Australia

Strengthening Human Resources for Adolescent Health in Sri Lanka through Health and Education Sector Collaboration

This study found that intersectoral collaboration would ensure effiecient use of current health care workforce to improve the provision of health services and information to adolescents. [adapted from author]

Nourishing Networks: An Interprofessional Learning Model and Its Application to the Australian Rural Health Workforce

This article describes a model for interprofessional learning developed to address the barriers related to the delivery of interprofessional education in the rural health setting in Australia across a number of health disciplines. [adapted from abstract]

Retention of the Rural Allied Health Workforce in New South Wales: A Comparison of Public and Private Practitioners

Policy initiatives to improve retention of the rural health workforce have relied primarily on evidence for rural doctors, most of whom practice under a private business model. Much of the literature for rural allied health (AH) workforce focuses on the public sector. This study explores sector differences in factors affecting retention of rural AH professionals. [from abstract]

Survey of Resilience, Burnout, and Tolerance of Uncertainty in Australian General Practice Registars

The objective of this study was to measure resilience, burnout, compassion satisfaction, personal meaning in patient care and intolerance of uncertainty in Australian general practice registrars. [from abstract]

Physiotherapy eSkills Training Online Resource Improves Performance of Practical Skills: A Controlled Trial

The aim of this study was to determine whether the an online eLearning resource in addition to usual teaching improved the performance of practical skills in physiotherapy students. [adapted from abstract]

Stakeholder Perceptions of a Nurse Led Walk-In Centre

This study aimed to ascertain the views of key stakeholders on the introduction of a nurse led primary care walk-in center in a rural region of Australia that aimed to fulfill an unmet health care need in the community due to the shortage of general practitioners, meet projected demand for health care services and relieve pressure on the hospital system. [adapted from abstract[

Method for Developing Standardised Interactive Education for Complex Clinical Guidelines

The aim of this study was to transform the Clinical Practice Guideline for Perinatal Mortality into an education workshop to develop quality standardised interactive education acceptable to participants for learning skills in collaborative interprofessional care. [adapted from abstract]

Assessing Fitness to Practice of Overseas-Trained Health Practitioners by Australian Registration and Accreditation Bodies

Assessment of fitness-to-practice of health professionals trained overseas and who wish to practice in Australia is undertaken by a range of organisations. The purpose of the current paper is to investigate the methods of assessment used by these organisations and the issues associated with conducting these assessments. [from abstract]

Enhanced Maternal and Child Health Nurse Care for Women Experiencing Intimate Partner/Family Violence: Protocol for MOVE, a Cluster Randomised Trial of Screening and Referral in Primary Health Care

This protocol describes the development and design of MOVE, a study to examine intimate partner violence screening effectiveness for nurses and the sustainability of screening practice. [adapted from abstract]

Integrating a Pharmacist into the General Practice Environment: Opinions of Pharmacists, General Practioners, Health Care Consumers, and Practice Managers

Pharmacists are viewed as highly trained yet underutilised and there is growing support to extend the role of the pharmacist within the primary health care sector. This study aimed to describe the opinions of local stakeholders in South-East Queensland on the integration of a pharmacist into the Australian general practice environment. [from abstract]

Workplace Violence in a Large Correctional Health Service in New South Wales, Australia: A Retrospective Review of Incident Mangement Records

This study aimed to describe the patterns, severity and outcomes of incidents of workplace violence among employees of a large correctional health service, and to explore the help-seeking behaviours of staff following an incident. [from abstract]

Exploration of the Role of Pharmacists within General Practice Clinics: The Protocol for the Pharmacists in Practice Study (PIPS)

The aim of this study is to develop and test a multifaceted practice pharmacist role in primary care practices to improve the quality use of medicines by patients and clinic staff. [from abstract]

Challenges Confronting Clinicians in Rural Acute Care Settings: A Participatory Research Project

The major aims of this study were to better understand the challenges faced by rural acute care clinicians and the impact of these challenges on their capacity to carry out their roles. A secondary aim was to explore and prioritise strategies to address selected challenges. [from introduction]

Issues Affecting Therapist Workforce and Service Delivery in the Disability Sector in Rural and Remote New South Wales, Australia: Perspectives of Policy-Makers, Managers and Senior Therapist

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of therapist workforce and service delivery in the disability sector in rural and remote Australia. The aim was to investigate issues of importance to policy-makers, managers and therapists providing services to people with disabilities in rural and remote areas. [from abstract]

Retention of Allied Health Professionals in Rural New South Wales: A Thematic Analysis of Focus Group Discussions

This study aims to identify aspects of recruitment and retention of rural allied health professionals using qualitative methodology to establish the motives and conditions that encourage allied health professionals to practice rurally. [from abstract]

Experiences of Community Pharmacists Involved in the Delivery of a Specialist Asthma Service in Australia

This paper reports pharmacists’ feedback as providers of a pharmacy asthma management service, a trial coordinated across four academic research centres in Australia. [from abstract]

Retaining Older Experienced Nurses in the Northern Territory of Australia: A Qualitative Study Exploring Opportunities for Post-Retirement Contributions

Many countries are facing an ageing of the nursing workforce and increasing workforce shortages. This article reports findings from a qualitative study of 15 participants who explored perceived opportunities for and barriers to implementing flexible strategies to engage older nurses in the workforce after they resign from full-time work. [adapted from abstract}

Medical Students on Long-Term Regional and Rural Placements: What is the Financial Cost to Supervisors?

Medical student education is perceived as utilising significant amounts of preceptors’ time, negatively impacting on clinical productivity. This study triangulated practice financial data with the perspectives of clinical supervisors before and after regional/rural longitudinal integrated community-based placements of medical students to determine at what point students become financially beneficial to a practice. [adapted from abstract]

Extending the Paramedic Role in Rural Australia: A Story of Flexibility and Innovation

This article identifies trends in the evolving practice of rural paramedics and describes key characteristics, roles and expected outcomes for a rural expanded scope of practice model. The study found that paramedics are increasingly becoming first line primary healthcare providers in small rural communities and developing additional professional responsibilities throughout the cycle of care. [from abstract]

Four-Year, Systems-Wide Intervention Promoting Interprofessional Collaboration

This article evaluated a four-year action research study across the Australian Capital Territory health system to strengthen interprofessional collaboration though multiple intervention activities. [from abstract]

Rural Mental Health Workforce Difficulties: A Management Perspective

This study sought to contribute to the development of a more sustainable and effective regional mental health workforce by complementing earlier research on common factors in health workforce difficulties with those of leading administrators, managers and senior clinicians in the field. [from abstract]

Rural Origin Plus a Rural Clinical School Placement is a Significant Predictor of Medical Students' Intentions to Practice Rurally: A Multi-University Study

The aim of this study is to identify and assess factors affecting preference for future rural practice among medical students participating in the Australian Rural Clinical Schools Program. [from abstract]

Is Health Workforce Sustainability in Australia and New Zealand a Realistic Goal?

This paper assesses what health workforce sustainability might mean for Australia and New Zealand, given the policy direction set out in the World Health Organization draft code on international recruitment of health workers. [from abstract]

Bright Future for Rural Health: Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Rural and Remote Australian Health Care

These case studies from accross Austraila show how rural and remote health professionals are making a difference locally and give insights, approaches and solutions to similar challenges or problems faced elsewhere. Evaluated solutions for many pressing health issues are presented as well as two big policy issues: building sustainable rural primary health care services, and responding to an ageing health workforce. [adapted from foreword]

Textbook of Australian Rural Health

This text describes how rural health professionals and rural communities are currently working towards healthy communities. Significant rural issues are analysed with regard to professional practice and personal lifestyles, as well as how these issues could be addressed by innovative future practice or how they present challenges for learning or teaching. [adapted from author]

Access to General Practitioner Services amongst Underserved Australians: A Microsimulation Study

This paper aims to examine equity of utilisation of general practitioner services in Australia, particularly those living in remote or rural areas. [from abstract]

Effectiveness of an Intervention in Increasing Community Health Clinician Provision of Preventive Care: A Study Protocol of a Non-Randomised, Multiple-Baseline Trial

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a multi-strategic practice change intervention in increasing clinician’s routine provision of preventive care across a network of community health services. [from abstract]

Using Entrustable Professional Activities to Guide Curriculum Development in Psychiatry Training

Clinical activities that trainees can be trusted to perform with minimal or no supervision have been labelled as Entrustable Professional Activities. The authors sought to examine what activities could be entrusted to psychiatry trainees in their first year of specialist training. [from abstract]

How Much Time Do Nurses Have for Patients? A Longitudinal Study Quantifying Hospital Nurses' Patterns of Task Time Distribution and Interactions with Health Professionals

This article aimed to quantify how nurses distribute their time across tasks, with patients, in individual tasks, and engagement with other health care providers; and how work patterns changed over a two year period.

Aboriginal Health Workers: An Illustrative Example of Workforce Substitution

This presentation was part of the University of New South Wales’ short course on managing human resources for health. It outlines an attempt to create a new form of health workforce to not only fill a gap but to deliver services better than traditional health professionals. [adapted from author]