Dental workforce 2012

Summary: Access to reliable, comprehensive, timely and nationally consistent trend data is required to understand the current health workforce and for its future planning. There is particular interest in changes to the size and composition of the various health professions, and the potential impacts of these changes on health-care delivery. This report provides data on the Australian dental practitioner workforce in 2012. Size of the dental workforce In 2012, there were 19,462 dental practitioners registered in Australia. Three-quarters of these practitioners (14,687) were dentists. The number of employed dentists increased by 5.3%, from 12,599 in 2011 to 13,266 in 2012. There were 1,330 dentists working as specialists. Orthodontics was the most common specialty (518 dentists). In 2012, there were also 1,425 dental hygienists, 1,117 dental therapists, 1,100 dental prosthetists and 675 oral health therapists employed in their fields. Sex and age of the dental workforce Sex Dentistry is a male dominated profession; however, the proportion of female dentists increased to 36.5% in 2012 from 35.2% in 2011. Employed dental therapists, dental hygienists and oral health therapists, were predominantly women (96.9, 94.6% and 84.7%, respectively). Dental prosthetists were much more likely to be men. Women made up 14.7% of this workforce, an increase from 13.9% in 2011. Age The average age of dentists employed in 2012 was 43.4 (the same as in 2011) and 23.4% were aged 55 and over. Employed dental prosthetists, dental therapists, dental hygienists and oral health therapists were aged 49.1, 46.4, 37.4 and 31.0, on average, respectively. Working arrangements Dentists worked, on average, 37.0 hours per week in 2012, a slight decrease from 2011 (37.3 hours per week). In 2012, 31.7% dentists worked part time (less than 35 hours per week). The majority of employed dentists were working in private practice (79.7% of clinicians and 77.3% of all dentists). Most specialists worked in private practice (75.0%) and in Major cities (89.1%). Major cities had more dentists per capita than other areas in 2012 at 64.3 full-time equivalent (FTE) dentists per 100,000 population, and more than the Australian rate of 56.9 FTE dentists

Optimising nutrition in residential aged care: A narrative review

In developed countries the prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition increases with age and multi-morbidities increase nutritional risk in aged care residents in particular. This paper presents a narrative review of the current literature on the identification, prevalence, associated risk factors, consequences, and management of malnutrition in the <i>residential aged care (RAC)</i> setting. We performed searches of English-language publications on <i>Medline, PubMed, Ovid and the Cochrane Library</i> from January 1 1990 to November 25 2015. We found that, on average, half of all residents in aged care are malnourished as a result of factors affecting appetite, dietary intake and nutrient absorption. Malnutrition is associated with a multitude of adverse outcomes, including increased risk of infections, falls, pressure ulcers and hospital admissions, all of which can lead to increased health care costs and poorer quality of life. A number of food and nutrition strategies have demonstrated positive nutritional and clinical outcomes in the <i>RAC</i> setting. These strategies extend beyond simply enhancing the nutritional value of foods and hence necessitate the involvement of a range of committed stakeholders. Implementing a nutritional protocol in <i>RAC</i> facilities that comprises routine nutrition screening, assessment, appropriate nutrition intervention, including attention to food service systems, and monitoring by a multidisciplinary team can help prevent decline in residents’ nutritional status. Food and nutritional issues should be identified early and managed on admission and regularly in the <i>RAC</i> setting

Far Right, Left Out: European Far Right Parties and the Implications for Refugees

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The impact of paid sick leave laws on consumer and business bankruptcies

This paper examines how missed income due to illness impacts household fragility. Specifically, it shows that paid sick leave laws, which provide households insurance against illness-related income shocks, reduce consumer bankruptcy. Using a panel dataset at the county-quarter level, this paper exploits the geographic and temporal variation in the adoption of paid sick leave laws to implement a difference-in-differences and event study analysis. It finds that paid sick leave laws reduce consumer bankruptcy filings by approximately 11%; this effect is seen within three quarters of the law’s implementation and remains constant in magnitude and significance thereafter. As paid sick leave laws may come at a cost to businesses, this paper also examines the impact of such laws on business bankruptcy filings—it shows that paid sick leave laws have little to no impact on business bankruptcy filings

Chronic Absenteeism at One Arkansas High School

Chronic absenteeism is a fairly new concept in education. Many schools have only started tracking chronic absenteeism with the start of Every Student Succeeds Act. The following research studied chronic absenteeism at an Arkansas High School, which answered the two research questions in this study. The first research question studied the demographics of the chronically absent student which included grade level, race/ethnicity, Special Education and English Language Learner status, and free or reduced lunch status. The second research question studied the class period of the chronic absence which included the time of day and type of class. High School X had 40% of free and reduced lunch students who were chronically absent. The research also found that twelfth grade students accounted for the highest-grade level of being chronically absent from one or more of their classes, with 37% in 2016-2017 and 36% in 2017-2018. The Zero-Hour classes accounted for the highest rate of chronically absent students, with at least 20% or more of the students enrolled in Zero-Hour being chronically absent. The research found that the number of students chronically absent from one class period was three times as high as the students chronically absent from all seven periods

Investigation of Membrane Fouling and Cleaning in Direct Contact Membrane Distillation of Municipal Wastewater

Municipal wastewater discharge to the environment is generally subject to regulations established under the Clean Water Act. Though the water is highly treated it is not suitable for human consumption. Increased interest in water reuse for potable supply introduces concern about trace constituents present in their water, such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors. Current treatment processes, such as reverse osmosis, are used to remove many of these compounds, but is expensive and energy intensive. The rise of interest in potable water reuse may cause consumers to be concerned about trace constituents present in their water and would require additional treatment. Membrane distillation may be applicable in some circumstances to treat the effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants with a low grade heat source for direct potable reuse. This project investigated the chemical cleaning efficiency of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) on membrane wastewater effluent fouling for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) to help assist wastewater reuse become a reality. A laboratory scale DCMD system was designed and constructed including a warm feed loop and cold permeate loop to utilize a flat sheet, crossflow membrane cell. Treated wastewater effluent collected from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) Southside Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP) was used as the feed solution. The performance of the MD system was tested and evaluated using parameters including flow rate, feed and permeate temperature, feed water quality, permeate flux, membrane area, cross flow velocity, and membrane type and pore size. An (EDTA) cleaning solution was used to clean a 0.2μm polypropylene (PP) membrane that had reached a 50% flux decline due to wastewater effluent fouling. The cleaning process was repeated on the membrane three times to determine the effectiveness of removing wastewater effluent fouling by permeate flux recovery. Overall system data collection and analysis determined the influences of system parameters on permeate flux, constituent rejection, membrane fouling rate, and a membrane chemical cleaning. Results produced from this study give a better understanding of the membrane distillation process, and membrane cleaning when treating municipal wastewater effluent, and gives potential to DCMD for becoming an optional process for potable water reuse