Description:
This research investigated the interrelations between gay men’s age, sense of belonging (to the general community, the broader gay community, gay groups and with gay friends) and mental health by testing four models: direct, mediation, additive and moderation.
Description:
This research investigated the interrelations between gay men’s age, sense of belonging (to the general community, the broader gay community, gay groups and with gay friends) and mental health by testing four models: direct, mediation, additive and moderation.
Description:
Drawing on the findings from studies in Australia and Norway that explored the use of laboratories in the preparation of nursing students for entry to practice, this article identifies the pedagogical challenges for the undergraduate education of nurses. The findings from both countries are compared and, in spite of distinct differences in the level of financial investment, there are striking similarities between the ways in which laboratories are used in the two countries. The laboratories were designed to predominately represent acute care hospital environments. The participants demonstrated a high level of commitment and strongly held beliefs in the laboratory as a safe place to facilitate self-paced learning and as an environment where students can practice until they become competent and confident. However, at the same time, there was a striking lack of evidence to support these views. The participants in both countries reported a common approach to instruction: a proce! ss of teacher demonstration, followed by student repetition and practice. Variability in students' motivation also was reported and the participants especially expressed concern for those students with a low level of interest in the basic skills associated with personal care. The possibilities and limitations of using skill laboratories as part of the practical preparation for nursing are discussed, using the metaphor of laboratories as "fiction".
Description:
An ecological thinning trial was established in 2003 in north-central Victoria as part of the development of an ecological management strategy to support the newly created Box-Ironbark Parks and Reserves System. The objective of the trial was to restore diversity of habitat structure to declining Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands. Three ecological thinning techniques were designed around several principles: reducing total basal-area of trees and retaining levels of patchiness whilst retaining large trees. Thinning treatments were implemented in 30 ha plots at four conservation reserves south of Bendigo, Victoria. A range of ecosystem components were monitored before and after thinning. A woody-debris removal treatment was also set-up at a 1 ha scale within thinning treatments. Prior to thinning, plots were dominated by high numbers of coppice regenerated trees with few of the trees sampled considered large, resulting in low numbers of tree hollows and low loadings of coarse woody debris. It is anticipated that the establishment of the ecological thinning trial (Phase I), is the beginning of long-term monitoring, as effects of thinning on key habitat values may not be apparent for up to 50 years or more. The vision for restoration of Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands is one of a mosaic landscape with a greater diversity of habitat types including open areas and greater numbers of larger, hollow-bearing trees. This paper summarises the experimental design and the techniques adopted in Phase I of this project during 2003-2008.
Description:
Analysis of the data collected from a survey into what OHS professionals do in practice indicated that they are not strategically influential with senior managers and that this lack of influence may be limiting workplace health and safety improvements. This article revisits the survey data to investigate the potential links between the personal (gender) and professional (education and experience) characteristics of OHS professionals, the industry and the size and geographical location of the organisation in which they work, and their involvement in strategic activities. The analysis indicates that the profile of OHS professionals who are strategically influential includes the following: they are male; they have worked in OHS for six to 10 years; and they are employed by large organisations, particularly in the mining and construction industries. The data regarding the role of education were contradictory to expectations and other reports. While this analysis has provided a profile of OHS professionals in Australia, it has added little to our understanding of the interactions and dynamics of factors that might impact on the strategic influence of OHS professionals.
Description:
This article arose from a concern that OHS professionals are not strategically influential with senior managers, and that this lack of influence may be limiting workplace health and safety improvements and, in turn, hindering the progress of the national OHS improvement strategy. The article analyses data from an Australian survey into the communication patterns and activities of OHS professionals in an attempt to clarify whether their activities are likely to have a strategic influence on senior managers. While there may be a number of interpretations of the data, the results indicate that the focus of the activities of OHS professionals is mainly task-oriented. Less often, the focus of their activities is operational (such as developing the OHS management system), while a few of their activities may be considered as strategic. The Australian survey was part of a broader international study and a comparison of the results with those from other countries revealed that the limited focus on strategic activities is not unique to Australia.
Description:
Purpose – This paper aims to examine the employment and training of mature-aged workers, so that suggestions for improving training for mature-aged workers may be offered. Design/methodology/approach – Six expert interviews were carried out by telephone, and three case studies involving company site visits were completed. Each company case study involved interviews with managers, trainers and mature-aged workers. The study was confined to the manufacturing industry. Findings – Mature-aged workers bring many advantages to workplaces and some employers show a definite preference for them over younger workers; but in some cases training needs to take account of lack of confidence and literacy and health issues. However, there is great diversity among mature-aged workers. Research limitations/implications – The research is confined to shop-floor workers in manufacturing, and does not address training of mature-aged managers and professionals. The research is small-scale but provides new insights, and importantly the voices of the workers themselves. Practical implications – The paper identifies managerial and training practices that can immediately be implemented. Originality/value – The paper identifies some issues that can be taken up at a policy level as well as within companies. For example, the preference for qualification-based training at a national level is not necessarily consistent with what mature-aged workers prefer.
Description:
Purpose – This paper aims to examine the employment and training of mature-aged workers, so that suggestions for improving training for mature-aged workers may be offered. Design/methodology/approach – Six expert interviews were carried out by telephone, and three case studies involving company site visits were completed. Each company case study involved interviews with managers, trainers and mature-aged workers. The study was confined to the manufacturing industry. Findings – Mature-aged workers bring many advantages to workplaces and some employers show a definite preference for them over younger workers; but in some cases training needs to take account of lack of confidence and literacy and health issues. However, there is great diversity among mature-aged workers. Research limitations/implications – The research is confined to shop-floor workers in manufacturing, and does not address training of mature-aged managers and professionals. The research is small-scale but provides new insights, and importantly the voices of the workers themselves. Practical implications – The paper identifies managerial and training practices that can immediately be implemented. Originality/value – The paper identifies some issues that can be taken up at a policy level as well as within companies. For example, the preference for qualification-based training at a national level is not necessarily consistent with what mature-aged workers prefer.
Prospective application of a five-step regulatory assessment model to a proposed federal sperm donor registry in Australia: Is it in the public interest?
Description:
It has been proposed that a nationally mandated donor registry be established in Australia to provide data for estimating the possible number of inadvertent half-sibling matings resulting from the multiple use of anonymous donors in donor insemination and to assist identity-release donors and their donor-inseminated children to establish contact. A five-step regulatory assessment model, as described by Johnson and Petersen in 2008, was applied prospectively to the proposed donor registry to identify public interest issues. The resultant issues concern the public ethical interest in child welfare; the public health interest in avoiding genetic abnormalities/disease; public socio-political and legal interests in avoiding inadvertent consanguineous relationships; public ethical and health interests in avoiding identity issues in the donor-inseminated child; and public socio-ethical interests in providing nationally mandated, comprehensive records of donor insemination outcomes. These results provide a basis for further discussion in regard to donor insemination legislation at the federal level.
Description:
It has been proposed that a nationally mandated donor registry be established in Australia to provide data for estimating the possible number of inadvertent half-sibling matings resulting from the multiple use of anonymous donors in donor insemination and to assist identity-release donors and their donor-inseminated children to establish contact. A five-step regulatory assessment model, as described by Johnson and Petersen in 2008, was applied prospectively to the proposed donor registry to identify public interest issues. The resultant issues concern the public ethical interest in child welfare; the public health interest in avoiding genetic abnormalities/disease; public socio-political and legal interests in avoiding inadvertent consanguineous relationships; public ethical and health interests in avoiding identity issues in the donor-inseminated child; and public socio-ethical interests in providing nationally mandated, comprehensive records of donor insemination outcomes. These results provide a basis for further discussion in regard to donor insemination legislation at the federal level.
Description:
Nurses represent the largest occupational group of health care professionals in Australia. The ratio of nurses to population is relatively consistent, unlike other health care professional groups (including medical doctors and allied health staff) whose numbers decline as population density and distance from metropolitan areas increases. Nurses working in areas where other health care professionals are limited or absent have expanded scopes of practice with their work being more generalist than specialist. The role of nurses in remote and isolated areas of Queensland, Australia was the focus of a commissioned multi-case research project. Findings reported in this paper relate to the position of registered nurses as part of an interprofessional team. These findings indicated that, in some instances, local health care teams were limited to a single nurse and Indigenous health care worker/s, while in others the teams were more diverse. In all cases collegial support was available either locally or via telecommunication technology. Understanding the role of each team member, having useful strategies to enhance communication and work collaboratively were identified as essential criteria for "good practice".
Description:
Chinese gold seekers were the largest non-British group on the goldfields of Australasia and constituted the largest nationality on some diggings. In considering the movement of Chinese miners to and throughout the goldfields colonies of the southwest Pacific, this articles argues there existed a more complex pattern of migration than that suggested by the sojourner model of arrival, brief stay and departure. It examines the links between migration patterns and economic activity, and argues that economic history perspectives complement the insights offered by recent social and cultural history in the field.
Description:
The national narratives that construct asylum seekers as illegal immigrants in Australia were protected and contested during the term of the former Howard Liberal government. This paper explores how white possession is reinforced in everyday speech about asylum seekers. To do this, it draws upon an empirical study conducted in rural South Australia with people who identified as “white Australian”. The study consists of 28 in depth semi-structured interviews conducted in 2003. The paper will firstly locate the interviews in the sociopolitical context of the former Howard Liberal government’s policies and key events such as the Tampa incident. In doing so, the paper adds to the small body of Australian sociological empirical research that investigates everyday practices of whiteness. The paper identifies discourses about refugees, border security and the “war on terror” that reinforce Australian discourses of white possession. The paper critiques the racialised privilege in discourses used by the interviewees about asylum seekers and argues this privilege is gained through the assertion of “white patriarchal sovereignty” (Moreton- Robinson 2004a) in everyday speech. This privilege simultaneously disavows Indigenous sovereignty and reasserts white national sovereignty through the raced exclusion of Middle Eastern and/or Muslim peoples who are located as illegal immigrants in everyday white discourses about asylum seekers.
Description:
Consistent with the 'looking back, moving forward' conference theme, in this paper we undertake a critical, research-based appraisal of the current, arguably neglected state of adult education in Australia in 2010, and proceed to paint a picture of how a different and potentially more positive future might be realised. Firstly, we emphasise situations (including states and territories) in Australia in which adult education is seen to be lacking or missing for particular groups of adults. Secondly we emphasise research evidence confirming the demonstrable value of learning for purposes other than those that are immediately vocational. We identify links between lifelong and life wide learning on one hand, and health and wellbeing on the other. Part of the paper involves international comparisons with other forms of adult learning that Australia might learn from, adapt or borrow. We make particular reference to research underpinning the recent Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning by NIACE in the United Kingdom. Our first main conclusion has to do with equity. Adult and community education (ACE) in Australia is currently seen to be least available or accessible to those Australians with the most limited and most negative experiences of school education, but the most need to learn in non-vocational domains. These groups include older Australians, some men and women, people not in paid work, and rural, isolated and Indigenous people. Our second main conclusion is that, to realise adult learning's future potential, we need changes to government policies, research and practice that acknowledge and actively support the broader nature and value of learning for life across all age groups. To paraphrase research from Belgium by Sfard (2008), based around Beck's (1986) exploration of reflexive modernity, the adult education function of ACE is in dire straits, unless education is seen as being much more valuable than the sum of individual vocational competencies, and particularly unless it is also recognised, valued and supported as one of many valuable outcomes of social, lifelong and lifewide learning throughout the community.