The agenda for change among female rural general practitioners
- Authors: Schwarz, Imogen
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
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- Description: This paper presents the preliminary results of a qualitative study examining the agenda for change being pursued by key influential women in Australia to address male-centred rural general practitioner (GP) workforce policies. Many current recruitment and retention programs do not reflect the needs of female GPs as they are based on the traditional notions of a country GP — that is a full-time, on call doctor with a supporting spouse. As women become the majority in medicine, key women influentials in the rural general practice field are advocating for the restructuring of medicine so that women GPs can be part of the solution to rural health care issues. Previous empirical research and theoretical analyses have suggested that medicine and rural communities are patriarchal. To date data collection for this explorative study consists of 5 in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of key women activists across the spectrum of organised medicine. Preliminary results show how women are pressuring for change but also the sources of resistance they encounter from the dominant medical culture. Key women players use particular collective and individual strategies to advocate for female GP issues. These results reflect some research findings on women leaders and female rural GPs. In conclusion, it is important that women are given equal access to decision-making positions to enable their input into the structure and culture of rural general practice. The recommendation put forward is to build inclusive recruitment and retention rural workforce strategies for female rural GPs.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000514
What is evidence-based practice anyway? A rural survey
- Authors: Murphy, Angela
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
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- Description: Health service system developments in recent decades have, both nationally and internationally, been increasingly focused on quality service delivery and the attainment of improved health outcomes. Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been promoted as a central mechanism through which to achieve improved quality and safety in health service delivery (World Health Organisation, 1999; Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council,1996).
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000515
Power and politics : A case study of the failure of an evidence-based practice project in two rural communities
- Authors: McDonald, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
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- Description: This paper reports on an evaluation of a two-year project aimed at implementing a multi-disciplinary, evidence-based approach to the management of back pain in two rural communities. The project attempted to address the significantly above-average rates of back pain admissions to the local hospitals
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000518
Rural social welfare practice : Stories from the western region of Victoria
- Authors: Green, Rosemary
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
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- Description: This study explored rural welfare practice issues with six welfare professionals working in contentious fields of practice such as child welfare, family violence and the justice system in the western region of Victoria. Participants were selected on the basis of difference to provide a range of experiences. The six participants completed a questionnaire and were subsequently interviewed in depth about their own experiences. The study asked participants about issues of concern to them and strategies that they find useful in their professional practice in small communities. Issues of concern included: risk and experience of violence and harassment, managing confidential information gathered from formal and informal sources, providing services that are non stigmatising, managing dual and multiple roles and lack of anonymity and privacy. Participants were concerned about the dilemmas of personal privacy versus community “right to know” particularly when they had privileged information about perpetrators of violence and child sexual assault within their communities. Participants shared their practical solutions and personal survival strategies, as well as their concerns. Many employing organisations did not recognise these factors effectively in work practices, and supervision was focused on agency accountability rather than professional development and support. On a broader level, workplaces and educators need to recognise the impact of the occupational demands and stressors relevant for rural practitioners, where anonymity and privacy are frequently compromised, and respond sensitively to these issues. This paper includes a number of recommendations for educators and organisations employing welfare staff in rural areas. The author sincerely thanks the six welfare professionals for sharing their stories in such rich detail and with such honesty and frankness. Identifying details have been altered to protect their privacy.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000562
What price early discharge? Informal caregiving in home-based rehabilitation
- Authors: Dow, Briony
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference, Canberra : 1st - 4th March, 2003
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- Description: Over recent years there has been an international trend towards shorter hospital stays, and the provision of alternative health services in the home (Philp, 1996). This paper focuses on one example of this trend, home-based rehabilitation. Other examples are hospital in the home programs (Gunnel, Coast, Richards, Peters, Pounsford & Darlow, 2000) and domiciliary midwife services offered to women discharged early from maternity hospital (Thompson, Roberts, Currie & Ellwood, 2000). In Victoria, homebased rehabilitation has been available as an alternative to hospital-based care since 1995 when the first home-based rehabilitation program was established at the Greenvale campus of the North-West Hospital. Since then another ten programs have been established in Victoria as alternatives to in-patient care. Similar programs have also been established in other Australian states and overseas (for example, in Western Australia, Bairstow, Asche, Heavens & Lithgo, 1997; and in Sweden, Widén Holmqvist, de Pedro Cuesta, Holm & Kostulas, 1995).
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003000513