Clinical perceptions of radiation therapy undergraduate competency standards

Introduction The multifactorial nature of clinical skills development makes assessment of undergraduate radiation therapist competence level by clinical mentors challenging. A recent overhaul of the clinical assessment strategy at Queensland University of Technology has moved away from the high-stakes Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to encompass a more continuous measure of competence. This quantitative study aimed to gather stakeholder evidence to inform development of standards by which to measure student competence for a range of levels of progression. Methods A simple anonymous questionnaire was distributed to all Queensland radiation therapists. The tool asked respondents to assign different levels of competency with a range of clinical tasks to different levels of student. All data were anonymous and was combined for analysis using Microsoft Excel. Results Feedback indicated good agreement with tasks that specified amount of direction required and this has been incorporated into the new clinical achievements record that the students need to have signed off. Additional puzzling findings suggested higher expectations with planning tasks than with treatment-based tasks. Conclusion The findings suggest that the amount of direction required by students is a valid indicator of their level and has been adopted into the clinical assessment scheme. Further work will build on this to further define standards of competency for undergraduates.

Editorial introduction

The Editorial team of the Postcolonial Directions in Education (PDE) online journal welcomes this special issue, Vol. 3 No. 1, guest-edited by Dr. Nisha Thapliyal of the University of Newcastle, Australia. The special issue explores a crucial concern for education: the relationship between learning, knowledge and collective action for social transformation. It is all the more important for scholars of education to research and write about this, given today’s context of a sustained neo-liberal current in which individualism and privatisation are being promoted above notions of social responsibility for the collective good.

Sustainability literacy of older people in retirement villages

With many developed countries experiencing the aging of the population, older people play a large role in contributing to environmental problems but also to environmental solutions. The purpose of this research is to understand the awareness and behavior of current older people living in retirement villages towards sustainability development. To achieve this, a sustainability literacy survey was conducted with 65 older residents of a private retirement village located 10 Km outside the Brisbane, Australia’s central business district (CBD). Most of residents recognized the importance of environment protection and would like to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. In addition, the majority were willing to pay higher prices for a living environment with sustainable features. The importance of positive social communications was emphasized with most residents having established good relationships with others in the village. The findings provide an important insight into consumer perspectives regarding the sustainable features that should and can be incorporated into the village planning and development.

Imaginging the good Indigenous citizen : race war and the pathology of partiarchal white sovereignty

In June 2007, the Australian federal government sent military and policy into Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory on the premise that sexual abuse of children was rampant and a national crisis. This article draws on Foucault’s work on sovereignty and rights to argue that patriarchal white sovereignty as a regime of power deploys a discourse of pathology in the exercising of sovereign right to subjugate and discipline Indigenous people as good citizens.

Relocating a flood-affected community : good planning or good politics?

Problem, research strategy and findings: On January 10, 2011, the town of Grantham, Queensland (Australia), was inundated with a flash flood in which 12 of the town's 370 residents drowned. The overall damage bill in Queensland was AUD∃2.38 billion (USD∃2.4 billion) with 35 deaths, and more than three-quarters of the state was declared a flood disaster zone. In this study, we focus on the unusual and even rare decision to relocate Grantham in March 2011. The Lockyer Valley Regional Council (LVRC) acquired a 377-hectare (932-acre) site to enable a voluntary swap of equivalent-sized lots. In addition, planning regulations were set aside to streamline the relocation of a portion of the town. We review the natural hazard literature as it relates to community relocation, state and local government documents related to Grantham, and reports and newspaper articles related to the flood. We also analyze data from interviews with key stakeholders. We document the process of community relocation, assess the relocation process in Grantham against best practice, examine whether the process of community relocation can be upscaled and if the Grantham relocation is an example of good planning or good politics. Takeaway for practice: Our study reveals two key messages for practice. Community relocation (albeit a small one) is possible, and the process can be done quickly; some Grantham residents moved into their new, relocated homes in December 2012, just 11 months after the flood. Moreover, the role of existing planning regulations can be a hindrance to quick action; political leadership, particularly at the local level, is key to implementing the relocation.

Exercise barriers self-efficacy : development and validation of a subcale for individuals with cancer-related lymphedema

Background No tool exists to measure self-efficacy for overcoming lymphedema-related exercise barriers in individuals with cancer-related lymphedema. However, an existing scale measures confidence to overcome general exercise barriers in cancer survivors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop, validate and assess the reliability of a subscale, to be used in conjunction with the general barriers scale, for determining exercise barriers self-efficacy in individuals facing lymphedema-related exercise barriers. Methods A lymphedema-specific exercise barriers self-efficacy subscale was developed and validated using a cohort of 106 cancer survivors with cancer-related lymphedema, from Brisbane, Australia. An initial ten-item lymphedema-specific barrier subscale was developed and tested, with participant feedback and principal components analysis results used to guide development of the final version. Validity and test-retest reliability analyses were conducted on the final subscale. Results The final lymphedema-specific subscale contained five items. Principal components analysis revealed these items loaded highly (> 0.75) on a separate factor when tested with a well-established nine-item general barriers scale. The final five-item subscale demonstrated good construct and criterion validity, high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha=0.93) and test-retest reliability (ICC=0.67, p< 0.01). Conclusions A valid and reliable lymphedema-specific subscale has been developed to assess exercise barriers self-efficacy in individuals with cancer-related lymphedema. This scale can be used in conjunction with an existing general exercise barriers scale to enhance exercise adherence in this understudied patient group.

Creating good lives through computer games

In this chapter we aim to explore how videogames can lead to improvements in wellbeing. Following Keyes (2007) and Huppert and So (2012) we view wellbeing as a multidimensional concept with both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects. In this chapter we take a broad approach in terms of exploring the impact of videogames on the psychological, social, and physical components of wellbeing. We explore how videogames have been shown to have an impact in each of these domains. Although there is a great deal of evidence for the actual and potential positive impacts of videogames, there are many unanswered questions regarding the situations in which there is likely to be an impact of videogame play on wellbeing, as well as the aspects of wellbeing that are likely to be impacted by videogame play. We conclude the chapter by outlining the key questions for future research. Our focus in this chapter is on the positive influences of videogames. We do not explore research on contexts in which negative impacts are possible or subgroups for which videogames could cause harm. However, these questions are obviously important and we see balanced engagement with age-appropriate videogames as a key prerequisite for any of the wellbeing benefits discussed below.

Gaming well: Links between videogames and flourishing mental health

This paper is a review of the state of play of research linking videogaming and flourishing, and explores the role of videogames and technology to improve mental health and well-being. Its purpose is to develop understandings about the positive intersection of gaming and well-being, to document evidence regarding links between videogames and positive mental health, and to provide guidelines for use by other researchers as they design and use tools and games to improve mental health and well-being. Using Huppert's (Huppert and So, 2013) proposition that to flourish is more than the absence of mental disorder but rather a combination of feeling good and functioning effectively, resulting in high levels of mental well-being, and Seligman's (Seligman, 2011) PERMA theory of well-being, the paper identifies strengths in existing games that generate positive affect, positive functioning, and positive social functioning, contributing to, and supporting mental health and well-being.

Art and the anxious city: Public art, public interest and the public good

While public art is often considered a key hallmark of a creative city, artworks in the public realm also have the capacity to act as lightening rods for social anxiety at times of perceived crisis. This paper considers recent debates about government-sponsored public art projects in Queensland in light of three international case studies: Rodin’s Thinker in Paris, Tilted Arc in New York and Vault in Melbourne. It considers whether consensus positions on public art are possible or desirable in light of issues of spatial control, and proposes that well-negotiated anxieties about public art may be an indicator of creative vibrancy and dynamism that will assist in the future understanding of Queensland’s experiment with government-mandated public art.

What’s best for our lymphoedema patients? Have we lost the patient as an individual in the quest for good science?

In a recent issue of the Journal of Lymphoedema, Nickolaidis and Karlsson (2013) indicated that most of the standard treatments for lymphoedema patients were explored and developed early last century, and suggested that holistic assessment of the individual is critical for good outcomes, but that perhaps “less emphasis should be placed on manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) and more on compression, exercise and weight reduction.”

Injecting Creative Commons Licensing into university policy and publishing

Australian universities are publishing previously unpublished works such as theses in institutional repositories or by publishing scholarly journals on their own presses. This re-invented role of publisher is due in part, to the availability of digital age technologies which scaffold the publishing process and facilitate inexpensive production of digital-only journals. The global push for Open Access to the outputs of publicly-funded research has also been a major driver. Research funder mandates and institutional Open Access policies apply only to publications for which the authors have no expectation of commercial gain. In all cases the primary motivation is to disseminate widely for maximum uptake with attribution to the author thereby increasing impact. This makes works published in institutional repositories and on university presses ideal candidates for Creative Commons licences.

Arabic translation, adaptation and modification of the dialysis symptom index for chronic kidney disease stages four and five

Background Symptom burden in chronic kidney disease (CKD) is poorly understood. To date, the majority of research focuses on single symptoms and there is a lack of suitable multidimensional symptom measures. The purpose of this study was to modify, translate, cross-culturally adapt and psychometrically analyse the Dialysis Symptom Index (DSI). Methods The study methods involved four phases: modification, translation, pilot-testing with a bilingual non-CKD sample and then psychometric testing with the target population. Content validity was assessed using an expert panel. Inter-rater agreement, test-retest reliability and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were calculated to demonstrate reliability of the modified DSI. Discriminative and convergent validity were assessed to demonstrate construct validity. Results Content validity index during translation was 0.98. In the pilot study with 25 bilingual students a moderate to perfect agreement (Kappa statistic = 0.60-1.00) was found between English and Arabic versions of the modified DSI. The main study recruited 433 patients CKD with stages 4 and 5. The modified DSI was able to discriminate between non-dialysis and dialysis groups (p < 0.001) and demonstrated convergent validity with domains of the Kidney Disease Quality of Life short form. Excellent test-retest and internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.91) reliability were also demonstrated. Conclusion The Arabic version of the modified DSI demonstrated good psychometric properties, measures the multidimensional nature of symptoms and can be used to assess symptom burden at different stages of CKD. The modified instrument, renamed the CKD Symptom Burden Index (CKD-SBI), should encourage greater clinical and research attention to symptom burden in CKD.

A novel population balance model for the dilute acid hydrolysis of hemicellulose

Acid hydrolysis is a popular pretreatment for removing hemicellulose from lignocelluloses in order to produce a digestible substrate for enzymatic saccharification. In this work, a novel model for the dilute acid hydrolysis of hemicellulose within sugarcane bagasse is presented and calibrated against experimental oligomer profiles. The efficacy of mathematical models as hydrolysis yield predictors and as vehicles for investigating the mechanisms of acid hydrolysis is also examined. Experimental xylose, oligomer (degree of polymerisation 2 to 6) and furfural yield profiles were obtained for bagasse under dilute acid hydrolysis conditions at temperatures ranging from 110C to 170C. Population balance kinetics, diffusion and porosity evolution were incorporated into a mathematical model of the acid hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse. This model was able to produce a good fit to experimental xylose yield data with only three unknown kinetic parameters ka, kb and kd. However, fitting this same model to an expanded data set of oligomeric and furfural yield profiles did not successfully reproduce the experimental results. It was found that a ``hard-to-hydrolyse'' parameter, $\alpha$, was required in the model to ensure reproducibility of the experimental oligomer profiles at 110C, 125C and 140C. The parameters obtained through the fitting exercises at lower temperatures were able to be used to predict the oligomer profiles at 155C and 170C with promising results. The interpretation of kinetic parameters obtained by fitting a model to only a single set of data may be ambiguous. Although these parameters may correctly reproduce the data, they may not be indicative of the actual rate parameters, unless some care has been taken to ensure that the model describes the true mechanisms of acid hydrolysis. It is possible to challenge the robustness of the model by expanding the experimental data set and hence limiting the parameter space for the fitting parameters. The novel combination of ``hard-to-hydrolyse'' and population balance dynamics in the model presented here appears to stand up to such rigorous fitting constraints.

Moral vitalism: Seeing good and evil as real, agentic forces

Moral vitalism refers to a tendency to view good and evil as actual forces that can influence people and events. We introduce a scale designed to assess the belief in moral vitalism. High scorers on the scale endorse items such as “There are underlying forces of good and evil in this world”. After establishing the reliability and criterion validity of the scale (Studies 1, 2a, 2b), we examined the predictive validity of the moral vitalism scale, showing that “moral vitalists” worry about being possessed by evil (Study 3), being contaminated through contact with evil people (Study 4), and forfeiting their own mental purity (Study 5). We discuss the nature of moral vitalism and the implications of the construct for understanding the role of metaphysical lay theories about the nature of good and evil in moral reasoning.

The way schools cope with learning difficulties is doing more harm than good

We fail children who experience difficulty in school and with learning almost every day in Australia and in so many ways. These children can fall through a myriad of cracks: cracks that appear in some schools and not others, cracks that exist for different reasons whether they be capacity, belief or resource-related, and cracks that are exacerbated by industrial relations and education policy. Whatever their origin, these cracks need to be addressed.