Approaching responsivity : The Victorian Department of Justice and indigenous offenders

Effective rehabilitation involves consideration of offender's cognitive behavioural characteristics and appropriate program delivery - approach by the Victorian Department of Justice in relation to Aboriginal offenders - interviews with staff members show approach is more complex than addressing behavioural characteristics - involves interaction extending beyond the Department and offenders to include indigenous communities.

Characterizing university library use of social media: a case study of twitter and facebook from Australia

The work presented here characterise the engagement of one university library with two social media platforms popular with academic libraries. The collected data are analysed to identify the forms of Twitter and Facebook activity that engage library stakeholders in social media conversations. Associations were observed between: i) directed tweets from the library and mentions of the library by others on Twitter; and ii) comments from the library and comments from others on Facebook. Three broad classes of Twitter user interacting with the library were revealed: i) accounts strongly linked to the library with multiple to/from tweets; ii) those weakly linked to the library with, typically, a single tweet; and iii) those indirectly linked to the library through tweets mentioning the library and sent by other users. Two divergent forms of Facebook interaction with the library were highlighted: i) a library post generating a large sequence of comments, typically in response to a competition/challenge and ii) a library post with no comments, typically a photo post or a post inviting readers to click a link to find out more about an event/service. The work presented here is an initial investigation that provides useful insights, and offers a methodology for future research.

Prospective observational study of emergent endotracheal intubation practice in the intensive care unit and emergency department of an Australian regional tertiary hospital

Objective: The present study aimed to describe the characteristics and outcomes of intubation occurring in the ICU and ED of an Australian tertiary teaching hospital. Methods: This was a prospective observational study of intubation practice across the Geelong Hospital over a 6 month period from 1 August 2012 to 31 January 2013. Data were entered by the intubating team through an online data collection form. Results: There were 119 patients intubated and 134 attempts at intubation in the ED and ICU over a 6 month period. The first-pass success rate was 104/119 (87.4%), and all but a single patient was intubated by the second attempt. Propofol, fentanyl, midazolam and suxamethonium were the most common drugs used in rapid sequence induction. AEs were reported in 44/134 (32.8%) of intubation attempts, with transient hypoxia and hypotension being the most common. A significant adverse outcome, namely aspiration pneumonitis, occurred in one patient. There were no peri-intubation deaths. Conclusion: The majority of airways are managed by ICU and ED consultants and trainees, with success rates and AE rates comparable with other published studies. © 2014 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Cancer diagnosed in the emergency department of a regional health service

OBJECTIVE: Patients diagnosed with cancer in the Emergency Department (ED) have more advanced disease at diagnosis and poorer outcomes. High rates of initial presentation to ED suggest potential problems with access to care. The aim of this project was to interpret findings in regional/rural Victoria and explore implications for practice.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study linking two independent data sets.

SETTING: Regional city of Geelong and surrounding rural areas in south-west Victoria.

PARTICIPANTS: All newly diagnosed cancer patients in 2009.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of cancer patients diagnosed in the ED.

RESULTS: One in five newly diagnosed cancer patients present to ED 6 months prior to cancer diagnosis. One in 10 is diagnosed as a result of their ED visit. Patients presenting to ED were older, more often men and from disadvantaged areas. Symptoms on presentation included chest complaints, bowel obstruction, abdominal pain, anaemia and generalised weakness. Cancer diagnosed in the ED is associated with advanced stage and shorter survival.

CONCLUSION: Reasons for presentation to ED would be multifactorial and include complex cases with coexisting symptoms making diagnosis difficult. The general public appear to have a low level of awareness of alternative primary care services or difficulty accessing such information. Some of the changes towards reducing the number of patients presenting to ED will include patient education.