Individual Responses to Stress and Burnout: Workplace Issues for Australian Nurses and Midwives
The presentation of this quantitative research looks at the relationship between nurses' and midwives' individual responses and organisational factors concerning stress and burnout in the workplace. This research aims to understand and assess the associations and relationships between nurses' and midwives' individual responses and factors causing stress and burnout in the workplace. This might enable nurses and midwives to reduce the impact of negative consequences of stress and burnout in conjunction with ethical and professional changes within nursing work practices. A questionnaire was developed and administered to nurses and midwives working in healthcare organisations in Australia to document their awareness of their individual responses to workplace issues and factors leading to stress and burnout. The majority of this study's respondents were dealing with moderate levels of stress and burnout and showed moderate levels of self-imposed work pressure and motivation which related to work behaviours. The three factors linked with stress for this study; being the work environment, psychosocial effects, and job dissatisfaction were all positively associated with exhaustion, the factor linked with burnout. Important factors linked with stress and burnout included time-related issues, excessive workloads, low morale as well as powerlessness. According to this research, organisational support could be improved so that nurses and midwives can support their colleagues.
Acupuncture: finding a place in integrative medicine
The very existence of acupuncture today could be considered fortunate, considering the oppressions it has endured during the past 120 years. Saks (1995) sees acupuncture in late nineteenth century Western societies being pushed to the brink of extinction by orthodoxmedicine’s rejection of the technique. Fruehauf (1999) describes how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) within China suffered oppression throughout the first half of the twentieth century, initially under the Republican revolt led by Sun Yat-sen in 1911. Legislation to restrict TCM in China in 1929 was only halted due to street protests. Mao Zedong’s admonition of’old doctors’ in 1942 would for the next 25 years serve as the Red Guard’s main license for the persecution of the theory, culture, education and practice of traditional medicine.In Australia, O’Neill (1994) describes a significant breakthrough in TCM’s quest for government recognition of the profession as being linked to the actions of one of its perceived opponents, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC). When the NH&MRCargued against registration of traditional (non-medical) acupuncturists because of concerns that their practice was unsafe, the practitioners themselves proposed that registration would instead address these concerns. The argument had shifted from one of scientifically proving the efficacy of TCM, rendered largely invalid because of the significant proportion of medical practitionerspracticing or recommending acupuncture, to one of public safety. Safe standards became linked with education and training, with both undergraduate education for beginning practitioners and postgraduate training for practicing professionals, wanting to include acupuncture as part of an integrated treatment regime, moving into the universitysector (Easthope 2002).
Complementary medicine in the context of medical dominance
Complementary medicine professionals need to be aware of the historical, social and economic context in which the current health care system has evolved, and reflect critically upon their multiple roles within this system. Confident and informed advocacy for the practice of complementary medicine is facilitated by this awareness. This paper briefly identifies some of the key issues relevant to the practice of complementary medicine in a context of biomedical dominance.
Factors contributing to the variation in antibiotic prescribing among primary health care physicians: a systematic review
Complementary Medicine Education: Keeping Your distance
Complimentary medicine educators face increasing demand for distance education courses. Advantages and disadvantages of teaching and learning complementary medicine by distance, and strategies for meeting distance education challenges are discussed.
On philosophy, discourse, and context: complementary medicine practitioner responses to meeting work practices with evidence-based medicine
This thesis explores the interface between professional knowledge and evidence-based medicine research for Australian naturopathic and Western herbal medicine practitioners. The focus is the boundary between practice philosophies, concepts of illness causality, reasoning of knowledge and the ways participants negotiate epistemological pluralism in relation to these. The aim is to clarify reasoning underlying action and to understand how this intersects with current concepts of knowing in healthcare.
The integration of study and work-integrated learning experience through the sequential, embedded completion of tertiary qualifications
A number of different models have been developed to integrate both Vocational Education and Training (VET) and university study with a view to producing work-ready graduates. This paper describes one joint initiative which allows students to integrate their theoretical study and WIL experience by supporting a sequential, embedded accomplishment of qualifications across both VET and university with a single higher education enrolment. Students in the dual-sector degrees have welcomed the skill-based practical work involved with VET education while learning the theoretical concepts of their university education. The need for a more seamless engagement with VET and university study is becoming more urgent and there are a large number of possibilities to explore, particularly relating to the differences in processes and philosophies between the VET and university sectors. This paper identifies some of the key issues and proposes some solutions
Perspectives on Acupuncture
Acupuncture is evaluated from the perspectives of evidence-based medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, clinical casestudies and the practitioner as a healer. Consideration of multiple perspectives is desirable in optimising the integration of thismodality into medicine systems worldwide.
Vehicles to Promote Positive Ageing: Natural Therapies, Counselling, Music and the Creative Arts
The new millennium sees people living longer than ever. Demographers tell us that today's young adults can expect to live past 80. Biologists inform us that increasingly older people will live healthier lives. They predict a 'compression of morbidity' that will result in older patients experiencing long, healthy and active lives with short periods of severe disability or debilitating illnesses before death (Fries 1984). The buzz word in the gerontology field these days is 'active life expectancy'. Kart (1997 p105) defines this concept as 'the period of life free of limitations in activities of daily living'. People are asking the question, 'how many years can we expect to enjoy?'Not surprisingly, the emphasis of many health programs and policies, and increasingly more so in the future, is on longevity and quality of life. Scientists argue that lifestyle habits improve the quality of life and may prolong life (National Institute of Aging 1993). A study on centenarians found them to have a positive outlook and sense of optimism (Poon et al. 1992), highlighting the importance of mind and body connections. As Tirrito (2003 p 83) notes health is linked to life satisfaction and well-being and 'people who have good health are happier, have a better sense of well-being, have friends, and tend to be satisfied with life'. This message is increasingly being appreciated by consumers. More and more people are recognising that lifestyle offers one of the greatest paybacks in terms of improving health and quality of life.
The delivery of university and VET fully integrated degree programs
The University of New England (UNE) and TAFE New England (TNE) commenced delivery of an innovative integrated degrees program in community health in trimester 1, 2014. The degrees will allow students to engage in simultaneous, integrated Vocational Education and Training (VET) and university study leading to both VET and degree qualifications. The outcome of the study program allows students to integrate their study and WIL experience by supporting a sequential, embedded accomplishment of qualifications. The differences in processes and philosophies between VET and Higher Education institutions in relation to WIL have kept the delivery of this kind of study separated, but integration has now become more achievable due to the extension of AQF compliance to the higher education sector. Students in the dual-sector degrees have welcomed the skill-based practical work involved with VET education while learning the theoretical concepts of their university education with a single enrolment. The need for a more seamless engagement with VET and university study is becoming more urgent and there are a large number of possibilities to explore. This paper identifies some of the key issues and proposes some solutions.