Impact of a work-based feedback intervention on student performance during clinical placements in acute-care healthcare settings: A quasi-experimental protocol for the REMARK programme

Henderson, AJ ORCiD: 0000-0003-0564-3243Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Introduction Current perspectives present feedback as a dynamic, dialogic process. It is widely accepted that feedback can have an impact on workplace performance, however, how dialogic feedback is enacted with the learner in authentic healthcare settings is less apparent. This paper seeks to describe the design and development of an implementation study to promote the learner voice in the feedback process and improve feedback encounters between learners and learning partners in healthcare settings. Methods and analysis A quasi-experimental study design will be used to evaluate whether implementation of a work-based intervention to improve feedback impacts student performance during clinical placements in healthcare settings. Student performance will be measured at three time points: baseline (pre), mid-placement (post-Test 1) and end-placement (post-Test 2) in keeping with standard assessment processes of the participating university. The intervention is underpinned by Normalisation Process Theory and involves a layered design that targets learners and learning partners using best-practice education strategies. Data regarding participants' engagement with feedback during clinical placements and participants' level of adoption of the intervention will be collected at the completion of the clinical placement period. Ethics and dissemination This study has ethics approval from both Griffith University and Metro South Health Human Research and Ethics committees. Dissemination of results will be local, national and international through forums, seminars, conferences and publications. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020

Transitioning to Aboriginal community control of primary health care: The process and strategies of one community-controlled health organisation in Queensland

Mccalman, JR ORCiD: 0000-0002-3022-3980BACKGROUND: Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) play a critical role in providing culturally appropriate, accessible primary healthcare (PHC) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. The success of many ACCHSs has led to increased policy support for their growth and development, including the transition of state government administered PHC services to Aboriginal community control in select communities. However, there is minimal published literature available which evaluates such transitions. This paper reports on an evaluation of one ACCHS (Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service)'s experience of transitioning local PHC services to community control in Yarrabah, Queensland, with a focus on the processes and strategies which were implemented to achieve successful transition. METHODS: Data was collected from interviews with key personnel involved in the transition and organisational documents from the evaluation period. Face-to-face or telephone interviews were conducted with 14 key stakeholders, audio-recorded and transcribed with written consent. Historical organisational documents were provided by Gurriny. All interview transcripts and documents were imported into NVIVO, coded and analysed using grounded theory methods. RESULTS: Gurriny's journey of achieving community control of PHC in Yarrabah entailed an almost 30 year process of building and demonstrating organisational capacity. The first stage (1986 to 2004) was focused on establishing and developing a community-controlled health service and the second stage (2005-14) on preparing for the transition. Formal handover occurred in June 2014. Stage one strategies included: addressing community social and emotional wellbeing; consulting the community; collaborating with researchers; and, strategically building services, organisation capacity and stakeholder trust. Stage two strategies were: communicating and engaging with stakeholders; ensuring strong governance; planning and developing the services and workforce; assuring quality; and, financial planning, management and modelling. CONCLUSION: Achieving successful transition to community control of PHC for Gurriny entailed a lengthy process of substantial, ongoing organisational growth and development. Gurriny's experience provides a framework for both governments and the ACCHS sector to inform future transitions of PHC services to Aboriginal community control

An exploration of goal scoring strategies in an elite beach soccer tournament

Ellison, ER ORCiD: 0000-0002-0865-950X; Guy, JH ORCiD: 0000-0003-3000-2747; Lastella, AM ORCiD: 0000-0003-1793-3811; Scanlan, AT ORCiD: 0000-0002-0750-8697Despite the increasing popularity of beach soccer, few studies have examined goal scoring strategies during match-play. The aims of this study were to examine the different types of goals scored during an international tournament and determine what type of goals were associated with team performance. Twelve national teams were analysed across 52 matches in all phases of the European Beach Soccer League (2018) tournament. Observational data collection was conducted through video analysis of all 422 goals scored throughout the tournament. Chi square analyses revealed a significance difference in the type of goals scored x2 (72) = 102, p = 0.01. Further, the amount of goals scored from a set-play were significantly higher than all other goal scoring strategies (p = 0.001). The amount of goals scored from goalkeeper-line defence were significantly lower than all other goal scoring strategies (p = 0.001). The percentage of goalkeeper-line goals was significantly related to total tournament points [F(2, 10) = 7.242, p = 0.023, R2 = 0.42]. These data indicate that teams employing the goalkeeper-line strategy, where the goalkeeper plays outfield to serve as a numerical advantage, was associated with increases in scoring opportunities and team performance

Development of an airline cabin crew pre-task hazard assessment tool: The identi-fly hazard booklet

Hutton, AK ORCiD: 0000-0003-2690-1811; Klockner, KD ORCiD: 0000-0003-1981-7515Airline cabin crew are exposed to a broad range of hazards and associated risks which can be difficult to manage with any failings leading to grave consequences for both employees, passengers and airline businesses as a whole. Airlines must therefore strive to develop new strategies for the innovative management of hazards and work towards reducing their risks to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). This paper discusses a pilot program to improve a large Australian commercial airline’s management of the hazards faced by cabin crew. It details the introduction of a program for the development, implementation and evaluation of a pre-task identification hazard assessment tool called the ‘Identi-Fly’ booklet. Results indicated that there was an improvement in the hazard identification capabilities of the cabin crew and the program promoted a stronger interdependent safety culture amongst the work group that enabled cabin crew to protect both themselves and others against the major hazards they encounter. The success of the program would appear to assist in improving an airline’s overall safety management objectives whilst also supporting the more holistic objective of the cabin crew department to become incident and injury free

The relationship between alertness and spatial attention under simulated shiftwork

Gupta, CC ORCiD: 0000-0003-2436-3327Higher and lower levels of alertness typically lead to a leftward and rightward bias in attention, respectively. This relationship between alertness and spatial attention potentially has major implications for health and safety. The current study examined alertness and spatial attention under simulated shiftworking conditions. Nineteen healthy right-handed participants (M = 24.6 ± 5.3 years, 11 males) completed a seven-day laboratory based simulated shiftwork study. Measures of alertness (Stanford Sleepiness Scale and Psychomotor Vigilance Task) and spatial attention (Landmark Task and Detection Task) were assessed across the protocol. Detection Task performance revealed slower reaction times and higher omissions of peripheral (compared to central) stimuli, with lowered alertness; suggesting narrowed visuospatial attention and a slight left-sided neglect. There were no associations between alertness and spatial bias on the Landmark Task. Our findings provide tentative evidence for a slight neglect of the left side and a narrowing of attention with lowered alertness. The possibility that one's ability to sufficiently react to information in the periphery and the left-side may be compromised under conditions of lowered alertness highlights the need for future research to better understand the relationship between spatial attention and alertness under shiftworking conditions

Australian schools are closing because of coronavirus, but should they be?

Mude, WW ORCiD: 0000-0003-1961-5681The World Health Organisation overnight declared that the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 is now a pandemic, and called on countries to take “urgent and aggressive action”. The virus has affected more than 113,702 people and resulted into 4,012 deaths globally. At the time of publication, there have been 126 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Australia and three deaths linked to the virus. These numbers are likely to increase

Apple’s iPhone 12 comes without a charger: A smart waste-reduction move, or clever cash grab?

Chugh, R ORCiD: 0000-0003-0061-7206; Cowling, MA ORCiD: 0000-0003-1444-1563Apple has released its new smartphone, the iPhone 12, without an accompanying charger or earbuds. Users have harshly criticised the company for this move and will have to purchase these accessories separately, if needed. While some see it as cost-cutting, or a way for Apple to profit further by forcing customers to buy the products separately, the technology giant said the goal was to reduce its carbon footprint

Corporate psychopathy: Entering the paradox and emerging unscathed

Brooks, NS ORCiD: 0000-0003-1784-099XPsychopathy, the dark triad and related personality disorders may have negative consequences within organisations, individuals and society. There may, however, be positive benefits in terms of creativity and reaction to stressful circumstances and extreme environments. The developing body of research is beginning to address some elements of the paradoxes related to psychopathy. In this chapter, the focus is on both concluding the key themes emerging in the field and moreover, providing guidance for addressing and minimising the exposure to organisational, societal and individual threats that can easily become toxic to those caught in the psychopathic “tangled web”

Pedagogical foundations to online lectures in health professions education

Weber, AD ORCiD: 0000-0002-4797-6428Professional and tertiary health professions education (HPE) has been markedly challenged by the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Mandates for training organisations to reduce social contact during the global pandemic, and make learning available online, provide an opportunity for regional, rural and remote clinicians and students to more easily access learning and professional development opportunities. Online lectures, while posing an opportunity for regional, rural and remote HPE, entail potential risks. Educators who are familiar with face-to-face pedagogies may find a transition to remote, digital interaction unfamiliar, disarming, and therefore they may not design maximally engaging lectures. The strategies used in a face-to-face lecture cannot be directly transferred into the online environment. This article proposes strategies to ensure the ongoing effectiveness, efficiency and engagement of lectures transitioning from face-to-face to online delivery. Cognitive learning theory, strategies to promote learner engagement and minimise distraction, and examples of software affordances to support active learning during the lecture are proposed. This enables lecturers to navigate the challenges of lecturing in an online environment and plan fruitful online lectures during this disruptive time. These suggestions will therefore enable HPE to better meet the existing and future needs of regional, rural and remote learners who may not be able to easily access face-to-face learning upon the relaxation of social distancing measures. Strategies to provide equitable HPE to learners who cannot access plentiful, fast internet are also discussed

Measuring reproductive traits in tropical beef cattle breeds: Implications for genetic evaluation

Corbet, NJ ORCiD: 0000-0002-7468-2177Reproduction in beef cattle herds is a key driver of productivity and profitability of beef enterprises. Improving the efficiency of reproduction is necessary to keep pace with an increasing global demand for animal protein. Grazing lands across northern Australia, however, comprise large areas of relatively lowly productive land-types with hot, dry climates and unpredictable seasonal rainfall. The challenge for many north Australian beef enterprises is to improve reproduction in the tropically adapted beef breeds grazed extensively in these regions. Environmental factors influenced by climate and herd management practices account for a proportion of the variation in reproduction rate, but underlying genetic factors also explain individual animal differences. Industry-wide genetic improvement of herd reproductive performance has generally been slow, mainly due to perceptions of low heritability, late expression of the trait and difficulty in capturing the necessary joining and calving data. However, selection line experiments in research herds have demonstrated genetic improvement in pregnancy rates of 3% to 5% per annum in tropically adapted breeds. Likely contributors to the genetic differences seen in selected animals are the higher heritability of component traits of reproduction and genetic correlation of these component traits with reproductive performance. This study incorporates a series of experiments conducted across 9 years and reports moderate to high heritability of reproductive component traits. The traits studied included age at puberty and post-partum anoestrus in females; and scrotal circumference and percent morphologically normal sperm in males. In addition, the study reports moderate genetic correlation between these key component traits and lifetime reproduction. The estimated genetic parameters indicate that selection for genetic improvement of these attributes of reproduction, in conjunction with sound breeder-herd management, offers a sustainable solution to the challenge of improving reproductive efficiency in north Australian herds. The perceived challenge of data collection required for genetic evaluation, however, remains a barrier to the adoption of genetic improvement strategies by north Australian beef producers. With the aim of refining and automating data collection, the final two experiments report on the use of ultrasound scanning, on-animal devices and radio-frequency identification sequence through walk-over-weigh systems to autonomously record behavioural oestrus and predict time of conception in post-partum cows. Further detailed studies are required, but on-animal devices could potentially provide a suite of technologies to help reduce the challenge of recording and formatting data. Coupled with data handling software platforms, these technologies could provide beef producers with the necessary information on individual animals to more readily develop strategies for genetic improvement of reproductive efficiency