Dr Robert Lustig, an dietary expert and endocrinologist who works in a clinic for obese children as he explains what the real cause of health problems is (and it is NOT saturated fats, or gluttony as we are frequently being told). 
Sweet Revenge Turning the Tables on Processed Food - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z-_6JgMiwA

​

We are currently working in New Zealand; a very busy lecture tour which runs until beginning of October.  While Anne is busy lecturing, I find some time for research.  This is what has prompted me to add some enlightening articles to the blog for this month. I would urge all our valuable clients to take the time to read the attached by Dr George Lundberg, then follow the link to another article that presents supporting evidence by Dr Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con and Doctoring Data.
​
These eminent gentlemen have taken off the blinkers and dared to go against the prevailing dogma concerning nutrition and the obesity epidemic.

It may be of personal help to you if you struggle with weight control, and to your families if they too have been influenced by the blatantly inaccurate recommendations formulated by food producers and supported by our "health authorities". 

These doctors are not crackpots, they are far from it. They are both very well informed health professionals that can benefit us all with their wisdom

​https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2018/07/03/why-saturated-fat-cannot-raise-cholesterol-levels-ldl-levels/

This is a bit heavy, but you will soon understand what he is pointing out, and how it relates to the current  dietary recommendations and modalities of treatment for some diseases. 

This interesting article has appeared in Medscape recently.  Thought provoking if we have elderly family who have a raft of health complaints and are on statins - often with no justification!
​

It is not like us to do another post so soon after the last one, but this news cannot be delayed.

Something totally new to us is planed for 23 February - 5 March 2019 when Anne will be doing a cruise on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas from Melbourne to Sydney via New Zealand, a ten-day cruise where Anne will be presenting the seminar 'Recognition and Clinical Assessment of the Deteriorating Patient' for Nurses for Nurses Limited  who arrange regular Education at Sea events for nurses who want to enjoy a cruise holiday combined with professional development credits. Graham will be along to carry the bags.
This promises to be be an enjoyable and interesting time for all who are able to join us on this cruise, as presentations are held on sea days only so you will be able to enjoy all the ports visited on the cruise which include the sounds, Dunedin, Akaroa, Wellington and Picton. 

When not attending sea day presentations there are so many other activities on board you will be spoilt for choices; you simply can't do everything.  And for those less energetic there are wonderful places to relax or enjoy the spa.  And the evening entertainment is first class. I won't even mention the food, but expect to gain weight unless you exercise some restraint, or increase your exercise greatly in the on-board gym, or walking the decks.

If you want to travel with family that is also an option some may like to consider, but lone travel with like-minded nurses will ensure this is a great experience for lone travellers also.

A really great opportunity which promises to be a memorable occasion for all participants. To find out more go to this link:  https://www.nursesfornurses.com.au/events/220/

We will not be handling the bookings for this event, which are being managed through Education at Sea (Travel Direct Australia) Please contact Helen, Jason or Elita on +61 (02) 6674 2577

Do join us - it will be a wonderful educational event and enjoyable holiday combined, with possible tax breaks.

Recently we have been involved in a restructuring of our business which will mean that we no longer are associated with OSCA Health Education with whom we have in the past worked in collaboration with to deliver several courses; the ALS, Acute Complex Care and Acute Cardiac Care.

With the conclusion of this arrangement we will in future be conducting the Acute Cardiac Care Course, and Adult Advanced Life Support courses, but not the Acute Complex Care Course.

Anne Evans-Murray will remain as our primary lecturer, with occasional assistance from several  very experienced health professionals.

We are happy to announce that we will be reviewing the prices of some courses with the hope of making them more affordable for our clients.

Our New Zealand business continues to be very active and to put increasing demands on our time which means we are absent from Australian for long periods several times each year as we complete lecture tours 'across  the ditch'.  During these periods contact can be a bit more difficult, but we do our very best to maintain the lines of communication.  The preferred method is email as we so often cannot accept phone contact while busy at seminars, or out of range. We can usually reply to emails within 24 hours.

Easter is almost here, as are the Commonwealth Games.  As we live close to the athletes village it will be almost impossible for us to operate during the games we have been advised, so we will be moving our activities to New Zealand during that period, and for several weeks afterwards to avoid the inconvenience.

For those of you who will be staying on the Gold Coast with plans to be involved in the games we hope you have an enjoyable time and are blessed with fine weather. By the time we get back to Australia autumn will be well established with much cooler weather, but we will be acclimatised after our time in NZ!

Anne and I wish you and your families all the very best for a happy and safe festive season and thank you for your patronage in the previous year.  We hope to see many of you in the coming year.

I have added another article which would seem very timely with the festive season upon us and it's associated anxiety with eating what may be considered unhealthy foods at this time of year.

The attached article will challenge your previous perceptions about what is 'bad fat' as well as clarify the causes of heart disease.  There are many such research papers which have previously been ignored as they failed to support the popular current beliefs, and it is well-worth exploring these as we re-evaluate the reasons for the generally deteriorating health of our populations.

The truth has been out there all along, but suppressed by those with a financial interest in maintaining false perceptions, with little regard for our health. 

Some few months have elapsed since we added anything here.  We have just been too busy to notice the time rushing by.  Several months have been spent looking after the New Zealand business, and upon our return we were thrown into a long list of local courses.  These will conclude mid December at which time we hope to have some down time and catch up on neglected tasks.

One of those tasks is the finishing touches to Anne's new edition of "Chest X-rays Simply" which we hope to do as an ebook for sale on the website.  More about that when it becomes available.

The controversy around the use of statins has become very interesting, and we are following this closely.  We really encourage everyone to take a serious interest in this argument and research the points being raised by many contributors to the subject. Take particular notice of which commentators have a vested interest in either point of view; in other words "follow the money".
The sales of this class of drugs exceeds a trillion dollars annually, so there is a great deal to be lost by drug manufacturers if the case goes against the continued use of statins, which would seem to be a real possibility if some commentators are able to ratify their claims.  Follow this controversy for your own sake and that of your family only; you can do nothing personally about the official stand on the matter in your clinical practice, which will be very slow to change either way as we all know from medical history.

We hope to add some material to assist in your decision making during the coming months when we have more time to devote to the task.

We have reached that time of year when the shopping centres are all playing the latest versions of the old traditional Christmas carols, some of them will please, other will not. 

We take this opportunity to wish you and your families happiness and good health during the festive season.  

This article is taken from July 17th Medscape edition.  It is placed here in the interest of truth.

While we as nurses must comply with official guidelines in our clinical practice we have a right to know if these guidelines are correct or not, and to make personal judgements based on the facts.  

Only then are we able to apply this knowledge to the management of our own lives and that of our families.

The issue of saturated fat consumption has recently become of great interest in many quarters, and I hope this document will shine some valuable light on the issue.  

Regards,

​Graham Murray