Australia

Examining the Communication Effects of Health Campaigns: A Case Study Using Find Thirty Every Day® in Western Australia

The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between campaign awareness and four socio-cognitive variables on changes in physical activity levels among a cohort of adults exposed to a physical activity campaign. Find Thirty every day® was a population-wide, serial mass media campaign delivered in Western Australia. [from abstract]

More is More in Remote Central Australia: More Provision of Primary Healthcare Services is Associated with More Acute Medical Evacuations and More Remote Telephone Consultations

This study investigated whether increased numbers of primary healthcare clinical consultations in Indigenous communities in some remote areas of Australia are associated with the reduced need for urgent medical evacuations and remote telephone consultations. [from abstract]

Does More Equitable Governance Lead to More Equitable Health Care? A Case Study Based on the Implementation of Health Reform in Aboriginal Health Australia

There is growing evidence that providing increased voice to vulnerable or disenfranchised populations is important to improving health equity. In this paper we will examine the engagement of Aboriginal community members and community controlled organisations in local governance reforms associated with the Aboriginal Health National Partnership Agreements (AHNPA) in Australia and its impact on the uptake of health assessments. [from abstract]

Empirical impact evaluation of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in Australia, Canada, UK and USA.

The active recruitment of health workers from developing countries to developed countries has become a major threat to global health. In an effort to manage this migration, the 63rd World Health Assembly adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in May 2010. While the Code has been lauded as the first globally-applicable regulatory framework for health worker recruitment, its impact has yet to be evaluated.

Nursing Churn and Turnover in Australian Hospitals: Nurses Perceptions and Suggestions for Supportive Strategies

This study aimed to reveal nurses’ experiences and perceptions of turnover in Australian hospitals and identify strategies to improve retention, performance and job satisfaction. [from abstract]

A National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services: Guide for Practitioners and Providers

This document is a guide for mental health practitioners and services to Australia’s national framework for recovery-oriented mental health services. It provides definitions for the concepts of recovery and lived experience. It describes the practice domains and key capabilities necessary for the mental health workforce to function in accordance with recovery-oriented principles.

A National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services: Policy and Theory

This background paper is a summary of the research and policy that underpins Australia’s national framework for recovery-oriented mental health services.It provides an overview and definition of the concepts of recovery and lived experience. It outlines the policy context for a move to recovery-oriented approaches and cites relevant research. It briefly describes the practice domains and key capabilities necessary for recovery-oriented practice and service delivery. [from introduction]

Right Time, Right Place: Improving Access to Health Service Through Effective Retention and Distribution of Health Workers

This series draws from studies in a range of countries and provides new insights into what can be done to improve access to health through more effective human resources policies, planning and management. The primary focus is on health workforce distribution and retention. [from abstract]

Violence Against Health Workers

he tragic and excessive attack on a doctor at the Western Hospital in Australia in February has brought the issue of violence in health care settings back into the spotlight, writes the magazine of the Australian Medical Association (Victoria). This latest attack serves as a stark reminder of the unacceptable risks health care workers are exposed to just by turning up to work each day, with emergency departments in particular described in recent times as ‘war zones’. [from summary]

Rural Allied Health Scholarships: Do They Make a Difference?

Specifically this study aimed to examine the profile of the QHRSS-AH recipients from 2000 to 2010 including graduate recruitment outcomes and retention within the scholarship program. It also explored the influence of the QHRSS-AH on early career practice location decisions and the features of the scheme that influenced motivation to be involved as either a scholarship holder or manager, perceived barriers to employment of scholarship holders in rural or remote services, experiences of scholarship holders as new graduates in rural and remote services and views on support requirements.

Effectiveness of an Aged Care Specific Leadership and Management Program on Workforce, Work Environment, and Care Quality Outcomes: Design of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

This paper describes the study design of the cluster randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of an aged care clinical leadership program developed to improve managers’ leadership capacities to support the delivery of quality care in Australia. [adapted from abstract]

Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing the Impact of Access to Clinical Endocrinology Video Demonstrations with Access to Usual Revision Resources on Medical Student Performance and Clinical Endocrinology Skills

The aim of this study was to determine the value of on-demand video-based training for clinical skills acquisition by medical students in endocrinology in comparison to traditional revision materials. [adapted from abstract]

Assessment of Junior Doctor Performance: A Validation Study

This paper reports on a validation study of an assessment tool for junior doctors to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument and to explore the effect of length of experience as a first year post-graduate on assessment scores. [adapted from author]

Impact of Nurse Practitioners on Care Delivery in the Emergency Department: A Multiple Perspectives Qualitative Study

This study aimed to investigate the perceived impact of the nurse practitioner on the delivery of care in the emergency department by senior doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners. Results will facilitate adoption and best use of this human resource innovation. [from abstract]

General Practitioner (Family Physician) Workforce in Australia: Comparing Geographic Data from Surveys, a Mailing List and Medicare

The authors aimed to assess the extent of association or agreement between different spatially explicit nationwide general practitioner (GP) workforce data sets in Australia to identify any disagreements that would imply differential relationships with primary healthcare relevant outcomes with different data sets. The study also enumerates these associations across categories of rurality or remoteness. [adapted from abstract]

Experiences of Non-Resident Nurses in Australia's Remote Northern Territory

The purpose of this research was to assess the extent to which the use of non-resident labor in the health sector, specifically non-resident nurses, might address the well-known barriers to recruitment and retention of remote health professionals [from author]

Women in the Rural Medical Academic Workforce

This study assessed the role of women as fractional full-time equivalent rural academics in the context of significant health workforce shortage and increasing academic demand and concluded that female doctors who are willing to take on part-time work are supporting the rural medical teaching workforce. [adapted from abstract]

Getting Doctors into the Bush: General Practitioners' Preferences for Rural Location

The aim of this study is to examine the preferences of general practitioners (GPs) for rural location using a discrete choice experiment to estimate the probabilities of moving to a rural area, and the size of financial incentives GPs would require to move there. [adapted from abstract]

Screening and Counselling in the Primary Care Setting for Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence (WEAVE): A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

This study assessed whether brief counselling from family doctors trained to respond to women identified through intimate partner violence screening would increase women’s quality of life, safety planning and behavior, and mental health. [from summary]

Adherence to Management Guidelines for Growth Faltering and Anaemia in Remote Dwelling Australian Aboriginal Infants and Barriers to Health Service Delivery

This study describes the adherence to infant guidelines for anaemia and growth faltering by remote health staff and barriers to effective service delivery in remote settings. [from abstract]

Experiences of Australian Humanitarian Workers: A Report on Preparations, Field Work and Returning Home

This study is based on findings of an investigation of the experiences of Australian disaster workers from a range of health-related fields who provided humanitarian relief in disasters, complex emergencies, conflict and post-conflict situations internationally. [from abstract]

Effectiveness of a Brief Educational Workshop Intervention among Primary Care Providers at 6 Months: Uptake of Dental Emergency Supporting Resources

This descriptive study used a validated questionnaire survey instrument to measure the effectiveness of a short multimodal educational intervention in the management of dental emergencies, including education in supporting resources, through the uptake and perceived usefulness of supporting resources at 6 months following the intervention. [adapted from abstract]

Delivery of Preventive Care to Clients of Community Health Services

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of preventive care provided by community health clinicians; the association between client and service characteristics and receipt of care; and acceptability of care in order to inform interventions that facilitate adoption of opportunistic preventive care delivery. [adapted from abstract]

Impact of a Brief Lifestyle Intervention Delivered by Generalist Community Nurses

This research evaluated the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions for clients with risk factors for chronic disease in routine community nursing practice. [adapted from abstract]

Advanced Rural Skills Training: Are Recently Qualified GPs Using Their Procedural Skills?

This study aimed to: describe where general practitioners (GPs) practice in the 5 years after advanced rural skills training; describe the proportion of doctors using their advanced skills; measure doctors’ ratings of the quality of support and how critical the year directly following training is in future career choices; and measure the association between support and use of advanced skills. [from abstract]

Immersing Undergraduates into an Interprofessional Longitudinal Rural Placement

This article evaluates an Australian program that placed students from different health programs together, in a rural environment, for one or two semesters of the academic year to promote interprofessional learning. [adapted from abstract]

Australia: The Practice Incentives Program (PIP)

The authors evaluate Autstralia’s Practice Incentives Program which aims to encourage continuing improvements in general practice through financial incentives to support quality care, and improve access and health outcomes for patients. [from introduction]

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Supervisors and Non-Supervisors of Allied Health Professional Students

This study sought to characterise the allied health professional (AHP) workforce of the Northern Territory, Australia, in order to understand the influence of student supervision on workload, job satisfaction, and recruitment and retention. [from abstract]

Additional Years of Australian Rural Clinical School Undergraduate Training Is Associated with Rural Practice

The objective of this study was to understand the influence of the number of years spent at an Australian rural clinical school on graduates’ current, preferred current and intended location for rural workforce practice. [from abstract]

Differences in Wage Rates for Males and Females in the Health Sector: A Consideration of Unpaid Overtime to Decompose the Gender Wage Gap

The negative impact of gender wage differentials is the disincentive to work more hours. This implies a substantial cost on the Australian health sector. This study aimed to identify the magnitude of gender wage differentials within the health sector. [from abstract]