Recently added articles from Australian Health Review:

It's not the evidence, it's the way you use it: is clinical practice being tyrannised by evidence? My experience with the PBAC and evidence-based practice

May 01, 2008; Stiller, Kathy ... "Good doctors use both individual clinical expertise and the best available external evidence, and neither alone is enough. Without clinical expertise, practice risks becoming tyrannised by evidence, for even excellent external evidence may be inapplicable to or inappropriate for an individual ...

Will the Australian nuclear medicine technologist workforce meet anticipated health care demands?

May 01, 2008; Adams, Edwina; Schofield, Deborah; Cox, Jennifer; Adamson, Barbara ... Abstract Determination of national nuclear medicine technologist workforce size was made from census data in 2001 and 1996 and from the professional body in 2004. A survey conducted by the authors in 2005 provided retention patterns in north-eastern Australia and suggested causes ....

Compensation and wellness: a conflict for veterans' health

May 01, 2008; Ellis, Niki; Mackenzie, Alison; Mobbs, Robyn ... Abstract In Australia greater attention is being given to health determinants, and the dominance of treatment in health policy and budgets is giving away some ground to prevention, health promotion, rehabilitation and disability management. This creates a dilemma for compensation ...

Ken Donald and Muscular Christianity

May 01, 2008; Loane, Mark ... "MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY" was a system which relied upon sport to allow people to grow in a moral and spiritual way along with their physical development. It was thought that ... in the playing field boys acquire virtues which no books can give them; not merely daring and endurance, but, ...

The working world of nursing unit managers: responsibility without power

May 01, 2008; Paliadelis, Penelope S ... Abstract This paper seeks to explore the responsibility and power of the role of nursing unit managers (NUMs) in rural New South Wales using Kanter's theory of organisational power as a framework. Using in-depth individual interviews with twenty NUMs, data were analysed from four ...

Evaluation of a hospital volunteer program in rural Australia

May 01, 2008; Prabhu, V Radha; Hanley, Armita; Kearney, Sue ... Abstract A voluntary survey questionnaire that assessed experience with and perception of the volunteering program was mailed to 62 current and 9 former volunteers and 47 staff members of Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH). Sixty-one completed questionnaires were returned. The ...

Barriers to continuing medical education in Australian prevocational doctors

May 01, 2008; Neate, Sandra L; Dent, Andrew W; Weiland, Tracey J; Farish, Stephen; Jolly, Brian C; Crotty, Brendan ... Abstract To determine perceived barriers to continuing education for Australian hospital-based prevocational doctors, a cross sectional cohort survey was distributed to medical administrators for secondary redistribution to 2607 prevocational doctors from August 2003 to October 2004 ....

Health, health care and healing: introduction to the Festschrift for Professor Ken Donald

May 01, 2008; Ward, Michael ... THE CITATION for Ken Donald's recent and well deserved award of an Order of Australia reads "For service to medicine as an academic and administrator, particularly as a contributor in the fields of pathology and community health". A true enough statement but hardly sufficient for such a diverse ...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health: today's challenges, tomorrow's opportunities

May 01, 2008; Nangala, Stanley ... THIS FESTSCHRIFT PRESENTS a unique opportunity to pay a warm tribute to Professor Ken Donald who has built important foundations that will very much benefit future generations, especially for those of us who belong to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations of peoples. Taking ...

Predicting absenteeism and turnover intentions in the health professions

May 01, 2008; Albion, Majella J; Fogarty, Gerard J; Machin, Michael A; Patrick, Jeff ... Abstract Objectives: The study examined the mediating influence of individual psychological reactions to work on the relationship between organisational climate and job withdrawal behaviours (viz, intention to leave and absenteeism). Methods: 1097 hospital employees were surveyed ...

Pathology in education and practice: a time for integration?

May 01, 2008; Mortimer, Robin; Lakhani, Sunil ... Abstract While there has been a strong history of pathology in understanding disease, in recent years we have seen less appreciation of the value of pathology in clinical practice. Divisions at the clinical level, with pathology delivered from isolated buildings at the periphery of ...

The Australian health care system: reform, repair or replace?

May 01, 2008; Duckett, Stephen J ... Abstract A Festshrift gives us the opportunity to look both backwards and forwards. Ken Donald's career stretches back to his intern days in 1963 and has encompassed clinical and population health, academe, clinical settings and the bureaucracy, and playing sport at state and national ...

Looking after health care in the bush

May 01, 2008; Chater, Alan B ... LOOKING AFTER health care in rural Australia involves providing adequate services to meet the urgent and non-urgent needs of rural patients in a timely, cost-effective and safe manner. The very provision of these services requires an appropriate workforce and facilities in rural areas. This ...

Self-management support and training for patients with chronic and complex conditions improves health-related behaviour and health outcomes

May 01, 2008; Harvey, Peter W; Petkov, John N; Misan, Gary; Fuller, Jeffrey; Battersby, Malcolm W; Cayetano, Teofilo N; Warren, Kate; Holmes, Paul ... Abstract The Sharing Health Care SA chronic disease self-management (CDSM) project in rural South Australia was designed to assist patients with chronic and complex conditions (diabetes, cardiovascular disease and arthritis) to learn how to participate more effectively in the management ...

Self-assessment of medico-legal risk by doctors: the Know Your Risk Version I - Short Form

May 01, 2008; Johnson, Maree; Murphy, Brooke; Payne, Sheryn; Chang, Sungwon ... Abstract An instrument to measure medico-legal risk-management behaviours among medical practitioners was developed and tested. A cross-sectional survey was posted to 962 UNITED Medical Protection members receiving premium support. A final sample of 757 currently working medical ...

Residents' satisfaction with multi-purpose services

May 01, 2008; Anderson, Judith K; Rae, John B; Grenade, Linda E; Boldy, Duncan P ... Abstract Aim: To establish a system for measuring resident satisfaction in multi-purpose services, benchmarking and performance improvement. Setting: Six multi-purpose services in rural New South Wales were involved in the project. Design: Residents were surveyed and the ...

The benefit and burden of "ageing-in-place" in an aged care community

May 01, 2008; Horner, Barbara; Boldy, Duncan P ... Abstract Ageing-in-place is usually viewed as a positive approach to meeting the needs of the older person, supporting them to live independently, or with some assistance, for as long as possible. It implies that older people prefer to live in their own home, rather than in an ...

Going online - experiences with a web survey

May 01, 2008; Kalucy, Elizabeth; Hordacre, Ann-Louise; Patterson, Simon ... Abstract This case study details the process and lessons learnt from converting a compulsory comprehensive organisational survey from email to online format. The conversion was undertaken to improve data quality and reduce respondent burden. Key considerations in developing the online ...

The Australian health care system

May 01, 2008; Day, Gary E ... The Australian health care system Duckett SJ Oxford University Press, 2007 (3rd ed) ISBN: 978 O 19555 142 6. 370 + xxi pages. RRP: $69.95 THIS IS THE THIRD edition of one of the seminal local texts on the Australian health care system. Over the last seven years, this text has proved a ...

Attitudes, beliefs and values of students in undergraduate medical, nursing and pharmacy programs

May 01, 2008; Perkins, Rodney J; Horsburgh, Margaret; Coyle, Barbara ... Abstract First and final year students in medicine, nursing and pharmacy programs at the University of Auckland completed a questionnaire used in studies of professional subcultures. Before entering training, students differed in how they believed clinical work should be organised. The ...