To the Editor: Recruitment and retention of a sustainable rural health workforce was one of four ... more To the Editor: Recruitment and retention of a sustainable rural health workforce was one of four issues highlighted by Osborne in a recent MJA supplement.1 Chapter 4 of the Supplement describes a need for longitudinal methods to evaluate recruitment and retention of nursing and allied health professionals, noting challenges around scale and links to policy.2 Comparative efforts examining the medical workforce in Australia are more advanced (eg, the Medical Schools Outcomes Database). Chapter 5 concludes there is a need for a longitudinal, linked database to address rural workforce planning that utilises public data sources, noting medicine was covered by all primary data sources identified, yet only three covered all health professions.3
Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 2004
This paper describes assessment practices related to discharging elderly patients from Australian... more This paper describes assessment practices related to discharging elderly patients from Australian acute public hospitals. Common assessments were of cognition, continence, wound care, hygiene needs, nutrition, mobility and self-care. Nurses and social workers commonly took non-standardised assessment approaches, whilst therapists were more likely to use published assessment instruments. Patients’ perspectives were rarely incorporated into assessments. The relationship between many common assessment items and patients’ ability to manage safely after discharge from hospital was unclear. The validity of assessment items, the reliability with which assessments were taken, ‘normal’ variability in responses, and interpretation of instrument ‘scores’ with respect to post-discharge independence were rarely considered.This study highlighted the need to consider organisational and professional barriers to good discharge planning practices, the purpose, frequency, validity and accuracy of disc...
Background There is consistent evidence highlighting the mal-distribution of the health workforce... more Background There is consistent evidence highlighting the mal-distribution of the health workforce between urban and rural and remote regions. To date, addressing this mal-distribution has focused on medicine and nursing with limited initiatives targeted at allied health. Therefore, the aim of this research was to explore the enablers of and barriers to transition to rural practice by allied health professionals across South Australia in Australia. Method Qualitative descriptive methodology was used to underpin this research. Individual, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers, managers and allied health professionals from rural regions of South Australia who were identified using purposive maximum variation sampling strategy. Results A total 22 participants shared their perspectives on the enablers of and barriers to transition to rural practice by allied health professionals across South Australia. Thematic analysis of the interview data resulted in a numb...
IntroductionThe health workforce is an integral component of the healthcare system. Comprehensive... more IntroductionThe health workforce is an integral component of the healthcare system. Comprehensive, high-quality data on the health workforce are essential to identifying gaps in health service provision, as well as informing future health workforce and health services planning, and health policy. While many data sources are used in Australia for these purposes, the quality of the data sources with respect to relevance, accessibility and accuracy is not clear.Methods and analysisThis scoping review aims to identify and appraise publicly available data sources describing the Australian health workforce. The review will include any data source (eg, registry, administrative database and survey) or document reporting a data source (eg, journal article, report) on the Australian health workforce, which is publicly available and describes the characteristics of the workforce. The search will be conducted in 10 bibliographic databases and the grey literature using an iterative process. Scre...
Access to quality healthcare services is considered a moral right. However, for people living in ... more Access to quality healthcare services is considered a moral right. However, for people living in regional locations, timely access to the services that they need may not always be possible because of structural and attitudinal barriers. This suggests that people living in regional areas may have unmet healthcare needs. The aim of this research will be to examine the healthcare needs, expectations and experiences of regional South Australians. The Regional South Australia Health (RESONATE) survey is a cross-sectional study of adult health consumers living in any private or non-private dwelling, in any regional, rural, remote or very remote area of South Australia and with an understanding of written English. Data will be collected using a 45-item, multidimensional, self-administered instrument, designed to measure healthcare need, barriers to healthcare access and health service utilisation, attitudes, experiences and satisfaction. The instrument has demonstrated acceptable psychomet...
Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 2016
ABSTRACT Among the recognised strengths of the ‘Sport for Development’ (S4D) framework there is t... more ABSTRACT Among the recognised strengths of the ‘Sport for Development’ (S4D) framework there is the capacity of sport to contribute to positive community networks, education and community participation. However, its relevance to tertiary education institutions is often under-appreciated. In this framework, the Football United® program was recently piloted in South Australia with an innovative approach offering significant opportunities for integration with university activities, including academic, extra-curricular and skill acquisition programs, as well as for community outreach. This approach is based around four key strategic areas of community engagement, student engagement, research and aspirations towards education. It aims to encourage university leadership and participation and it has a focus on awareness and aspirations towards tertiary education in educationally disadvantaged communities. While it is important to address considerations about the meaning of development and the role that sport can play to facilitate it, this paper argues that there is scope for universities to become increasingly involved with the delivery of sport-based social development programs.
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling, 2003
Interwork Limited is an open employment service that aims to maximise participation of individual... more Interwork Limited is an open employment service that aims to maximise participation of individuals in the open labour market. As part of its services Interwork offers a Gazebo Café Program. The aim of this research project was to evaluate the impact of the participation in the Gazebo Café Program (a work preparation and skills training centre), from the perspective of key stakeholders. The rationale for this evaluation was to provide the management team of Interwork with information to inform decision-making for future directions of the Café. The project was undertaken as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy with Honours. In-depth interviews were conducted with three consumers, as well as two focus groups with four employment coordinators, and two referring agency staff members respectively. Analysis of the data revealed seven themes. The results suggested that participation in the Gazebo Café Program was a posi...
Introduction Dementia causes the progressive loss of cognitive capacities and thus impairs social... more Introduction Dementia causes the progressive loss of cognitive capacities and thus impairs social and daily living skills. Dementia, to varying degrees, influences driver performance and safety. Eventually drivers affected by dementia must stop driving so they do not harm themselves or others. However, having to stop driving can result in loss of mobility and social connections. Therefore, assessing drivers with dementia is important. Driving assessment is susceptible to possible biases, including unreliable driving performance measures or driving routes that are inconsistent in the levels of difficulty of the driving tasks and manoeuvres. The aim of the study was to determine what measures of driving performance could optimally be applied to occupational therapy on-road driving assessments. Method All drivers with dementia underwent a 60 minute, set route on-road driving assessment that consisted of 110 pre-programmed observation points. Results The study identified 80 sufficiently...
Australia has been relatively slow in adopting interprofessional learning (IPL) to prepare health... more Australia has been relatively slow in adopting interprofessional learning (IPL) to prepare health professional students for future collaborative professional practice. A collaborative project between two universities placed senior health professional students in IPL teams in rural southeast New South Wales, Australia, to work on small, locally relevant projects with guidance from locally appointed IPL facilitators. This paper reports on the initial stages of an evaluation of this rural-based IPL intervention using the modified Freeth/Kirkpatrick's 4-level evaluation model. Students' responses were collected using a debriefing questionnaire, the Interprofessional Education Perception (IEPS) and Team Performance (TPS) scales. An audience feedback questionnaire was structured around project objectives. Seventy-nine students participated in 33 IPL teams during the evaluation period included in this study. IEPS scores increased with participation (t=2.803; p=0.007). The TPS showe...
Journal of back and musculoskeletal rehabilitation, 2010
This review explores the prevalence and determinants of musculoskeletal disorders in ambulance of... more This review explores the prevalence and determinants of musculoskeletal disorders in ambulance officers, and the limitations of the current epidemiological evidence to inform the development of interventions. Relevant studies were selected using defined word search terms and inclusion criteria. Existing research shows a high annual prevalence of back, neck and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders in ambulance officers and emergency medical technicians, whilst limited research has demonstrated significant associations between individual, physical and psychosocial demands, and musculoskeletal disorders of the low-back and neck-shoulder area. However, methodological issues will need to be addressed in future epidemiological research in order to inform the development of industry specific risk assessment tools that will assist in identifying the complex array of interactive risk factors involved in ambulance work. The accurate identification of risk factors will in turn, better inform the...
The body of knowledge related to driving rehabilitation comes from a variety of professions. Ther... more The body of knowledge related to driving rehabilitation comes from a variety of professions. There is a need for an integrated conceptual framework that combines these theoretical frameworks from various disciplines. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework can integrate concepts from driving frameworks. Ten driving models/frameworks from a variety of professional disciplines were identified through a structured literature search. The concepts of the theoretical models/frameworks are linked to the concepts of the ICF. None of the individual driving models cover all domains of the ICF framework. However, the ICF framework is able to encompass all factors of the driving models/framework, suggesting it can act as an integrative driving framework. Applying the concepts from the driving models to the ICF enhances its ability to explain concepts specific to driving. The ICF adapted to ...
Individuals with undetected stable angina pectoris (SAP) as a consequence of undiagnosed coronary... more Individuals with undetected stable angina pectoris (SAP) as a consequence of undiagnosed coronary artery disease are at high risk of poor quality of life and a premature fatal event (for example, sudden cardiac death out of hospital). If the extent and distribution of SAP are accurately identified at the population level, clinical screening could potentially be targeted and evaluated to optimize the management and secondary prevention of underlying coronary artery disease. Common measures of SAP in populations have important limitations. Measures chosen to identify such cases should reflect their validity as measures of undiagnosed SAP, currently symptomatic angina or lifetime diagnosis of angina.
To the Editor: Recruitment and retention of a sustainable rural health workforce was one of four ... more To the Editor: Recruitment and retention of a sustainable rural health workforce was one of four issues highlighted by Osborne in a recent MJA supplement.1 Chapter 4 of the Supplement describes a need for longitudinal methods to evaluate recruitment and retention of nursing and allied health professionals, noting challenges around scale and links to policy.2 Comparative efforts examining the medical workforce in Australia are more advanced (eg, the Medical Schools Outcomes Database). Chapter 5 concludes there is a need for a longitudinal, linked database to address rural workforce planning that utilises public data sources, noting medicine was covered by all primary data sources identified, yet only three covered all health professions.3
Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 2004
This paper describes assessment practices related to discharging elderly patients from Australian... more This paper describes assessment practices related to discharging elderly patients from Australian acute public hospitals. Common assessments were of cognition, continence, wound care, hygiene needs, nutrition, mobility and self-care. Nurses and social workers commonly took non-standardised assessment approaches, whilst therapists were more likely to use published assessment instruments. Patients’ perspectives were rarely incorporated into assessments. The relationship between many common assessment items and patients’ ability to manage safely after discharge from hospital was unclear. The validity of assessment items, the reliability with which assessments were taken, ‘normal’ variability in responses, and interpretation of instrument ‘scores’ with respect to post-discharge independence were rarely considered.This study highlighted the need to consider organisational and professional barriers to good discharge planning practices, the purpose, frequency, validity and accuracy of disc...
Background There is consistent evidence highlighting the mal-distribution of the health workforce... more Background There is consistent evidence highlighting the mal-distribution of the health workforce between urban and rural and remote regions. To date, addressing this mal-distribution has focused on medicine and nursing with limited initiatives targeted at allied health. Therefore, the aim of this research was to explore the enablers of and barriers to transition to rural practice by allied health professionals across South Australia in Australia. Method Qualitative descriptive methodology was used to underpin this research. Individual, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers, managers and allied health professionals from rural regions of South Australia who were identified using purposive maximum variation sampling strategy. Results A total 22 participants shared their perspectives on the enablers of and barriers to transition to rural practice by allied health professionals across South Australia. Thematic analysis of the interview data resulted in a numb...
IntroductionThe health workforce is an integral component of the healthcare system. Comprehensive... more IntroductionThe health workforce is an integral component of the healthcare system. Comprehensive, high-quality data on the health workforce are essential to identifying gaps in health service provision, as well as informing future health workforce and health services planning, and health policy. While many data sources are used in Australia for these purposes, the quality of the data sources with respect to relevance, accessibility and accuracy is not clear.Methods and analysisThis scoping review aims to identify and appraise publicly available data sources describing the Australian health workforce. The review will include any data source (eg, registry, administrative database and survey) or document reporting a data source (eg, journal article, report) on the Australian health workforce, which is publicly available and describes the characteristics of the workforce. The search will be conducted in 10 bibliographic databases and the grey literature using an iterative process. Scre...
Access to quality healthcare services is considered a moral right. However, for people living in ... more Access to quality healthcare services is considered a moral right. However, for people living in regional locations, timely access to the services that they need may not always be possible because of structural and attitudinal barriers. This suggests that people living in regional areas may have unmet healthcare needs. The aim of this research will be to examine the healthcare needs, expectations and experiences of regional South Australians. The Regional South Australia Health (RESONATE) survey is a cross-sectional study of adult health consumers living in any private or non-private dwelling, in any regional, rural, remote or very remote area of South Australia and with an understanding of written English. Data will be collected using a 45-item, multidimensional, self-administered instrument, designed to measure healthcare need, barriers to healthcare access and health service utilisation, attitudes, experiences and satisfaction. The instrument has demonstrated acceptable psychomet...
Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 2016
ABSTRACT Among the recognised strengths of the ‘Sport for Development’ (S4D) framework there is t... more ABSTRACT Among the recognised strengths of the ‘Sport for Development’ (S4D) framework there is the capacity of sport to contribute to positive community networks, education and community participation. However, its relevance to tertiary education institutions is often under-appreciated. In this framework, the Football United® program was recently piloted in South Australia with an innovative approach offering significant opportunities for integration with university activities, including academic, extra-curricular and skill acquisition programs, as well as for community outreach. This approach is based around four key strategic areas of community engagement, student engagement, research and aspirations towards education. It aims to encourage university leadership and participation and it has a focus on awareness and aspirations towards tertiary education in educationally disadvantaged communities. While it is important to address considerations about the meaning of development and the role that sport can play to facilitate it, this paper argues that there is scope for universities to become increasingly involved with the delivery of sport-based social development programs.
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling, 2003
Interwork Limited is an open employment service that aims to maximise participation of individual... more Interwork Limited is an open employment service that aims to maximise participation of individuals in the open labour market. As part of its services Interwork offers a Gazebo Café Program. The aim of this research project was to evaluate the impact of the participation in the Gazebo Café Program (a work preparation and skills training centre), from the perspective of key stakeholders. The rationale for this evaluation was to provide the management team of Interwork with information to inform decision-making for future directions of the Café. The project was undertaken as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy with Honours. In-depth interviews were conducted with three consumers, as well as two focus groups with four employment coordinators, and two referring agency staff members respectively. Analysis of the data revealed seven themes. The results suggested that participation in the Gazebo Café Program was a posi...
Introduction Dementia causes the progressive loss of cognitive capacities and thus impairs social... more Introduction Dementia causes the progressive loss of cognitive capacities and thus impairs social and daily living skills. Dementia, to varying degrees, influences driver performance and safety. Eventually drivers affected by dementia must stop driving so they do not harm themselves or others. However, having to stop driving can result in loss of mobility and social connections. Therefore, assessing drivers with dementia is important. Driving assessment is susceptible to possible biases, including unreliable driving performance measures or driving routes that are inconsistent in the levels of difficulty of the driving tasks and manoeuvres. The aim of the study was to determine what measures of driving performance could optimally be applied to occupational therapy on-road driving assessments. Method All drivers with dementia underwent a 60 minute, set route on-road driving assessment that consisted of 110 pre-programmed observation points. Results The study identified 80 sufficiently...
Australia has been relatively slow in adopting interprofessional learning (IPL) to prepare health... more Australia has been relatively slow in adopting interprofessional learning (IPL) to prepare health professional students for future collaborative professional practice. A collaborative project between two universities placed senior health professional students in IPL teams in rural southeast New South Wales, Australia, to work on small, locally relevant projects with guidance from locally appointed IPL facilitators. This paper reports on the initial stages of an evaluation of this rural-based IPL intervention using the modified Freeth/Kirkpatrick's 4-level evaluation model. Students' responses were collected using a debriefing questionnaire, the Interprofessional Education Perception (IEPS) and Team Performance (TPS) scales. An audience feedback questionnaire was structured around project objectives. Seventy-nine students participated in 33 IPL teams during the evaluation period included in this study. IEPS scores increased with participation (t=2.803; p=0.007). The TPS showe...
Journal of back and musculoskeletal rehabilitation, 2010
This review explores the prevalence and determinants of musculoskeletal disorders in ambulance of... more This review explores the prevalence and determinants of musculoskeletal disorders in ambulance officers, and the limitations of the current epidemiological evidence to inform the development of interventions. Relevant studies were selected using defined word search terms and inclusion criteria. Existing research shows a high annual prevalence of back, neck and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders in ambulance officers and emergency medical technicians, whilst limited research has demonstrated significant associations between individual, physical and psychosocial demands, and musculoskeletal disorders of the low-back and neck-shoulder area. However, methodological issues will need to be addressed in future epidemiological research in order to inform the development of industry specific risk assessment tools that will assist in identifying the complex array of interactive risk factors involved in ambulance work. The accurate identification of risk factors will in turn, better inform the...
The body of knowledge related to driving rehabilitation comes from a variety of professions. Ther... more The body of knowledge related to driving rehabilitation comes from a variety of professions. There is a need for an integrated conceptual framework that combines these theoretical frameworks from various disciplines. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework can integrate concepts from driving frameworks. Ten driving models/frameworks from a variety of professional disciplines were identified through a structured literature search. The concepts of the theoretical models/frameworks are linked to the concepts of the ICF. None of the individual driving models cover all domains of the ICF framework. However, the ICF framework is able to encompass all factors of the driving models/framework, suggesting it can act as an integrative driving framework. Applying the concepts from the driving models to the ICF enhances its ability to explain concepts specific to driving. The ICF adapted to ...
Individuals with undetected stable angina pectoris (SAP) as a consequence of undiagnosed coronary... more Individuals with undetected stable angina pectoris (SAP) as a consequence of undiagnosed coronary artery disease are at high risk of poor quality of life and a premature fatal event (for example, sudden cardiac death out of hospital). If the extent and distribution of SAP are accurately identified at the population level, clinical screening could potentially be targeted and evaluated to optimize the management and secondary prevention of underlying coronary artery disease. Common measures of SAP in populations have important limitations. Measures chosen to identify such cases should reflect their validity as measures of undiagnosed SAP, currently symptomatic angina or lifetime diagnosis of angina.
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