Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    The nature and impact of occupational trauma exposure among staff working in a forensic medical and scientific service: a qualitative interview study
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023) ;
    Cook, O
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    Cartwright, A
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    Brondolo, E
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    Bassed, R
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    Bugeja, L

    Employees of forensic medical service organizations are exposed to occupational trauma during their clinical, pathology, scientific and corporate duties. Adverse impacts, associated with occupational trauma exposure, can illicit negative outcomes that may influence a person's professional practice as well as their physical, behavioural and psychological reactions. Research exploring the impact of trauma exposure has typically focused on reduction of exposure, failing to address workplaces where exposure to trauma is a core activity for employees. This study explored the experiences of staff working at a state-wide forensic medical and scientific institution in Australia. Thematic analysis of 25 key-informant interviews identified that 1) trauma exposure is common and multifactorial in nature" 2) impacts of trauma exposure varies by personal characteristics and case circumstances" and 3) trauma exposure can be better managed when organizational and individual responsibility align. Awareness that a strong sense of purpose and contribution derived from the important nature of the work delivered, allows individuals to remain employed. The study also identified that facilitating a culture of openness regarding trauma exposure can lead to improved workplace wellbeing and retention of this dedicated workforce.

  • Publication
    Seismic, or Topogorgical, Poetry
    (Routledge, 2020)
    The Northern Tableland plateau of New South Wales, Australia, is geologically and botanically diverse. Intensively cleared of its original vegetation since European settlement in the late-eighteenth century, the Tableland comprises a network of gorges, around which a conservation system has developed in recent decades. Protected from human impacts by virtue of the ruggedness and inaccessibility of the terrain, endemic plants populate the rim and interior reaches of these chasms. With a focus on the Tableland region, this chapter proposes a collaborative, multispecies, and postcolonial geopoetics of Australian gorgelands. In particular, it outlines three methods of geopoetics: gorge-walking, concrete-visual composition, and sonnetic composting. These approaches move between poetic practice, geographical consciousness, and botanical discourse within a phyto-geopoetics of place. Beginning with the journals of nineteenth-century explorer-surveyor John Oxley as his party traveled through the Tableland, this chapter theorizes topogorgical poetry as a mode of geopoetic practice that unsettles the topographical tradition prevailing in landscape writing. The topogorgical mode heralds a shift from the scenic to the seismic—from the visual orientation of pleasing prospects to the corporeal intergradations of convulsive country. The chapter situates my Tableland phyto-geopoetics in relation to radical landscape poetry, experimental art, and field-based creative practices.