Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health Wealthy nations must do much more, much faster

The UN General Assembly in September 2021 will bring countries together at a critical time for marshalling collective action to tackle the global environmental crisis. They will meet again at the biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, and the climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow, UK. Ahead of these pivotal meetings, we—the editors of health journals worldwide—call for urgent action to keep average global temperature increases below 1.5 °C, halt the destruction of nature, and protect health

Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health

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Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health

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Living below the poverty line: a phenomenological study of the experiences of students of education at the University of Ballarat

© 1998 Dr. Sue TuraleUntil at least the early 1970s people who were favoured with economically advantaged backgrounds were more likely to study at Australian universities than those people with low socio-economic backgrounds. Over the last two decades there has been a movement to open up higher education to disadvantaged people. Equity policies, such as the student benefit of AUSTUDY and equity funding for universities, have encouraged poorer people into universities to complete their degrees. However, literature indicates that low socio-economic students are still under represented on university campuses, and that the completion rate of degrees for these people is lower than that of people from families of advantaged backgrounds. Little is known about the difficulties that poorer people encounter at University or whether equity policies have really succeeded in helping them to maintain and complete a course of study, particularly during a period of high unemployment in Australia. This thesis attempts to fill the gap in our knowledge about poor university students. It documents qualitative investigation into the poverty experiences of 17 undergraduate students of education at the regional University of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia. These students, who lived below the Australian Poverty Line for single adults, were engaged in in-depth interviews about their poverty experiences. The major areas explored in this study were the participants' definitions of poverty; the impact that poverty had on their life and well-being; and the description of the ways in which they tried to cope with poverty during their university studies. The phenomenological methodology of Colaizzi (1973) was employed in the analysis of data. A major finding was that when participants lived away from home they encountered poverty experiences that had negative effects on their studies and life circumstances. Moreover, lessened opportunities for employment in Ballarat, and insufficient support from AUSTUDY, were seen as significant factors that contributed to their poverty status

An explorative study of Australian nursing scholars and contemporary scholarship

Purpose: To explore Australian nurse scholars’ personal and professional perspectives on the nature and development of contemporary Australian scholarship, including its facilitators and barriers. Design and Methods: A qualitative exploratory design, with snowball sampling, identified 13 well-regarded nurse scholars from Australian universities or clinical health services. Semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted in 2008–2009, and transcripts of data were subjected to Morse\u27s content analysis method. Results: Four themes with supporting subthemes emerged: Views on Scholarship; Locations; Facilitators and Barriers; and Visioning the Future. New and reinforced information about Australian nursing scholarship was revealed. Conclusions: The study revealed contemporary Australian perspectives on nursing scholarship. It included participants’ personal and professional histories; definitions of the attributes of scholars; mentoring; and that educational and practice maturity contribute to contemporary definitions of nursing scholarship. Scholars, working in either academic or practice environments, provided points of difference on scholarship. High workloads associated with curricula, lack of recognition of a scholar\u27s achievements, and securing research funding were seen as barriers to scholarship. Moreover, current scholars are aging, and there is a looming shortage of scholars prepared for the future. Urgent attention needs to be paid to capacity building of clinicians and academics for the future scholarship of Australian nursing. Clinical Relevance: Scholarship is seen as the hallmark of the intellectual pursuit of knowledge and understanding and is essential for the practice of nursing and improvements to health. Educators, policy makers, and nursing leaders need to clearly develop strategies to sustain Australian nursing scholarship for the future

Registered and enrolled nurses : experiences of ethical issues in nursing practice

Research aims:To explore and describe registered and enrolled nurses’ experiences of ethics and human rights issues in nursing practice in the Australian State of Victoria.Method:Descriptive survey of 398 Victorian nurses using the Ethical Issues Scale (EIS) survey questionnaire.Major findings:The most frequent and most disturbing ethical issues reported by the nurses surveyed included: protecting patients’ rights and human dignity, providing care with possible risk to their own health, informed consent, staffing patterns that limited patient access to nursing care, the use of physical/chemical restraints, prolonging the dying process with inappropriate measures, working with unethical/impaired colleagues, caring for patients/families who are misinformed, not considering a patient’s quality of life, poor working conditions.Conclusions:Nurses in Victoria frequently experience disturbing ethical issues in nursing practice that warrant focussed attention by health service managers, educators and policy makers

Meeting the challenges of recruitment and retention of Indigenous people into nursing: the outcomes of the indigenous nurse education working group

It has been recognised internationally that increasing the number of Indigenous people working as health professionals is linked to the improved health status of Indigenous people. When comparing Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, Indigenous people continue to have poorer health standards and are much less likely to be involved in employment in health professions than other Australians. In 2000 the Indigenous Nurse Education Working Group (INEWG) was formed by government with the mandate to work collaboratively with universities and important professional nursing bodies across the nation in an attempt to increase the number of Indigenous registered nurses and to prepare nursing graduates with better understanding of, and skills to assist with, Indigenous health issues. This paper describes the work of the INEWG from 2000 to mid-2003: firstly in developing and implementing strategies aimed at increasing the recruitment and retention of Indigenous people into undergraduate nursing programs; and secondly by helping university schools of nursing increase faculty and student understanding of Indigenous culture, history and health issues through educational processes. Lastly it summarises the INEWG’s 2002 recommendations to achieve a higher rate of Indigenous participation in nursing. The results of research into the success of these recommendations will be the subject of a later paper

Chinese nurses' relief experiences following two earthquakes: Implications for disaster education and policy development

Disasters require well trained nurses but disaster nursing education is very limited in China and evidence is urgently required for future planning and implementation of specialized disaster education. This describes the themes arising from narratives of Chinese registered nurses who worked in disaster relief after two major earthquakes. In-depth interviews were held with 12 registered nurses from Hubei Province. Riessman's narrative inquiry method was used to develop individual stories and themes, and socio-cultural theory informed this study. Five themes emerged: unbeatable challenges; qualities of a disaster nurse; mental health and trauma; poor disaster planning and co-ordination; and urgently needed disaster education. Participants were challenged by rudimentary living conditions, a lack of medical equipment, earthquake aftershocks, and cultural differences in the people they cared for. Participants placed importance on the development of teamwork abilities, critical thinking skills, management abilities of nurses in disasters, and the urgency to build a better disaster response system in China in which professional nurses could more actively contribute their skills and knowledge. Our findings concur with previous research and emphasize the urgency for health leaders across China to develop and implement disaster nursing education policies and programs