Context-specific stressors, work-related social support and work-family conflict : a mediation study

Understanding the antecedents of work-family conflict is important as it allows organisations to effectively engage in work design for professional employees. This study examines the impact of sources of social support as antecedents of work-family conflict. The hypotheses were tests using Partial Least Squares modelling on a sample of 366 professional employees. The path model showed that context-specific stressors impacted positively on job demand, which led to higher levels of work-family conflict. Contrary to our expectation, non-work related social support did not have any statistical relationship with job demand and work-family conflict. In addition, individuals experiencing high job demands were found to obtain more social support from both work and non-work-related sources. Individuals with more work-related social support were less likely to have less work-family conflict. Surprisingly, non-work social support sources had no statistically significant relationship with work-family conflict.

Consciousness, solidarity and hope as prevention and rehabilitation

This paper grapples with the question of how progressive criminologists might approach working with people who have committed violent or predatory crimes, or are ‘at risk’ of doing so. Progressives have often been uneasy about ‘intervention’ with people who offend: but in the face of the destructiveness of violence, especially in some parts of the world, a posture of simple non-intervention won’t suffice. I suggest three central principles – which I call consciousness, solidarity and hope – that may guide us in developing ways of working with offenders that are both progressive and effective.

Re : Why optometry must work from urban and regional Aboriginal health services

We are writing to support the recent Viewpoint written by Anjou, Boudville and Taylor ‘Why optometry must work in Aboriginal Health Services in urban and regional Australia’.[1] We are a group of optometrists who provide optometric services within Aboriginal Health Services in urban and regional settings and we agree that access to optometry in Aboriginal Health Services should be supported and expanded in an effort to ‘close the gap’ for vision.

Whole-body cryotherapy : empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives

Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) involves short exposures to air temperatures below –100°C. WBC is increasingly accessible to athletes, and is purported to enhance recovery after exercise and facilitate rehabilitation postinjury. Our objective was to review the efficacy and effectiveness of WBC using empirical evidence from controlled trials. We found ten relevant reports; the majority were based on small numbers of active athletes aged less than 35 years. Although WBC produces a large temperature gradient for tissue cooling, the relatively poor thermal conductivity of air prevents significant subcutaneous and core body cooling. There is weak evidence from controlled studies that WBC enhances antioxidant capacity and parasympathetic reactivation, and alters inflammatory pathways relevant to sports recovery. A series of small randomized studies found WBC offers improvements in subjective recovery and muscle soreness following metabolic or mechanical overload, but little benefit towards functional recovery. There is evidence from one study only that WBC may assist rehabilitation for adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder. There were no adverse events associated with WBC; however, studies did not seem to undertake active surveillance of predefined adverse events. Until further research is available, athletes should remain cognizant that less expensive modes of cryotherapy, such as local ice-pack application or cold-water immersion, offer comparable physiological and clinical effects to WBC.

A product of their culture : Using a value systems approach to understand the work practices of journalists

Past approaches adopted by scholars in comparing international news have tended to concentrate on political and economic perspectives, while the role that culture plays in determining news has been somewhat neglected until recently. This article examines the role of culture in the development of journalistic practices and how a value systems approach can be applied to understanding journalism practices across cultures. Specifically, the article compares German and Anglo-American journalism practices with a view to locating differences between these traditions. The study demonstrates that using value systems as developed by Dutch anthropologist Geert Hofstede can be immensely useful in comparing the differences between the two traditions, as well as in understanding how journalists in these traditions report about the world.

The idea of women : representations of power in the work of Charles Bukowski

This thesis is a comparative textual analysis of Charles Bukowski's representations of power in relation to the idea of women. The exegesis explores Bukowski's idea of women and power as exemplified by the representational differences between his short stories for Hustler Magazine and his novel Women. The creative piece, a novel, "Many a Broken Hearted Woman" informed and was informed by this research.

Making context work in primary health care

Health care in the community setting is one of the more challenging contexts for evidence-based practice. Community-based care comprises more than simply transplanting hospital care into people’s homes; in addition to the provision of supportive services, it also takes a range of approaches to health care practice that promotes optimal health and builds the capacity of individuals and communities to respond to their health needs. Primary health care is comprised of the diverse activities that build sustainable community capacity to achieve health and well-being throughout all of life’s stages. The expansive nature of primary health care means that a map for practice is not feasible; however a framework which can be adapted to suit the variety of situations and practice settings can be identified. The focus of this chapter is to broadly define and explore the principles of primary health care and consider the contexts of primary health care in relation to evidence-based practice.

Prevalence of undiagnosed urinary tract infections on admission to a rehabilitation unit

Background Through clinical observation nursing staff of an inpatient rehabilitation unit identified a link between incontinence and undiagnosed urinary tract infections (UTIs). Further, clinical observation and structured continence management led to the realisation that urinary incontinence often improved, or resolved completely, after treatment with antibiotics. In 2009 a small study found that 30% of admitted rehabilitation patients had an undiagnosed UTI, with the majority admitted post-orthopaedic fracture. We suspected that the frequent use of indwelling urinary catheters (IDCs) in the orthopaedic environment may have been a contributing factor. Therefore, a second, more thorough, study was commenced in 2010 and completed in 2011. Aim The aim of this study was to identify what proportion of patients were admitted to one rehabilitation unit with an undiagnosed UTI over a 12-month period. We wanted to identify and highlight the presence of known risk factors associated with UTI and determine whether urinary incontinence was associated with the presence of UTI. Methods Data were collected from every patient that was admitted over a 12-month period (n=140). The majority of patients were over the age of 65 and had an orthopaedic fracture (36.4%) or stroke (27.1%). Mid-stream urine (MSU) samples, routinely collected and sent for culture and sensitivity as part of standard admission procedure, were used by the treating medical officer to detect the presence of UTI. A data collection sheet was developed, reviewed and trialled, before official data collection commenced. Data were collected as part of usual practice and collated by a research assistant. Inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results This study found that 25 (17.9%) of the 140 patients admitted to rehabilitation had an undiagnosed UTI, with a statistically significant association between prior presence of an IDC and the diagnosis of UTI. Urinary incontinence improved after the completion of treatment with antibiotics. Results further demonstrated a significant association between the confirmation of a UTI on culture and sensitivity and the absence of symptoms usually associated with UTI, such as burning or stinging on urination. Overall, this study suggests careful monitoring of urinary symptoms in patients admitted to rehabilitation, especially in patients with a prior IDC, is warranted.

Spatial metaphor as spatial technique in the work of Michel Foucault

This essay argues that the deployment of spatial metaphor in the writing of Michel Foucault is indivisible from his spatial politics. Beginning with his 1967 essay "Of Other Spaces," the development of Foucault's spatial politics and his growing awareness of the importance to his work of spatial (particularly geographic) metaphors can be charted. The focus here is not the concretisation of Foucault's early spatial obsessions—particularly with regard to the concept of "heterotopia"—into a theory or model. Rather, I am concerned with the way in which those obsessions inform Foucault's major works, in particular The Archaeology of Knowledge and Discipline and Punish. These works, I argue, do not develop a theory of space, but instead perform, through their rhetoric, a kind of spatial praxis. In this sense, Foucault's metaphors become "spatial techniques" for the practice and production of power–knowledge.

Organizational probes : exploring playful interactions in work environment

Playfulness, with non-intrusive elements, can be considered a useful resource for enhancing social awareness and community building within work organizations. Taking inspirations from the cultural probes approach, we developed organizational probes as a set of investigation tools that could provide useful information about employees’ everyday playful experiences within their work organizations. In an academic work environment, we applied our organizational probes over a period of three weeks. Based on the collected data we developed two design concepts for playful technologies in work environments.

Structures of life : the role of molecular structures in scientists' work

The visual and multidimensional representations like images and graphical structures related to biology provide great insights into understanding the complexities of different organisms. Especially, life scientists use different representations of molecular structures to answer biological questions and to better understand cellular processes. Combining results from two field studies, we explore the role of molecular structures in life scientists’ current work from a humanfactors perspective. Our main conclusion is that different representations of molecular structures, due to their visual nature, are important for supporting collaboration, constructing new knowledge and supporting scientists’ professional activities in general.

Doing cultural work : local postcard production and place identity in a rural shire

Studies of place construction in the rural studies literature have largely privileged the role of professionals over that of local lay actors. This paper contributes to redressing this imbalance through a critical case-study of lay postcard production in a rural shire. Drawing on original, qualitative research conducted in the Shire of Ravensthorpe, Western Australia, including in-depth interviews with key participants, the analysis focuses on this lay production—undertaken in the main by women—as cultural work. By emphasising the work of making the postcards along with the cultural work these postcards achieve, this examination foregrounds intersections of material and imagined ruralities. In the process, this study highlights the complexity and importance of this lay contribution to place identity, particularly as positioned within what may be considered rural cultural work.

Gender, emotions and fly-in fly-out work

This paper explores the emotional life of fly‑in fly‑out (FIFO) workers and their families, through an analysis of more than 500 postings made on an online chat forum for mining families. Building on literature on fly‑in fly‑out workers and understandings of emotions as socially constructed, analysis shows how posters to the forum, typically women whose male partners are FIFO workers, construct gendered emotional identities for their partners (sometimes referred to as 'Mr Miner'), and for themselves, as 'mining women', 'mining widows' or the 'mining missus'. Inherent in the creation of gendered emotional subject positions is the process of women undertaking emotion work on and behalf of themselves, their male partners and their children. The findings demonstrate the overarching normative dimensions of women's emotional self‑transformations in the service of their mining partners' careers and the attendant reproduction of everyday patriarchal relations in the private lives of mining families.

Increasing incidence of Clostridium difficile infection, Australia, 2011–2012

Objectives: To report the quarterly incidence of hospital-identified Clostridium difficile infection (HI-CDI) in Australia, and to estimate the burden ascribed to hospital-associated (HA) and community-associated (CA) infections. Design, setting and patients: Prospective surveillance of all cases of CDI diagnosed in hospital patients from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 in 450 public hospitals in all Australian states and the Australian Capital Territory. All patients admitted to inpatient wards or units in acute public hospitals, including psychiatry, rehabilitation and aged care, were included, as well as those attending emergency departments and outpatient clinics. Main outcome measures: Incidence of HI-CDI (primary outcome); proportion and incidence of HA-CDI and CA-CDI (secondary outcomes). Results: The annual incidence of HI-CDI increased from 3.25/10 000 patient-days (PD) in 2011 to 4.03/10 000 PD in 2012. Poisson regression modelling demonstrated a 29% increase (95% CI, 25% to 34%) per quarter between April and December 2011, with a peak of 4.49/10 000 PD in the October–December quarter. The incidence plateaued in January–March 2012 and then declined by 8% (95% CI, − 11% to − 5%) per quarter to 3.76/10 000 PD in July–September 2012, after which the rate rose again by 11% (95% CI, 4% to 19%) per quarter to 4.09/10 000 PD in October–December 2012. Trends were similar for HA-CDI and CA-CDI. A subgroup analysis determined that 26% of cases were CA-CDI. Conclusions: A significant increase in both HA-CDI and CA-CDI identified through hospital surveillance occurred in Australia during 2011–2012. Studies are required to further characterise the epidemiology of CDI in Australia.