Salary relativities and the academic labour market

The report found that Australian universities are making extensive use of salary loadings and other incentives to attract new academic staff and retain existing staff. The report argues that the main reason for the use of these incentives is because Australian academic salaries are relatively uncompetitive with comparable private sector salaries in Australia and some overseas academic salaries. The report also found that universities are finding it difficult to fill positions at both the bottom level of the salary range - associate lecturer - and at the top end - professor. The difficulty in filling the lower end positions could reflect the declining attraction of academic careers. The report suggests that a major shortfall of academics in the English-speaking world is likely over the next decade which could make it more difficult for Australian universities to recruit staff

Seeking solutions to self-injury: A guide for parents and families

Self-injury can be a confusing behaviour, and it can be really worrying when someone you know self-injures. This guide was developed to help parents and families understand self-injury, and find some effective ways to intervene. In preparing this guide we consulted families, health care professionals and parents of young people who self-injure, as well as the young people themselves. In this way, we have gained a good understanding of self-injury, and what young people want from people who care about them. This booklet explains self-injury and provides some useful tips and resources for parents and family members. We hope you benefit from the information we provide

Seeking solutions to self-injury: A guide for emergency staff

Self-injury can be a confusing behaviour. In an emergency context, even though treatment of the physical injury may be familiar and straight forward, knowing what to say and how to relate to the patient is often perplexing. This guide was developed specifically to help emergency staff (police, paramedics, nurses and doctors) feel more confident about responding in a helpful manner to patients who present with self-injury

Undertaking risk and relational work to manage vulnerability: Acute medical patients’ involvement in patient safety in the NHS

Over the last decade a wealth of studies have explored the way that patients are involved in patient safety internationally. Most begin from the premise that patients can and should take on the role of identifying and reporting safety concerns. Most give little attention, however, to the impact of the patient's health status and vulnerability on their ability to participate in their safety. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 28 acute medical patients, this article aims to show how patients’ contributions to their safety in the acute medical context are less about involvement as a deliberate intervention, and more about how patients manage their own vulnerability in their interactions with staff. Our analysis is underpinned by theories of vulnerability and risk. This enables us to provide a deeper understanding of how vulnerability shapes patients’ involvement in their safety. Acute medical patients engage in reassurance-seeking, relational and vigilance work to manage their vulnerability. Patients undertake reassurance seeking to obtain evidence that they can trust the organisation and the professionals who work in it and relational and vigilance work to manage the vulnerability associated with dependence on others and the unpredictability of their status as acute medical patients. Patients are made responsible for speaking up about their care but simultaneously, by virtue of the expectations of the sick role and their relational vulnerability, encouraged to remain passive, compliant or silent. We show how risk frames the extent to which patients can activate their role in creating patient safety at the point of care. Foregrounding the theory of vulnerability, the concept of the sick role and the relationship of both to risk offers new insights into the potentials and limits of patient involvement in patient safety in the acute care context

Seeking solutions to self-injury: A guide for young people

Self-injury can be a confusing behaviour, and it can be really worrying when someone you know self-injures. This guide was developed to help young people understand self-injury, and to better care for their friends who might self-injure

Consumer participation in nurse education : a national survey of Australian universities

Consumers of mental health services have an important role to play in the higher education of nursing students, by facilitating understanding of the experience of mental illness and instilling a culture of consumer participation. Yet the level of consumer participation in mental health nursing programmes in Australia is not known. The aim of the present study was to scope the level and nature of involvement of consumers in mental health nursing higher education in Australia. A cross-sectional study was undertaken involving an internet survey of nurse academics who coordinate mental health nursing programmes in universities across Australia, representing 32 universities. Seventy-eight percent of preregistration and 75% of post-registration programmes report involving consumers. Programmes most commonly had one consumer (25%) and up to five. Face-to-face teaching, curriculum development, and membership-to-programme committees were the most regular types of involvement. The content was generally codeveloped by consumers and nurse academics (67.5%). The frequency of consumer involvement in the education of nursing students in Australia is surpris ingly high. However, involvement is noticeably variable across types of activity (e.g. curriculum development, assessment), and tends to be minimal and ad hoc. Future research is required into the drivers of increased consumer involvement

Developing Healthcare Team Observations for Patient Safety (HTOPS): senior medical students capture everyday clinical moments

BackgroundAviation has used a real-time observation method to advance anonymised feedback to the front-line and improve safe practice. Using an experiential learning method, this pilot study aimed to develop an observation-based real-time learning tool for final-year medical students with potential wider use in clinical practice.MethodsUsing participatory action research, we collected data on medical students’ observations of real-time clinical practice. The observation data was analysed thematically and shared with a steering group of experts to agree a framework for recording observations. A sample of students (observers) and front-line clinical staff (observed) completed one-to-one interviews on their experiences. The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsThirty-seven medical students identified 917 issues in wards, theatres and clinics in an acute hospital trust. These issues were grouped into the themes of human influences, work environment and systems. Aviation approaches were adapted to develop an app capable of recording real-time positive and negative clinical incidents. Five students and eleven clinical staff were interviewed and shared their views on the value of a process that helped them learn and has the potential to advance the quality of practice. Concerns were shared about how the observational process is managed.ConclusionThe study developed an app (Healthcare Team Observations for Patient Safety—HTOPS), for recording good and poor clinical individual and team behaviour in acute-care practice. The process advanced medical student learning about patient safety. The tool can identify the totality of patient safety practice and illuminate strength and weakness. HTOPS offers the opportunity for collective ownership of safety concerns without blame and has been positively received by all stakeholders. The next steps will further refine the app for use in all clinical areas for capturing light noise.</div

Mental health lived experience academics in tertiary education : the views of nurse academics

Background: Australian national mental health strategy emphasises inclusion of people diagnosed with mental illness in all areas of mental health care, policy development and education of health professionals. However, the way this inclusion has translated to Australian universities is relatively unexplored. Objectives: Explore views of nurse academics regarding service user involvement in nursing education programmes. Design: Qualitative exploratory. Settings: Australian universities offering educational programmes in nursing at postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Participants: Thirty four participants from 27 Australian universities participated. Methods: Data were collected using semi-structured telephone interviews with academics involved in teaching and/or coordinating undergraduate and/or postgraduate mental health nursing contents. Data were analysed using content analysis based on four cognitive processes: comprehending, synthesising, theorising and recontextualising data. Results: Four major themes emerged: good idea? longway to go; conceptualising the service user academic role; strengths of lived experience led student learning; and barriers to implementation. Conclusions: Findings indicated strong support for including mental health service users in teaching nursing students. However, at most universities service user engagement was often an informal arrangement, lacking clear guidelines and limited by financial barriers and the positioning of mental health nursing within curricula

Bioactive compounds in microalgae and their potential health benefits

Bioactive compounds in microalgae and their potential health benefit

What are the goals of care for older people living with frailty when they access urgent care? Are those goals attained? A qualitative view of patient and carer perspectives

Study objective: Little is known of the goals of care of older people living with frailty when they access urgent care. Equally whether these goals are attained from a patient and carer perspective is often unclear. This qualitative study examined the views of older people living with frailty and their families in relation to specific episodes of urgent care, what they wanted to achieve and whether those goals were attained. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with older people living with frailty and their families between Jan and July 2019. Patient and carer participants were recruited in three hospitals in England and interviewed following the urgent care episode. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed following the principles of the Framework approach. Results were validated by an older people's involvement group. Results: Forty participants were interviewed either alone or jointly (24 patients and 16 carers), describing episodes of urgent care which started in ED for 28 patients. The goals of care for participants accessing emergency care were that their medical problem be diagnosed and resolved; information about tests and treatment be given to them and their relatives; they receive an appropriate well-planned discharge to their own home with support where needed and without readmission or re-attendance at ED; and that they retain mobility, function and normal activities. Participants perceived that many of these goals of care were not attained. Conclusions: Older people living with frailty have heterogeneous urgent care goals which require individual ascertainment. Identifying these goals of care early could result in improved attainment through person-centred care