Spotlight on Nursing for Men’s Health
There are more than 350,000 nurses working in Australia and they play a major role in improving men and boys’ health.
With this in mind, the Australian Men’s Health Forum is hosting an online event for nurses as part of its 2021 Men’s Health Connected online gathering, which runs from 10-14 May.
The Nursing for Men’s Health event on Thursday 13 May brings together nursing practitioners, academics and men’s health specialists to discuss a range of topics across three virtual breakout rooms.
Opening plenary
The day starts with a panel of nursing experts discussing the question: "what role do nurses play in improving men's health?". On the panel are:
- Dr Garth Kendal, Senior Lecturer at the Curtin School of Nursing
- Helen Storer, a Nurse Practitioner and Practice Manager, who also serves on the board of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA)
- Stuart Willder, a nurse practitioner specialising in men's health and urology, who works for the Western District Health Service in Victoria
- John Brown, a clinical nurse consultant
Morning sessions
The morning breakout sessions focus on research into nursing and men's and health; male-friendly nursing projects and career pathways and wellbeing.
Session 1 (Research) champions the importance of nurse-led research and includes presentations by Michael Whitehead, a men's health clinical nurse consultant at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney, Dell Lovett, Chair of the Healthy Male Nurse Reference Group and Kath Schubach, President of the Australian & New Zealand Urology Nurses (ANZUNS).
Sharing their experience of delivering male-friendly nursing projects are Jenny Permezel, Service Delivery Director at the OzHelp Foundation; Peter Strange, a men's health nurse practitioner at Bendigo Community Health Services and Melissa Hadley Barrett, a nurse practitioner at the Restorative Sexual Health Clinic and co-presenter of the Penis Podcast.
Putting the focus on career paths working with men, Craig Millard shares his experience of working as a PCFA Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurse at Mildura Base Hospital. He is joined by two speakers with a strong focus on nurse wellbeing: Glenn Taylor is CEO of the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria and Athol Hann, founder of Fwds, an App developed to protect nurses from burnout.
Afternoon sessions
The afternoon sessions cover a range of topics including men's health issues, prostate cancer and working with new fathers. The prostate cancer session is led by Christoper McNamara, Head of Community Services at the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. He is joined by Brad Butt, founder of the male-friendly pharmacy, Men's Health Down Under, Russell Briggs, Manager of nursing programs at PCFA and Bernie Riley, General Manager of nursing at PCFA.
The new fathers session brings together Emma Cushing, Project Manger of the Focus on New Fathers program for NSW Health; Dr Chris May of the Fathers and Family Research Program at the Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle, Tom Docking, found of Dads Group Inc and Helen Funk, Lead Childbirth Educator at Redcliffe Hospital in Queensland. '
Exploring nursing responses to men's heath issues are Faisal Sabih, Nurse Health Advisory member with Healthy Male, Mal Fraser, Clinical Nurse at the Atherton Community Health and David Health, a men's health nurse who has delivered programs in partnership with the CycleWell men's health program.
Closing plenary
The closing panel of the day asks the question "Are male nurses good for men’s health and gender equity?" Speakers on this panel include Luke Yokota, Chair of the Australian College of Nursing Men In Nursing Working Party; Mark Aitken, Deputy Director at The Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria and Associate Professor Tony McGillion, Professor of Clinical Nursing Practice at the Office of Nursing & Midwifery, La Trobe University.
You can sign up to attend the event for fee at the Men's Health Connected website.
Further reading about men and nursing
Read: Australian College of Nursing seeks to recruit and retain more males
Read: Online Summit turns to men working in caring roles
Read: Should we encourage more men to take on roles traditionally dominated by women?
Read: It’s a man’s world, or is it? What it’s like for men in female-dominated industries