| Type | Charity |
|---|---|
| Industry | Nursing/Healthcare |
| Founded | 1885 |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
| Website | http://www.rdns.com.au |
RDNS is a not-for-profit charity in Australia which provides home nursing and healthcare to people throughout metro Melbourne, parts of regional Victoria, NSW and Auckland, New Zealand. Founded in 1885, the organisation (formerly known as Melbourne District Nursing Society) began with a single nurse who trekked on foot to provide people with nursing care in the home.[1]
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RDNS’ official vision statement is "To be the provider of choice for home and community nursing and healthcare services."[2]
Operating from 20 centres in metro Melbourne, parts of regional Victoria, NSW and NZ, RDNS is currently the largest and oldest provider of home nursing services in Australia covering the areas of:
Metro Melbourne: Altona, Berwick, Box Hill, Camberwell, Caulfield, Diamond Valley, Essendon, Frankston, Hartwell, Heidelberg, Kew, Knox, Lilydale, Moreland, Moorabbin, Rosebud, Springvale, Sunshine, Yarra.[3]
Regional Victoria: Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Albury/Wodonga
NSW: various areas of Sydney
New Zealand: Auckland
The RDNS organisation comprises a Board of Directors, a Chief Executive Officer and other department functions including:
Over 1,600 staff work at RDNS, of which 1,200 are district nurses. RDNS nurses make over 1.5 million client visits, deliver over 550,000 hours of direct care and travel over 8.2 million kilometres to provide home based nursing care to more than 35,000 clients each year.[4]
The organisation also aims to help Melbourne's homeless via its Homeless Person's Program. The program provides "...holistic healthcare to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless,"[5] and also provides a private nursing service through RALLY Healthcare.[6]
As a result of the mobile nature of RDNS’ business, the number of clients and the geographical spread of its workforce, RDNS nurses use mobile computers that serve them as a vital communications tool. The devices use intuitive interfaces, wireless connectivity, applications that integrate with nurses’ work priorities and the ability to access and transfer real-time data. The mobile computers have significantly reduce the need for paper-based administration, enabling RDNS nurses to spend more time on nursing practice.[7]
The Melbourne District Nursing Society began in 1885 with a single nurse visiting the homes of the sick and poor to provide compassionate nursing care. With no other nursing service of its kind, support for the newfound form of healthcare grew. As a result, by 1892, more staff were employed to cope with demands and the organisation implemented its own midwifery service.[8]
By 1906, the organisation had extended its healthcare service to the outer suburbs of Melbourne and employed the use of bicycles to efficiently travel around the city. This form of transportation enabled district nurses to reach more clients, more quickly over a wider geographical area.[8]
The Great War saw the onset of 1919 influenza epidemic and placed increasing pressure on the organisation to service more and more clientele. To expedite the amount of clients treated, the organisation invested in its first motor car, which would later become an integral identifier of the modern-day RDNS brand.[8]
Following the opening of an aftercare hospital in 1926, the organisation extended its care to mothers and infants by opening Melbourne's first "Well baby clinic", which later became a motivating factor in the development of Victoria's first family planning clinic.[8]
Like the Great War, World War II increased the demand for services and the organisation's type of clientele soon became anyone who had a genuine nursing need regardless of age, condition or circumstance. With the expanded need for services, the organisation decentralised its business by opening its first suburban centre in Camberwell.[9]
In the 1980s, RDNS began to provide post-acute care treatments for HIV/AIDS, cystic fibrosis and other chronic treatments, care which had previously been confined to hospitals but could now be now be administered in the home.[1][8]
Demand for RDNS’ serviced continued to grow throughout the 1990s and beyond. The year of 2007 had seen the largest number of home nursing visits ever provided since the organisation began in 1885. Reasons for this include shorter hospital patient stays, increased day surgery procedures, better technology, an ageing population and a preference by people to receive nursing care at home. To cope with this demand, RDNS operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.[8][10]
RDNS provides a 24 hour home nursing and healthcare service to the people of Melbourne, parts of regional Victoria, NSW and Auckland, New Zealand. The organisation aims to improve the health conditions of clients with tailored nursing care, whilst enabling them to remain independent in the comfort and privacy of their own home. RDNS provides the following nursing and healthcare services:[11]
In 1998, RDNS launched its own private wing of service called RALLY Healthcare. RALLY Healthcare provide nursing care from any location, whether it be an aged care facility, a workplace or even a school. It was devised as a way of responding to the vastly changing heathcare needs of today's Melbourne Community.[12]
In March 2008, RDNS officially opened its Customer Service Centre in Hartwell, Melbourne. The premise behind the Customer Service Centre, was to ensure that anyone who contacts RDNS will every time receive a consistent response from professional staff who will determine their specific need and transfer their enquiry to an appropriate RDNS centre.[13]
Since its trial in 2005, the Customer Service Centre has grown to approximately 80 staff, has its own dedicated 1300 telephone numbers for clients and refers, takes between 600-800 calls per day and processes approximately 3000 referrals per month.[13]
RDNS’ Homeless Persons Program (HPP) aims to provides holistic healthcare to Melbourne's homeless community. Staff who work in this program are specialised in working with homeless and marginalised people. Primarily, RDNS nurses who work with the homeless community help these groups by:
HPP's annual Where the Heart is community festival celebrates the skills and attributes of the homeless and marginalised people in the Melbourne community.[15] The festival is run by volunteers and includes a free lunch, live music, arts, youth activities and a grooming service for attendees.[15]
RDNS upholds a commitment to cultural diversity. The organisation's client base covers 148 different countries and speaks as many as 25 different languages.[16]
To meet the communication and healthcare needs of such a diverse group, RDNS has 25 multicultural resource staff in operation.[16] The staff, who mostly consist of multidisciplinary nurses, uphold RDNS’ commitment to meet its culturally diverse market by developing 19 workplace language manuals and kits, as well as developing client consent forms in other languages.[16]
In 2011 RDNS launched a Greek talking book, Information on Diabetes in Greek. This is a new interactive multi-media tool that can be viewed on a computer to help clients better understand and manage their condition.
Like any book, the presentation is split into different chapters, each dealing with a specific aspect of diabetes. The book uses simple information sheets and short case studies and role-plays in easy to understand terms.
Most importantly, all information is provided in Greek, with the option of English translations if clients require it.
People have the choice of reading the information on screen, listening to it and hearing stories about how other members of the Greek community successfully manage their diabetes.
In 1994, RDNS commenced its Strategic Information Systems Plan (SISP). The mobile, real-time computerised communications system has enabled RDNS nurses to communicate more effectively with their respective centres and the RDNS organisation by improving data integrity, information storage and record keeping efficiency. The Mobile Computer Project has also reduced documentation preparation thereby increasing and improving the care provided to thousands of people each year.[17]
RDNS has received position recognition for its Mobile Computer Project. In 2003, the Celebrating Melbourne Awards awarded RDNS Digital Innovation recognition[17] and in 2007, RDNS becaome a State Category Winner for Information Technology for its "Mobile Computer Device Refresh Programme" project at the AIPM Victorian Chapter Awards.[18]