Enhancing nutritional research within an aged care facility

Aim: The present study examined the barriers to the implementation of a nutritional intervention project and sought ways to enhance future projects.

Methods: The study, utilising a qualitative approach, included participants from key areas involved in the project and who were employed by either the university or regional aged care facility.

Results: Through analysis the themes 'successes', 'stumbling blocks' and 'solutions' emerged. Within these themes descriptive stories of what worked, what did not work and suggestions for future projects are depicted.

Conclusions: Communication was the connecting element of each theme, suggesting effective verbal and written communication that ensures ownership by all involved is essential for successful clinical research projects. Strategies to enhance this process have been included to assist future researchers.

The non-verbal and the verbal: expanding awareness of practice-led research in creative writings

This paper takes up the concept of practice-led research: research (or the production and performance of knowledge) that is implicit within practice – in this case creative arts practice and more specifically, creative writing practice. Does practice-led research offer new possibilities for recognition of contributions to research by writers? This exploration of creative practice and research stretches out tendrils between creative writing and other art forms. What may the predominantly non-verbal creative arts disciplines offer creative writing in terms of exploring modes of knowledge production and performance?

A critical review of relations between corporate responsibility research and practice

This essay identifies epistemological, theoretical and methodological problems in a potentially influential subset of the interdisciplinary corporate responsibility literature, that which appears in the management literature. The received conceptualization of stakeholder analysis is criticised by identifying six sets of factors conventionally considered as promoting social responsibilities in the firm: inter-organizational factors, economic competitors, institutional investors, end-consumers, government regulators and non-governmental organizations. Each is addressed on conceptual grounds, its empirical salience in terms of the latest relevant research and prospects to be a significant factor in promoting outcomes consistent with social welfare. Despite obvious antagonistic relations between organization-centred economic objectives and extra-organizational-directed social considerations, the huge body of research we address drifts in a disengaged Sargasso Sea. The essay argues for appropriate directions for continuing business ethics/responsibility/corporate citizenship research, suggesting certain sociological works on moral leadership, moral courage, and academic leadership.

Australian universities, government research and the application of climate change knowledge in Australian coastal zone management

One of the key issues in Australia for sustainable management of the coastal zone is that the science of climate change has not been widely used by decision-makers to inform coastal governance. There exist opportunities to enhance the dialogue between knowledge-makers and decision-makers, and universities have a key role to play in researching and fostering better linkages. At the heart of these linkages lies the principle of more informed engagement between historically disparate groups. In Australia, the new ‘Flagship’ research programme, funded by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), emphasizes their partnering with universities in a more systematic and collaborative manner than previously achieved in such research projects. In order to address sustainability in general and coastal adaptation to climate change in particular, interdisciplinary learning needs to occur between the social and natural sciences; also, transdisciplinary understanding of that interaction needs to be fully developed. New methods of communicative engagement such as computer visualizations and animations, together with deliberative techniques, can help policy-makers and planners reach a better understanding of the significance of the science of climate change impacts on the coast. Deeper engagement across historically disparate groups can lead to the development of epistemological and methodological synergies between social and natural scientists, adaptive learning, reflexive governance, and greater analytical and deliberative understanding among scientists, policymakers and the wider public. This understanding can lead in turn to enhance coastal governance for climate adaptation on the coast.

Mixed methods evaluation research for a mental health screening and referral clinical pathway

Rationale: This study is an exemplar of mixed method evaluation research for development of a clinical pathway.

Aim: To develop and evaluate an evidence-based, feasible mental health screening and referral clinical pathway for Department of Veterans’ Affairs-funded community nursing care of war veterans and war widows in the Australian context.

Methods: Mixed methods were applied to formulate and clinically evaluate an appropriate pathway. The pathway was applied at urban and rural sites for the nursing care of 97 war veteran and war widow clients. Evaluative data were collected from clients, their informal carers, community nurses, and general practitioners. Chart auditing and pre-post measures were undertaken. Collaboration occurred with an interdisciplinary design team.

Results: The final modified six-page pathway includes use of validated screening tools (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale [K10]) and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, appropriate referral information, directions for support and health-promoting education, and evidence-based guidelines. Implications for Practice: The clinical pathway is a useful, tested, evidence-based guide for generalist community nurses to identify and suitably respond to common mental healthcare needs of war veterans and war widows. The pathway provides outcomes acceptable to clients and their carers, nurses and doctors.

Conclusions: This study provides an evaluated clinical pathway for generalist community nurses to screen for mental health difficulties, make appropriate referrals as required and to support war veteran and war widow clients. However, the study also shows how research can be used to develop and evaluate
practical, evidence-based clinical pathways.

"Flows and catchments" : a mixed method study utilising nvivo to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration incorporating practice-based research

This paper responds to the problem of how Practice-Based Research (PBR) can be usefully incorporated into a cross-disciplinary, Mixed Method project design, by considering a non-conventional use of the NVivo qualitative analysis software package. NVivo also proves valuable in maximising the creative-arts practice interdisciplinary potential within PBR itself. The ensuing discussion centres around Deakin University’s ‘Flows and Catchments’ research and teaching initiative.

A participatory action research project at the nexus of health promotion and sustainability in higher education

Like many educational institutions, Deakin University has embraced the challenge of developing curricula to ensure that graduates are environmentally literate and competent to address sustainability in professional practice. Despite an abundance of literature pertaining to the link between human health and environmental degradation, the development of health-related education for sustainability curriculum has been slow. Health promotion, an integral aspect of health professional training in Australia, is considered an area of practice well suited to the action of sustainability. This article highlights the findings of a pilot project that explored which graduate-level health promotion competencies and principles for practice can be transferred to action on sustainability. Methodologically, this study offers a participatory action research process enhanced with case study design principles. Findings from the four case studies highlight that health promotion competencies are compatible with action on sustainability. The article also illuminates the themes in the literature about the value of mutually reinforcing pedagogies associated with education for sustainability and work-integrated learning. The article contributes to discussion in an emerging area of health curriculum, namely, health-related education for sustainability. It posits that health promotion is an area of the health curriculum that can support the development of competencies at the nexus between health and sustainability.

Research

All CAM courses include Legal, Ethical, and Professional Practice issues as an essential component of curriculum. Statutory bodies, professional associations, educational institutions and accreditation authorities require that such content be incorporated into CAM courses. Accreditation of such courses is (in part) predicated on including such content. There is currently no local text which deals comprehensively with these subjects for CAM students or practitioners. This is a text designed to meet the needs of CAM students at Diploma, Bachelor and coursework Masters levels. The authors are both academic and practitioners, and have written according to CAM curriculum requirements, adopting an interdisciplinary approach, with contributing authors for individual modalities. The authors have produced a template for the contributors and integrative practice considerations are included.

Points in mental space: an interdisciplinary study of imagery in movement creation

As part of a programme of research that is developing tools to enhance choreographic practice, an interdisciplinary team of cognitive scientists, neuroscientists and dance professionals collaborated on two studies examining the mental representations used to support movement creation. We studied choreographer Wayne McGregor's approach to movement creation through tasking, in which he asks dancers to create movement in response to task instructions that require a great deal of mental imagery and decision making

Enriching interdisciplinary connections : student engagement in theory and practice in higher education programs in Australia and the UK

This paper provides insight into how postgraduate students in two pre-service disciplines, namely medicine and education, identify and make meaning of their circumstances in the globalised era of tertiary education.
Drawing on elements of Giddens’ theory of structuration, we discuss some of the tensions students have reported encountering in an era which is characterised by greater internationalisation of the student body and more globalised curricula.

Institutional processes and the production of gender inequalities: the case of Australian child support research and administration

This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently ‘smoothed’ their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.

Videogame technology re-purposed: towards interdisciplinary design environments for engineering and architecture

The author and associated researchers have in previous projects adapted videogame technology for design in the context of architectural design education. This paper reflects on this body of research: the original motivations and aspirations; what threads may be productively revisited; how contemporary shifts to parametric design and building information modelling may be incorporated; and considers how some aspects of game play, in particular competition, may seed Interdisciplinary Design environments for Engineering and Architecture (IDeEA).