Continuity of care experiences : a national cross-sectional survey exploring the views and experiences of Australian students and academics
- Authors: Newton, Michelle , Faulks, Fiona , Bailey, Carolyn , Davis, Jenny , Vermeulen, Monique , Tremayne, Anne , Kruger, Gina
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Women and Birth Vol. 35, no. 3 (2022), p. e253-e262
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Background: Continuity of Care Experiences (CoCEs) are a component of all entry-to-practice midwifery programs in Australia and facilitate an understanding of the central midwifery philosophy of woman-centred care and continuity of the therapeutic relationship. The aim of this research was to explore how CoCEs are viewed and experienced by students and academics across Australia. Methods: Students enrolled in Australian midwifery programs and academics who teach into these programs were invited to participate in a cross sectional, web-based survey. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and free text responses were analysed using content analysis. Findings: Four hundred and five students and 61 academics responded to the survey. The CoCE was viewed as a positive and unique learning experience, preparing students to work in midwifery-led continuity models and developing confidence in their midwifery role. Challenges in recruitment, participation in care, and balancing the workload with other course requirements were evident in reports from students, but less understood by academics. Significant personal impact on finances, health and wellbeing of students were also reported. Discussion: The value of CoCEs as an experiential learning opportunity is clear, however, many students report being challenged by elements of the CoCE within current models as they try to maintain study-work-life balance. Conclusion: Innovative course structure that considers and embeds the CoCE requirements within the curricula, in addition to a collective commitment from regulatory bodies, the maternity care sector and Universities to facilitate CoCEs for students may address some of the significant student impacts that are reported by this research. © 2021 Australian College of Midwives
Primary health care and older people
- Authors: Browning, Colette , Davis, Jenny , Thomas, Shane
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ageing in Australia: Challenges and Opportunities p. 225-237
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- Description: This chapter examines the role of primary health care in the health of older people. As background to the chapter we discuss how primary health care operates in Australia, the workforce challenges and the recent policy reforms. Next we discuss primary health care use by older Australians and the types of services accessed. A main theme in the chapter is the lack of co-ordination between the health and aged care system in the delivery of primary health care services to older people, and the need for integrated care that addresses issues of multi-morbidity and multi-professional input to the care of older people. Addressing these issues through a skilled workforce, better communication between health professionals and a funding approach that does not disadvantage older multiple users of the primary health care system, will assist in the prevention of entry of older people into the more expensive secondary and tertiary health care and residential aged care systems.
Regime shifts, thresholds and multiple stable states in freshwater ecosystems; a critical appraisal of the evidence
- Authors: Capon, Samantha , Lynch, Jasmyn , Bond, Nick , Chessman, Bruce , Davis, Jenny , Davidson, Nick , Finlayson, C. Max , Gell, Peter , Hohnberg, David , Humphrey, Chris , Kingsford, Richard , Nielsen, Daryl , Thomson, James , Ward, Keith , Mac Nally, Ralph
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Science of the Total Environment Vol. , no. (2015), p.
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The concepts of ecosystem regime shifts, thresholds and alternative or multiple stable states are used extensively in the ecological and environmental management literature. When applied to aquatic ecosystems, these terms are used inconsistently reflecting differing levels of supporting evidence among ecosystem types. Although many aquatic ecosystems around the world have become degraded, the magnitude and causes of changes, relative to the range of historical variability, are poorly known. A working group supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) reviewed 135 papers on freshwater ecosystems to assess the evidence for pressure-induced non-linear changes in freshwater ecosystems; these papers used terms indicating sudden and non-linear change in their titles and key words, and so was a positively biased sample. We scrutinized papers for study context and methods, ecosystem characteristics and focus, types of pressures and ecological responses considered, and the type of change reported (i.e., gradual, non-linear, hysteretic or irreversible change). There was little empirical evidence for regime shifts and changes between multiple or alternative stable states in these studies although some shifts between turbid phytoplankton-dominated states and clear-water, macrophyte-dominated states were reported in shallow lakes in temperate climates. We found limited understanding of the subtleties of the relevant theoretical concepts and encountered few mechanistic studies that investigated or identified cause-and-effect relationships between ecological responses and nominal pressures. Our results mirror those of reviews for estuarine, nearshore and marine aquatic ecosystems, demonstrating that although the concepts of regime shifts and alternative stable states have become prominent in the scientific and management literature, their empirical underpinning is weak outside of a specific environmental setting. The application of these concepts in future research and management applications should include evidence on the mechanistic links between pressures and consequent ecological change. Explicit consideration should also be given to whether observed temporal dynamics represent variation along a continuum rather than categorically different states.
Responding to a rural health workforce shortfall : Double degree preparation of the nurse midwife
- Authors: Francis, Karen , Birks, Melanie , Al-Motlaq, Mohammad , Davis, Jenny , Miles, Maureen , Bailey, Carolyn
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Rural Health Vol. 18, no. 5 (2010), p. 210-211
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Nursing education in Australia has been provided in the tertiary sector since the mid 1980s although the complete transfer of hospital based programs was not finalised until 1993.1,2 Pre-service nursing programs produce and graduate nurses who are generalist prepared and able to work in any practice context as novice registered nurses. Specialist education that traditionally incorporated midwifery was undertaken following registration and after a period of practice as a nurse.3 In recent years, views regarding midwifery as a specialism of nursing have been challenged by champions including the peak professional body representing midwifery, the Australian College of Midwives. Advocates maintained that women desire choices regarding birthing options and that midwives have, and continue to be dissatisfied with the current health care system that restricts their practice.4 By the beginning of the 21st Century, direct entry midwifery programs were part of the educational landscape
The visceral embodiment of digital pleasures
- Authors: Smith, Naomi , Davis, Jenny , Maddox, Alexia Maddox , Patella-Rey, P.
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 20th Annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Brisbane, Australia p. 18
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- Description: This panel explores digital pleasures that arise through the entanglement of bodies and digital technologies. Focusing on the digital structures and affordances that facilitate seeking, receiving and giving pleasure we analyse the ways in which intimacy is not only interactive, but also profoundly embodied. Haraway’s work in particular highlights the importance of taking seriously the nexus of human bodies and technologies and attending to the ways in which technologies not only deliver and mediate pleasure, but potentially expand upon our capacity to experience it. This panel explores how mediated practices engage the body as a site of pleasure and embodied affective intensity. Within this frame, we suggest that digitally mediated pleasures, while widely consumed, still have a hint of the ‘fringe’ or ‘subversive’. As well as proposing a theoretical framework for understanding embodied digital pleasures, this panel also examines specific examples of digital pleasure from sex to drugs and sound. To date the research corpus has largely focused upon the micro-social interactions of digital intimacies. This emphasis on relational intimacy puts the body into the background of the digitally mediated encounter and limits the ways in which we can talk about embodiment, sex and pleasure online. Embodied pleasure is intrinsic to the human condition, and digital media is deeply embedded in contemporary life. How these intersect is a key piece of the puzzle of what it means to be human in contemporary society.
When trends intersect : The challenge of protecting freshwater ecosystems under multiple land use and hydrological intensification scenarios
- Authors: Davis, Jenny , O'Grady, Anthony , Dale, Allan , Arthington, Angela , Gell, Peter , Driver, Patrick , Bond, Nick , Casanova, Michelle , Finlayson, C. Max , Watts, Robyn , Capon, Samantha , Nagelkerken, Ivan , Tingley, Reid , Fry, Brian , Page, Timothy , Specht, Alison
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 534, no. (2015), p. 65-78
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Intensification of the use of natural resources is a world-wide trend driven by the increasing demand for water, food, fibre, minerals and energy. These demands are the result of a rising world population, increasing wealth and greater global focus on economic growth. Land use intensification, together with climate change, is also driving intensification of the global hydrological cycle. Both processes will have major socio-economic and ecological implications for global water availability. In this paper we focus on the implications of land use intensification for the conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems using Australia as an example. We consider this in the light of intensification of the hydrologic cycle due to climate change, and associated hydrological scenarios that include the occurrence of more intense hydrological events (extreme storms, larger floods and longer droughts). We highlight the importance of managing water quality, the value of providing environmental flows within a watershed framework and the critical role that innovative science and adaptive management must play in developing proactive and robust responses to intensification. We also suggest research priorities to support improved systemic governance, including adaptation planning and management to maximise freshwater biodiversity outcomes while supporting the socio-economic objectives driving land use intensification. Further research priorities include: i) determining the relative contributions of surface water and groundwater in supporting freshwater ecosystems; ii) identifying and protecting freshwater biodiversity hotspots and refugia; iii) improving our capacity to model hydro-ecological relationships and predict ecological outcomes from land use intensification and climate change; iv) developing an understanding of long term ecosystem behaviour; and v) exploring systemic approaches to enhancing governance systems, including planning and management systems affecting freshwater outcomes. A major policy challenge will be the integration of land and water management, which increasingly are being considered within different policy frameworks. © Published by Elsevier B.V.
Who uses digital drugs? An international survey of ‘binaural beat’ consumers
- Authors: Barratt, Monica , Maddox, Alexia , Smith, Naomi , Davis, Jenny , Goold, Lachlan , Winstock, Adam , Ferris, Jason
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Drug and Alcohol Review Vol. 41, no. 5 (2022), p. 1126-1130
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- Description: Introduction: Digital drugs, or binaural beats claimed to elicit specific cognitive or emotional states, are a phenomenon about which little is known. In this brief report, we describe demographic and drug use correlates of binaural beat use, patterns of use, reasons for use and methods of access. Methods: The Global Drug Survey 2021 was translated into 11 languages; 30 896 responses were gathered from 22 countries. Results: The use of binaural beats to experience altered states was reported by 5.3% of the sample (median age 27; 60.5% male), with the highest rates from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom. Controlling for all variables, age and non-male gender predicted binaural beat use, as did the recent use of cannabis, psychedelics and novel/new drugs. Respondents most commonly used binaural beats ‘to relax or fall asleep’ (72.2%) and ‘to change my mood’ (34.7%), while 11.7% reported trying ‘to get a similar effect to that of other drugs’. This latter motivation was more commonly reported among those who used classic psychedelics (16.5% vs. 7.9%; P < 0.001). The majority sought to connect with themselves (53.1%) or ‘something bigger than themselves’ (22.5%) through the experience. Binaural beats were accessed primarily through video streaming sites via mobile phones. Discussion and Conclusions: This paper establishes the existence of the phenomenon of listening to binaural beats to elicit changes in embodied and psychological states. Future research directions include the cultural context for consumption and proximate experiences, including co-use with ingestible drugs and other auditory phenomena. © 2022 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.