Mens preconception health, healthy fathers, a practice nurse approach

17^th World Congress on Clinical Nursing & Practice

August 29-30, 2018 | Zurich, Switzerland

Tony O Brien

The University of Newcastle, Australia

Keynote: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

This presentation addresses what practice nurses can do while working with men regarding preconception health improvement to become healthy fathers. Australian men live longer than previous years; however, they have not reached the levels of overall longevity that Australian women enjoy. Men have higher mortality rates for suicide, accidents and injury and higher mortality rates for the leading causes of death; tobacco smoking, hypertension, obesity, inactivity, cholesterol abnormality, and alcohol. Men are also vulnerable to the epigenetic effects on epigenomes that can potentially influence the transgenerational inheritance health of offspring during their lifetime. Australiaâ??s first people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) men, continue to die well before non-indigenous men and also figure highly in mortality statistics for cancer, circulatory system disorders, respiratory disorders and endocrine and metabolic disorders. Wenitong (2002) argues in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men that a tailored indigenous cultural approach is critical to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander menâ??s health. Many of the health problems that occur with indigenous and non-indigenous men are associated with preconception male health including, depression, alcohol abuse, COPD, diabetes and smoking-leading to health priority illnesses. This paper highlights menâ??s preconception health needs in the context of primary health care and what practice nurses can do to promote healthy male preconception behaviour.

Biography :

Tony O’Brien is a Registered Hospital Trained Nurse in Mental Health and General at the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. He has held Nurse Registration in Singapore, New Zealand and United Kingdom and worked as an RN in these countries. He has extensive clinical experience in mental health community case management, acute mental health nursing, mental health intake assessment and aged care. As a nurse academic, he has provided curriculum consultation to nursing groups and universities in Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Brunei and Singapore; including curriculum review and development workshops. He has published over 200 publications including, reports, monographs, book chapters and journal articles. He has been the Lead or Co-investigator on over 40 nursing research projects during his academic career, to a total of over 2 million dollars. His research profile has focused on quality nursing interventions, practice development, service re-design, models of care and translating clinical research to improve the quality of patient care; more recently men’s preconception health.