Nursing

Having a chronic illness can affect all aspects of your life, particularly if you have long stays in hospital. To help avoid this, our nurses work with you and your doctors to provide support to manage your health needs at home.

We support a range of chronic medical conditions including:

• Cardiac failure
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Stroke
• Respiratory diseases such as asthma
• Leg ulcers and other chronic wounds
• Arthritis and osteoporosis
• A range of other conditions

We can help you to manage your condition and improve your quality of life with services such as:

• Health assessments, for example for pain or falls
• Care planning and coordination of care
• Health and clinical monitoring
• Assistance with medications
• Wound care and other nursing services
• Working alongside your GP or specialist on your care
• Allied health services including physiotherapy or occupational therapy
• Education and support

Living well with diabetes is achievable with support from your doctors and support services. Together, we’ll help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle with the right diet, regular exercise, and monitoring your blood glucose levels.

Our team of nurses and allied health professionals monitor and manage your diabetes, and related health conditions, in the comfort of your own home.

Services include:

• Assessments
• Personalised care plans
• Clinical monitoring
• Assistance with medications such as administering insulin
• Skin integrity checks and prevention
• Wound care including diabetic ulcers
• Compression bandaging and stockings
• Working with your GP or specialist on your care
• Allied health services including dietetics, physiotherapy or podiatry
• Education and support

If you have a wound, ulcer, tracheostomy, or stoma and want to continue living in your own home, our skilled nurses can help by visiting you at home to provide the nursing care you need.

• Assessments for general health, pain and wounds
• Care planning
• Acute wound care such as post-surgery incisions and skin tears
• Skin grafts
• Drains, port-a-cath and PICC management
• Removal of clips and sutures
• Chronic wound care such as leg ulcers, diabetic ulcers, pressure areas and infected wounds
• Compression bandaging and stockings
• Stoma care; assistance with colostomy, ileostomy and urostomy
• Skin integrity checks
• Nasal gastric and PEG care
• Tracheostomy care
• Negative pressure wound therapy management
• Product education and assistance with ordering consumables
• Working with your specialist, GP, dietitian, stomal therapist, and wound clinics

Our nurses are available 7 days a week to ensure that your wounds are treated regularly and you avoid unnecessary stays in hospital. Our services can be used daily, weekly, or monthly as needed, or just for a short time while your wounds heal.

If you suffer from incontinence, we can help you find ways to improve your lifestyle with a range of services delivered in the comfort of your own home.

Our dedicated nurses will speak with you about your symptoms, give you advice on how to improve them, discuss the most suitable continence aids, and provide care for catheters.

Services include:

• Continence assessment
• Bowel management
• Catheter care for in-dwelling or supra-pubic
• Continence aids such as pads and catheters
• Exercises to improve pelvic floor
• Dilatation
• Applications for eligible government subsidies for continence aids
• Education and support

Continence is often a treatable condition with the right support from your doctors and Ozcare. Whether you are experiencing a one-off episode, or need regular care, our nurses can help.

We also provide a kids bed wetting clinic on the Gold Coast and Brisbane South.

It’s not always easy to take your prescribed medication, and not being able to do so can have a large impact on your health.

If you need some support to keep up with your medication, our nurses can:

• Come to your home to administer them
• Give you a reminder phone call if you need help remembering
• Provide training so you can learn how to administer medication yourself

We administer all types of medications including injections, tablets, and creams, and can visit as often as needed, even multiple times a day.

Our medication management services include:

• Medication assessment
• Personalised care planning
• Visits to your home as often as required
• Administering all types of medication
• Health monitoring and pain management
• Phone prompting service
• Working with your GP and pharmacist
• Training and support so you can self-manage medications

Our services are flexible and can be changed as your needs change. Whether you need help for a short time while recovering from illness or daily care into the future, Ozcare can help.

If you have a terminal illness, you may decide that you would prefer to go home rather than staying in hospital.

Our palliative care services can provide complex nursing care, personal care, and support 24-hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure you receive quality care in the comfort of your own home.

To make sure you remain comfortable and free from pain, we provide:

• Medication and pain management including syringe drivers, ongoing monitoring and support
• Assessment and care planning
• Symptom management for comfort
• Wound and stoma care
• Managing drains
• Skin integrity and pressure area
• Personal care such as bathing and grooming
• Psychological and spiritual support
• Education and support for you and your family
• Working with other palliative care services and your GP

Services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

For over 20 years Ozcare has provided immunisation services to Queensland workplaces and schools, protecting employees, students and businesses against a variety of illnesses and the latest flu strains. Vaccinations can be delivered individually or packaged together and delivered at one clinic.

Influenza (flu)

Keep your employees and students healthy by immunising them annually against the latest flu strains.

New flu vaccines are made available in February/March each year and we offer clinics from March onwards. Vaccination is most effective in the months leading up to winter; March to June. We service most regions in Queensland from the Gold Coast to Brisbane and Far North Queensland.

Our immunisation nurses conduct the programs with minimal disruption to your school or business with in-house clinics.

Why it’s so important to protect against flu:

• Flu strains change every year so annual immunisation is necessary
• The flu is highly contagious and one sneeze can spread the flu up to a metre
• The flu is more serious than a cold and can take weeks to recover
• Companies that don’t vaccinate face increased absences and decreased productivity
• Fit and healthy people are also at risk

Find out more about influenza and the vaccines on the Australian Government’s Department of Health website.

Other Vaccinations

We offer in-house clinics in schools and workplaces to protect against a range of bacterial and viral diseases. Our qualified immunisation nurses can provide children and adults with the following vaccinations, which can be delivered on their own or with others:

• Tetanus
• Diphtheria
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Poliomyelitis
• Hepatitis A & B
• Human papillomavirus (HPV)
• Measles
• Mumps
• Rubella
• Varicella
• Meningococcal
• Influenza (flu)

Vaccination not only protects people against bacterial and viral diseases, it also helps others by minimising the spread of infection.

We can provide private nursing care for people needing additional support following discharge from hospital.

Community nursing provides nursing and personal care services in your home for Gold or White Card holders.

If you are a Gold Card holder with high level personal care needs, identified by a Local Medical Officer, DVA will pay for your clinical nursing services. If you are a White Card holder, the condition requiring nursing must also be an accepted disability.

Read more on the DVA website about Community Nursing.