Changes take medication from carer's hands

A new care model at Sundale will remove responsibility from carers for distributing medication and place it solely on enrolled and registered nurses.

Sundale CEO Danielle Mackenzie is looking forward to leading the organisation in a new direction. Picture: Patrick Woods

A NEW care model at Sundale will remove responsibility from carers for distributing medication and place it solely on enrolled and registered nurses.

The move is part of a range of changes at the community institution started more than half a century ago.

CEO Danielle Mackenzie said Sundale would would increase its coverage of registered nurses and enrolled nurses.

"This will enable our carers to concentrate on what theydo best whilst ensuring our clinical staff are utilising their training whilst also monitoring and observing our elders more closely," Ms Mackenzie said.

She said no carer roles would be affected by the change.

"We have a new nurse educator in place and we will be expanding our learning and development team and introducing initiatives to assist with our clinical development in the future."

Sundale currently offers 448 care centre beds and 303 independent living units across its Nambour, Kilcoy, Palmwoods, Coolum and Boyne Island bases.

A new Tewantin base where construction is due to start in the New Year will offer 60 care studios and 80 independent living units when it is completed.

The Nambour base will be redeveloped over the coming decade to provide up to 600 homes.

Construction on that is due to start towards the end of next year.

Ms Mackenzie said the new direction at Sundale was about looking at its point of difference in the community and ensuring the organisation was a great place to work.

She said community was Sundale's point of difference from other providers.

"We are very much aligned to the community so that is not changing.

"It is just making sure that we have go really good governance, the right people in the right roles and a really savvy management team that can really support the vision of the organisation and work really closely with the board to achieve that."

Ms Mackenzie also said Sundale welcomed the decision to establishment of a royal commission into the aged care sector.

"Any investigation that highlights best practice and weeds out abuse and non-compliance across the sector has my full-support.

She said she sent a letter to all residents and their families when the Royal Commission was announced to reassure them what Sundale was committed to.

"It's about how we approach it and look at it and learn from it and incorporate different opinions and feedback."

Originally published as Changes take medication from carer's hands