The effect of transition to specialty practice programs on Australian emergency nurses' professional development, recruitment and retention

BACKGROUND: To date, emergency nursing Transition to Specialty Practice Program (TSPP) evaluations have been single-site observational studies. The aim of this paper was to examine the professional development, recruitment and retention outcomes of Australian emergency nursing TSPPs. METHODS: An explanatory sequential design was used. Data were collected via online surveys and interviews of emergency Nurse Unit Managers and Nurse Educators. Survey data from EDs with TSPPs and EDs without TSPPs were compared. Qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: Data were collected from 118 EDs, and 13 interviews. TSPPs were offered in 72.1% of EDs. EDs with TSPPs had higher proportions of nurses with postgraduate qualifications (Mdn 28.3% vs. 22.1%, p=0.45) and Clinical Specialists (Mdn 16.4% vs. 6.3%, p=0.04). The median proportion of currently rostered nurses with TSPP completion was 34.2% in EDs with TSPPs introduced in 2000-2005 indicating ED high levels of retention. CONCLUSION: Emergency nursing TSPPs have had a positive effect on nursing professional development, recruitment and retention. To ensure consistency in outcomes and optimise reliability of emergency nursing skills and knowledge, a national emergency nursing TSPP framework is needed.

Paths of professional development in music therapy: training, professional identity and practice

Music therapy is listed as a profession in the EU Regulated Professions Database. This has assisted the next steps towards recognition in relevant countries and regions. The author’s experience as an academic leader in music therapy training over more than two decades is used to reflect on the profession of music therapy within Europe through interrogation of concepts underpinning professional identity, training, and professional practice. Potential tensions between recognition and regulation of healthcare professions are presented and discussed. As all practice takes place in context, balancing training needs between techniques and skills, systemic national and regional policy, and institutional knowledge is crucial. Achieving this balance is not easy but is key to successful growth of practitioner knowledge, seeding student’s curiosity about context and systems from the dawn of training.

Managerialist vis-à-vis learning and development goals for EAL teachers: A case study of an in-service professional development provider

Under current Western neoliberal philosophy, promotion of efficiency and resolution of issues are typically expected to result from effective management. The education sector, too, has responded well to these expectations. Amongst such expectations, engagement in professional development activities (PDAs) by teachers of English as an additional language (EAL) is widely encouraged, considered to be essential, and usually conducted with a view to facilitate effective and effortless administration. As such, institutional offerings of PDAs driven by managerialist agendas generally tend to be ad hoc attempts to facilitate administrative decisions rather than opportunities for teachers’ lifelong learning and development. Under such circumstances, providers of in-service PDAs are faced with a conflicting dilemma – that of facilitating an effortless flow of administration and, at the same time, promoting teacher learning and development. We foreground one case of such dilemma surrounding the offering of PDAs derived as interview data from an experienced provider of in-service PDAs for EAL teachers.

EAP teachers' conceptions of and interactions with professional development: a phenomenographic investigation

This research explores the conceptions of professional development held by a group of teachers of English for academic purposes (EAP), the influence of their conceptions on their interaction with professional development activities and the learning outcomes resulting from this interaction.

Inclusive pedagogy in Australian universities: a review of current policies and professional development activities

This article reports on activities undertaken by Australian universities to support academic staff to provide inclusive teaching. The findings of two lines of inquiry are reported - a desktop audit of the presence of inclusive teaching or universal design for learning (UDL) in publically available policies and procedures documents, and a survey of the methods adopted to build staff capacity to provide inclusive teaching and learning. Just over a third (34.21%) of Australian universities referred to inclusive teaching or UDL in their policies and procedures. A wide range of current practices in professional development for inclusive teaching was reported, with the most frequent being one-off workshops focussing on accommodating specific groups of students. Improved institutional support through policies, procedures and professional development would enable Australian higher education teachers to provide quality inclusive teaching to all students.

Policies and practices of professional development in China : what do early childhood teachers think?

This paper focuses on early childhood teachers’ professional development in China. It reports a study which aims to elicit twelve in-service early childhood teachers’ perspectives of the values and issues of professional development policies and the learning opportunities they experienced. Two themes arising from the study are addressed, namely the teachers’ positive responses to the government aspirations for enhancing teaching in early childhood education, and the complexities of the organizational and role structures of the early childhood community in ChangChun where the study took place. An important aspect of the teachers’ perspectives of their professional development, which connects up to the early childhood environment in ChangChun, is the view that professional development was oriented to their own employment continuity. Teachers’ learning was perceived as a useful means to offset the insecurity of their careers, but not closely related to children’s learning.

Predicting IHRM strategy and practice decisions : development of the IHRM orientation typology

International human resource management (IHRM) is becoming increasingly fundamental to organisational success, as globalisation forces demand organisations to design and implement a global strategy. One of the most critical choices faced by IHRM practitioners is whether and when an organisation should adapt its human resource policies and practices to the local context (localisation). A typology of International Human Resource Management Orientations (IHRMO) that clarifies what IHRMO’s are and what they entail is developed from a review of the literature on localisation and globalisation, convergence and divergence and Perlmutter’s management typology. Additionally, two theoretical models are developed that predict which IHRM orientation identified in the typology should be adopted. The article takes a step towards elucidating effective IHRM strategy and practice decision-making by showing that culture and institutional pressures, amongst other tings, do make a difference.

The social construction of child maltreatment: the role of medical practitioners

• Summary: This paper explores how medical knowledge in child protection practice operates, in conjunction with social work knowledge and legal knowledge, as a social process of constructing meaning as ‘maltreatment’ (or not) in which the physical body of the child and perceived abnormalities represent ‘evidence’. Through discourse analysis of two case studies, this paper makes explicit and problematizes the social processes by which meanings are given by medical practitioners, social workers, police and parents to material experiences, the preference given to some meanings over others, and the econsequences of particular meanings for children and families and social work practice.

• Findings: Medical, social and legal knowledge are not neutral but embedded in power relations. The case studies show, through a sociological analysis of professional practice in child protection, how preferred versions of knowledge and meaning may override or dismiss alternative meanings, with particular consequences for parents and children and for practice outcomes.

• Applications: The case studies offer opportunities by which critically to engage with child protection knowledge, policy and practice in keeping with contemporary approaches that advocate dialogue, critical reflection and reflexivity, so that professional knowledge and professional power may be deployed constructively rather than oppressively.

Development of high quality university web sites: benefits to users and the learning organisation

In recent years, the online delivery of educational material has received much attention by researchers. University web sites are being used to supplement the delivery of knowledge in traditional bricks and mortar environments or as stand-alone external courses. The function of a university web site also has broader applications that can provide strategic benefits to the organisation as a whole. An Internet presence based on a high quality, easy to use web site can provide universities with a credible, professional image. This is particularly important as students and other users of university web sites expect the same high level of quality in these sites as they do from the sites of commercial organisations. This paper explores the various roles that a web site can provide to benefit higher education organisations and their customers. In addition, the paper outlines the results of a study of university web site users that identifies specific web site design features that are considered essential for a high quality university site that will meet the needs of students and other stakeholders in a university environment. By adopting these design principles, universities will be able to improve the quality of their web sites and ultimately, increase user satisfaction. Moreover, an understanding of the various roles that a web site can perform will allow universities to fully utilise the benefits of developing and maintaining an online presence while retaining their traditional role as knowledge managers.

Professional competence for private practitioners in occupational therapy

The aim of the present study was to investigate the meaning of professional competence for occupational therapy private practitioners and their experience of the barriers to professional competence. Semi-structured interviews with 16 key informants from private practice in Victoria elicited diverse opinions and experiences. However, the difficulty of assessing competence, and the lack of standards that identify competent practice for occupational therapy were major themes in the findings. The role of theory in competent practice was evident in discussion but it was not clearly articulated by many participants. Experiences of professional socialisation varied yet participants perceived input from peers as contributing to assuring competence. Major barriers to professional competence were identified as professional isolation, time and finances. The present study highlights the complexity of current attempts to assess professional competence for practising occupational therapists including the implementation of an accreditation program by The Australian Association of Occupational Therapists Inc. (OT AUSTRALIA), the peak body representing occupational therapists.

Research or professional development?

Generally, teachers’ contact with academics tends to take two forms: either they are the ‘subjects’ of research which is done on or for them; or they are the recipients of professional development which is again done to or for them. In both cases the teachers are positioned in relatively passive and powerless relationships.

This paper describes a research project undertaken in 2002 wherein I explored the possibilities of constructing research as a collaborative project between academics and teachers. In this project I attempted to establish a relationship with teachers as co-researchers who conducted parts of the research process themselves, including data collection and analysis.

This paper explores the differences in perceptions of this research relationship and reflects on the contradictions in the statements made by the teachers during discussions on the benefits of the research project. These contradictory statements have led me to ask questions of myself as an academic and a researcher, and of the research process I designed. These questions are the focus for this paper and include: Was I engaging in ‘research as usual’ under the guise of engaging teachers in co-researcher practices? What kinds of discourses were operating in our discussions and how did these discourses work to position the teachers? How am I implicated in the construction of these positionings?