Scoping study to inform the development of the new national nutrition policy for Australia

This comprehensive report (748 pages) scopes a new nutrition policy for Australia (RFT 028/1213) Australian Department of Health and Ageing. Optimum nutrition is fundamental to good health. It is essential for the normal growth and physical and cognitive development of infants and children, contributes significantly to quality of life, wellbeing and workforce productivity, enhances resistance to infection and reduces the risk of obesity, chronic disease and premature death (AIHW 2012; NHMRC 2013). This scoping study reviews the current literature to identify: - key population health issues related to diet and nutrition within the Australian population; and - where gaps in current policy are evident. The scoping study reviews the literature on past and present national and international nutrition policies, strategies (policy actions), interventions and evaluations. The study analyses the evidence from the literature review and formulates recommendations regarding the key elements of effective nutrition policies including scope, guiding principles, format, key inclusions (content), development processes, governance, implementation, timelines, monitoring and surveillance, evaluation and review to guide the development of a new comprehensive National Nutrition Policy for Australia.

Brace yourself for a fatter, unhealthier Queensland after health promotion cuts

Queensland appears intent on dismantling its public and preventive health services. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg last week outlined the rationale for getting rid of more than 150 jobs in nutrition, health promotion and Indigenous health, arguing previous “campaigns” and “messaging” around obesity were “piecemeal” and had “grossly failed”. The plan now, the minister argued, is to focus on a new centrally-driven and high-profile approach...

Safety impacts of alcohol and other drugs in construction

Estimated 638,400 persons suffered a work-related injury or illness in 2009-2010 and 337 lost their lives as a result in 2009-2010. In 2013-2014, there were 186 fatalities with 29 (16%) occurring in construction. Very little is known about what proportion of accidents are directly attributable to the effects of AOD. Anecdotal evidence highlights issues of AOD and its association with safety risk on construction sites. Research Objective: • To scientifically evaluate the relationship between the use of AOD and the safety impacts within the Australian construction industry to engender a cultural change in the workforce • A nationally consistent and collaborative approach involving government, employers and employees, unions and other key industry stakeholders

The construction of a taxonomy of early childhood educators’ work

Despite considerable research on the impact of early childhood education (ECE), there is little empirical evidence about what the everyday work of educators entails. This paper reports on the development of a tool to capture generalisable data on the everyday work of educators so as to inform effective workforce policy. This tool—a taxonomy of early childhood educators’ work—was developed by drawing on the expertise of six early years’ experts from Australia and the United States of America (USA) and includes time-use diaries, focus groups and interviews with 21 early childhood educators working in long day care and preschool services. The taxonomy, which we present here, consists of 10 domains, each with a number of sub-classes. We propose that this taxonomy is a useful codification system for ascertaining the everyday work tasks, activities and actions of early childhood educators in diverse early years’ settings. It is anticipated that the taxonomy will prove a valuable tool for subsequent research investigating the early childhood workforce.

A f/oxymoron? : Women, creativity and the suburbs

Donald Horne famously wrote, ‘Australia was born urban and quickly grew suburban’ (1964), an observation that carries a weight of assumptions about suburban living. Historically, the Australian suburbs have been regarded as places of retreat, family life and female activity, and subsequently as a place where not much of interest happens. By contrast, a city's central areas are seen as more dynamic spaces and, with recent creative city thinking and planning, as potential powerhouses of innovation and creativity. This article challenges assumptions about suburban living as passive places of retreat through an examination of women in the creative workforce who are living and working in the suburbs. It draws on historical accounts of creative suburban activity and a research project that mapped and investigated the experience of creative workers in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne. The study finds that there is much creative work occurring in suburban localities, but this is not as unusual as might be expected.

The performance in context model: A 21st century tertiary dance teaching pedagogy

Despite tertiary institutions acknowledging that reflective practice is an essential component of undergraduate dance teacher training, there is often a disparity between the tertiary students’ reflective skills and the more sophisticated reflective ability needed to navigate the 21st century workforce (Silva 2008). This paper charts the evolution of a dance teaching reflective pedagogy within a suite of three units across a three-year undergraduate dance teacher-training course for school, community and studio dance teachers. This reflective pedagogy based on exploration, collaboration, critical questioning and connections with community forms the basis of a model of tertiary dance teacher- training; the Performance in Context Model (PCM). Over the past four years, through four cycles of action research, the PCM pedagogy, context and engagement with community has developed into a successful model integrating practical dance teaching skills, artistry and community engagement. The PCM represents a holistic collaborative approach to dance teacher education: the marrying of ‘teacher-as-artist’, ‘teacher-as-performer’ and ‘teacher-as-researcher’. More specifically, it emphasises the need for mature, reflective, receptive and flexible approaches in response to dance teaching and learning. These are enacted in a variety of contexts, with tertiary dance teaching students identifying as teaching artists, as well as researchers of their own practice.

Understanding who cares: Creating the evidence to address the long-standing policy problem of staff shortages in early childhood education and care

Evidence-based policy is a means of ensuring that policy is informed by more than ideology or expedience. However, what constitutes robust evidence is highly contested. In this paper, we argue policy must draw on quantitative and qualitative data. We do this in relation to a long entrenched problem in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce policy. A critical shortage of qualified staff threatens the attainment of broader child and family policy objectives linked to the provision of ECEC and has not been successfully addressed by initiatives to date. We establish some of the limitations of existing quantitative data sets and consider the potential of qualitative studies to inform ECEC workforce policy. The adoption of both quantitative and qualitative methods is needed to illuminate the complex nature of the work undertaken by early childhood educators, as well as the environmental factors that sustain job satisfaction in a demanding and poorly understood working environment.

Governing child care in neoliberal times: Discursive constructions of children as economic units and early childhood educators as investment brokers

At any given time in the field of early childhood, there are discourses at play, producing images of children, and these ways of seeing children might be competing, colliding and/or complementing each other. It is fairly widely accepted that in many countries there are versions of dominant discourses that shape and are shaped by current practices in the field of early childhood. These include (1) romantic notions of children running free and connecting with nature and (2) the ‘Bart Simpson’ version of the naughty, cute or savage child, untamed and in need of civilising. These are far from being the only two discursive constructions of children present in current policies and practices. If early childhood professionals are to be active in shaping and implementing policies that affect their work and workforce, it is important that they are aware of the forces at play. In this article, we point to another powerful discourse at play in the Australian context of early childhood education, the image of children as economic units: investments in the future. We show how a ‘moment of arising’ in contemporary policy contexts, dominated by neoliberal principles of reform and competition, has charged early childhood educators in Australia with the duties of a ‘broker’, ensuring that young children are worth the investment. In this article, we begin with (1) a key policy document in early childhood education in Australia and examine the discursive affordances which shape the document. Next, (2) we pinpoint the shifts in how the work of child care is perceived by interrogating this key policy document through a methodology of discursive analysis. We then turn attention (3) to the work of this policy document along with other discourses which directly affect images of children and the shaping role these have on the work of educators. We conclude with (4) a consideration of how the work of early childhood professionals has come to be shaped by this economic discourse, and how they are being required to both work within the policy imperatives and likely to resist this new demand of them.

Australian fly-in, fly-out operations: Impacts on communities, safety workers and their families

Background Australia’s mineral, resource and infrastructure sectors continues to expand as operations in rural and remote locations increasingly rely on fly-in, fly-out or drive-in, drive-out workforces in order to become economically competitive. The issues in employing these workforces are becoming more apparent and include a range of physical, mental, psychosocial, safety and community challenges. Objectives This review aims to consolidate a range of research conducted to communicate potential challenges for industry in relation to a wide variety of issues when engaging and using FIFO/DIDO workforces which includes roster design, working hours, fatigue, safety performance, employee wellbeing, turnover, psychosocial relationships and community concerns. Methods A wide literature review was performed using EBSCOhost and Google Scholar, with a focus on FIFO or DIDO workforces engaged within the resources sector. Results A number of existing gaps in the management of FIFO workforces and potential for future research were identified. This included the identification of various roster designs and hours worked across the resources industry and how to best understand the influences of roster swings, and work hours on fatigue, safety, psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction. Fatigue management, particularly in relation to travelling after extended work shifts can increase the risk for road safety and influence safety performance while at work due to a culmination of long hours, roster cycle and accumulated sleep debt. Further challenges associated with the engagement of this workforce include feelings of isolation, physiological and general health and lifestyle concerns. Conclusions FIFO workforces appear to be at an increased risk physically and mentally due to a wide range of influences of this unique lifestyle, particularly in relation to rosters, length of shift and feelings of community disengagement. Research and data collected has been limited in understanding the influences on employee engagement, satisfaction, retention and safety. Ensuring the challenges associated with FIFO employment are understood, addressed and communicated to workers and their families may assist.

Preparing health science students for interdisciplinary professional practice

In 2002, a number of lecturers from different clinical schools within the Faculty of Health Sciences at La Trobe University embarked on the development of a new interdisciplinary professional practice subject to be undertaken by all final-year undergraduate health science students. The subject was designed to better prepare students for their first professional appointment by introducing them to the concepts of interdisciplinary teamwork, the health care context, and the challenges and constraints that organizational contexts present. This report details the background of the project, the consultation and development that took place in the design of the subject, and implementation of the subject. The uniqueness of the project is explained by the number of disciplines involved, the online delivery, and the focus on a set of generic graduate attributes for health science students. It is hoped that students who have undertaken this subject will have a better understanding of the roles of other health professionals and the context in which they will be working by grappling with many real-life professional issues that they will face when they graduate and enter the workforce.

Strategies for improving safety and health of ethnic minority construction workers

The construction industries of developed countries are faced with an aging workforce and a shortage of recruits. It is common for migrant workers/ethnic minorities (EMs) who are already part of the society to join the construction industry. With increasing involvement of EMs in the construction industry, effective strategies for improving their safety and health are urgently needed. The existing body of knowledge is mainly derived from research conducted in English-speaking countries with Western cultures. Research on safety of migrant/EM construction workers in multidialect Asian countries with Eastern cultures has been lacking. This study aimed to identify various strategies for improving the safety and health of EM construction workers from the Asian perspective. Twenty-two face-to-face semistructured interviews were performed with safety professionals in Hong Kong followed by two rounds of Delphi survey with 18 safety experts to verify the interview findings and rank the relative importance of the strategies. The study unveiled 14 strategies for improving the safety performance of EM workers. The three most important ones identified were: (1) to provide safety training in EM native languages; (2) that government and industry associations should play an active role in promoting health and safety awareness of EM workers, and; (3) to encourage EM workers to learn the local language. This study contributes to filling the research gap by evaluating the strategies for improving safety of migrant/EM construction workers in Asian countries with Eastern cultures in which English is not the first language. Research findings would assist occupational health and safety experts and relevant stakeholders in designing strategies for improving the safety and health of EM workers, which will ultimately improve overall safety performance of the construction industry.

Many disciplines-common approach: Experiences in the development and delivery of an interprofessional health subject

In 2004, the Faculty of Health Sciences at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, introduced a new, final-year subject ‘Interdisciplinary Professional Practice’. The subject is taught to all students enrolled in the 11 allied health and human service disciplines at La Trobe University across metropolitan and rural campuses. The delivery is online to overcome timetabling barriers and to provide time and geographic flexibility. The subject is presented using an enquiry-based learning model. Students are exposed to the concepts of interdisciplinary teamwork through shared learning across professional boundaries to enable a collaborative workforce. An outline of the background development and design of this subject, and its implementation and content areas is presented. A discussion of relevant literature and an analysis of the subject evaluations and focus groups that have guided subject development to enhance student learning over eight cohorts is included.