Children's literature matters

This volume is the product of the third conference of the Australian Children's Literature Association for Research held in Melbourne October 1999. The papers presented comprise an interesting cross section of current concerns about children's literature by the Australasian research community.

Readmission to intensive care : a review of the literature

Acutely ill patients are commonly found on general hospital wards; some of these are patients who have been recently discharged from an intensive care unit (ICU). These patients may require a higher level of care than other ward patients and, due to the acuity of their illness, are at risk of readmission to ICU. Research has indicated that patients readmitted to ICU have mortality rates up to six times higher than those not readmitted and are eleven times more likely to die in hospital. Numerous studies have retrospectively examined these readmissions but, despite this, there is still no clear indication of why ICU readmissions occur or what the common characteristics of readmitted patients are. This literature review examines the published studies on patients who have been readmitted to ICU. Further research is needed to explore why readmissions to ICU occur and the type of patient who is at greatest risk for readmission.

Confirming the position of a nasogastric tube what does the literature say?

Nasogastric tubes are a medical device that can be used for a number of purposes. The process of inserting them however can be complicated. Nurses must therefore use an evidence based approach to confirm the correct position of nasogastric tubes and there are three main techniques described in the literature to do so. To date, one group of authors has published the majority of the studies on these techniques. This paper reviews their work.

Substance use and its implications for the critical care nurses: a literature review

Background
Illicit drug use in Australia has been increasing and studies indicate that illicit drug users have a higher risk of accidents which may result in the user needing critical care. However, there is a significant gap in the literature specifically pertaining to the implications of drug use in critical care.

Aims
The primary objective was to examine the literature for the physiological effects of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), cocaine and amphetamines in critically ill patients.

Methods
A comprehensive literature review was undertaken and a body systems framework was used to categorise the effects of these illicit drugs.

Results
The illicit substances addressed have potentially fatal and long-term side effects. For those users involved in accidents or trauma requiring intensive or critical care nursing, the mortality and co-morbidity risks are increased significantly. It is, therefore, important that nurses are able to recognise the specific physiological effects and possible complications that can occur with the use of each illicit drug.

Conclusion
Both nursing and medical staff need to have a thorough understanding of how illicit substances work and how they can affect the critical care patient and the care they are given.

Implementation, communication and the benefits of corporate codes of ethics in Taiwan and Turkey : a comparison across contexts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the corporate codes of ethics (CCE) that are put in place by companies in Taiwan and Turkey.

Design/methodology/approach – This study examines the use of CCE among the top companies in Taiwan and Turkey. It is a replication of a study performed in Australia, Canada and Sweden and a follow-up study.

Findings – The empirical findings show many similarities with top companies in Australia, Canada and Sweden, but more importantly identify key differences distinctly unique to each of the two countries under investigation. Statistical analysis suggests that the implementation, communication and benefits of CCE are paramount to Turkish companies operating in a domestic environment where the aspiration to participate globally and join the European Union is high, whereas in Taiwan it is low in favor of more traditional business practices (similar to the Chinese concept of guanxi) that focus on individual relationships in favor of formalized regulatory frameworks (such as CCE).

Originality/value – This study makes a complementary contribution to the accumulated knowledge in the area of CCE, particularly given the cultural and historical differences these countries possess in comparison to each other and those previously studied and documented in the literature.

Underpricing of energy IPOs in Australia

The underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) has been discussed in the literature for over thirty years. Underpricing is the term used when the issue price of the shares of a company raising public equity capital and seeking to list on a stock exchange is below the closing price of the shares on the first day of listing. As such, underpricing theoretically allows subscribing investors the opportunity of making a return on the day of listing. The international evidence as examined in [4] and updated in [5] has documented that subscribing investors made handsome double-digit' (for example US IPOs - 15.7%, UK IPOs 12%, Turkish IPOs - 13.1 %, Greek IPOs -49.0%) or even triple-digit (for example Chinese IPOs 256.9%) statistically significant positive first day returns, on average. These studies are generally however of industrial company IPOs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underpricing returns of Australian energy IPOs from January 1994 to June 2007. Two previous studies into natural resource IPOs in Australia only made fleeting mention of energy IPOs because of the small sample sizes. [3] identified 2 solid fuel IPOs and 13 oil and gas IPOs (amongst 130 other natural resource IPOs) during 1979 to 1990 and advised average underpricing returns of 106.5% and 47.3% respectively for investors subscribing to these IPOs. [2] investigated 19 energy IPOs (amongst 96 other natural resource IPOs) from 1994 to 1999 and reported an average underpricing return of 8.3%.

The sample set of 134 used in this study is significantly greater than previous Australian studies. These 134 energy IPOs raised over $1.945 billion of public equity capital from January 1994 to June 2007. [3] reports on the importance of the natural resources sectors to Australia's economy and the fact that companies working in these sectors constitute around one third of the entities listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

This study also follows a highly influential paper in the IPO literature by [I]. They argue that the lower the uncertainty about the value of an IPO, the lower the underpricing needed to attract subscribers. Given the linkage between uncertainty and underpricing, this study seeks to identify the factors that might influence uncertainty and hence underpricing.

The study found that the mean underpricing return for these energy lPOs is 22.8% and statistically significant. The model used to investigate variables that might help explain the level of underpricing in this industry sector is also particularly useful. An important finding in the study for new issuers, underwriters and subscribing investors is that those energy IPO firms that used underwriters had substantially lower underpricing. The other finding that larger issues are likely to have lower underpricing is consistent with prior industrial company IPO studies.

New world orders in contemporary children's literature : utopian transformations

"New World Orders shows how texts for children and young people have responded to the cultural, economic, and political movements of the last 15 years. With a focus on international children's text produced between 1988 and 2006, the authors discuss how utopian and dystopian tropes are pressed into service to project possible futures to child readers. The book considers what these texts have to say about globalisation, neocolonialism, environmental issues, pressures on families and communities, and the idea of the posthuman."--BOOK JACKET.

Occupational distress in nursing : a psychoanalytic reading of the literature

Occupational stress in nursing has attracted considerable attention as a focus for research and as a consequence multiple objects of nurses' stress, or 'stressors', have been identified. This paper puts into question the dominant conceptual and methodological approach to occupational stress in nursing research by both foregrounding the notion of anxiety and juxtaposing it with the notion of 'stress'. It is argued that the notion of 'stress' and the domination of the questionnaire have produced a narrow reading of the topic. Some of the literature on occupational stress/anxiety in nursing is reviewed and our analysis illustrates how the identified objects of stress have a tendency to multiply contingent on the number of studies undertaken. Thus definitive objects of nurses' stress remain elusive. We argue that a return to the notion of 'anxiety' and methodological approaches other than empirical ones can bring both depth and breadth to the consideration of occupational distress in nursing. Further, we argue that the object of 'anxiety' is unconscious, thus unknown, and given this, a more informative approach is to map nurses' response to anxiety, the discursive formations arising out of anxiety, rather than attempt to define those objects of anxiety.

Communicating the ethos of codes of ethics within the organization : a comparison of the largest private sector organizations in Sweden and Turkey

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to examine the ways that the largest private sector organizations in Sweden and Turkey communicate the intent of their codes of ethics to their employees.

Design/methodology/approach – Primary data were obtained via a self-administered mail questionnaire distributed to a census of the top 500 private sector organizations based on revenue in each country.

Findings – The research identified some interesting findings that showed that the small group of companies in Turkey that have a code may appear to be more “advanced” in ethics artifacts usage than Sweden. Such a conclusion is counter-intuitive as one would have expected a developed nation like Sweden to be more advanced in these measures than a developing nation such as Turkey. Culture may play a large role in the implementation of ethics artifacts in corporations and could be a major reason for this difference.

Research limitations/implications – As this is such a new area of investigation in Turkey, the responses amount to only 32 companies that have a code. The small sample is indicative of the formative evolution toward having codes of ethics within companies operating within Turkey.

Practical implications – This study enables those organizations that comprise corporate Turkey to view the current state of codes of ethics in Turkish companies and to compare these with the responses of a developed country of the European Union. Originality and value – A review of the literature indicates that this is the first time that such an international study specifically focused upon codes of ethics and the artifacts to inculcate the ethos of the code into every day corporate affairs has included Turkey as one of the participating countries.

Publishing on publishing: streams in the literature

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and examine streams in the literature related to academic publishing, with a focus on works in marketing. The content of the works within each theme are then explored to identify what issues have been examined and their implications.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a literature review, drawing on 30 years of research on academic publishing in marketing. The review is designed to cover the underlying issues examined, but is not designed to be comprehensive in terms of all the works exploring each stream of research.

Findings – There are five main streams in the literature focusing on: rankings; theory and knowledge development; how to publish;, criticisms of publishing; and other issues. Within each stream, a number of sub-areas are explored. The works tend to be fragmented and there is generally limited in-depth qualitative research within streams exploring the underlying assumptions on which publishing is based.

Research limitations/implications – The focus of the research is on the streams of works, rather than the findings within each stream and future research could explore each of these streams and sub-streams in more detail. Generally, the works appear to becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of their analysis, which is only possible with the new technologies available. New metrics proposed in the literature that can be used to better understand publishing and additional qualitative research exploring some of the basic assumptions could also be explored.

Practical implications – The research suggests that some streams with regard to academic publishing may have reached saturation and future publishing in these areas will need to be innovative in its approach and analysis, if these works are to be published.

Originality/value – This paper is the first attempt to develop streams within the literature on academic publishing in marketing and thus draws together a diverse cross-section of works. It provides suggestions for directions for future research in the various streams.

Top Taiwanese and Turkish companies and their engagement with corporate ethics

The objective of this paper is to describe and compare the current, emerging Taiwanese and Turkish interest in corporate ethical engagement. This paper is based upon a survey amongst the top companies operating in Taiwan and Turkey. There are major differences between the top Taiwanese and Turkish companies, where the Turkish companies appear to be more ethically engaged than the Taiwanese companies which came as a surprise to the researchers as Taiwan is a more substantially developed economy than Turkey and one may have assumed therefore more engaged with ethical practices.

Interventions for reducing the use of seclusion in psychiatric facilities : a review of the literature

Background The authors of a recent systematic review concluded that the use of non-pharmacological containment methods, excluding restraint and seclusion, was not supported by evidence. Their focus on randomised, controlled trials, however, does not reflect the research that has been, or could be, conducted.

Aims To find empirically supported interventions that allow reduction in the use of seclusion in psychiatric facilities.

Method We reviewed English-language, peer-reviewed literature on interventions that allow reduction in the use of seclusion.

Results Staff typically used multiple interventions, including state-level support, state policy and regulation changes, leadership, examinations of the practice contexts, staff integration, treatment plan improvement, increased staff to patient ratios, monitoring seclusion episodes, psychiatric emergency response teams, staff education, monitoring of patients, pharmacological interventions, treating patients as active participants in seclusion reduction interventions, changing the therapeutic environment, changing the facility environment, adopting a facility focus, and improving staff safety and welfare.

Conclusions Reducing seclusion rates is challenging andgenerally requires staff to implement several interventions.

A literature review of the application of the geriatric depression scale, depression anxiety stress scales and post-traumatic stress disorder checklist to community nursing cohorts

Aims and objectives. To explore through literature review the appropriateness of three common tools for use by community nurses to screen war veteran and war widow(er) clients for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Background. War veterans and, to a lesser extent, war widow(er)s, are prone to mental health challenges, especially depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Community nurses do not accurately identify such people with depression and related disorders although they are well positioned to do so. The use of valid and reliable self-report tools is one method of improving nurses' identification of people with actual or potential mental health difficulties for referral to a general practitioner or mental health practitioner for diagnostic assessment and treatment. The Geriatric Depression Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist are frequently recommended for mental health screening but the appropriateness of using the tools for screening war veteran and war widow(er) community nursing clients who are often aged and have functional impairment, is unknown.

Design. Systematic review.

Conclusions. Current literature informs that the Geriatric Depression Scale accurately predicts a diagnosis of depression in community nursing cohorts. The three Depression Anxiety Stress Scales subscales of depression, anxiety and stress are valid; however, no studies were identified that compared the performance of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in predicting diagnoses of depression or anxiety. The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist predicts post-traumatic stress disorder in community cohorts although no studies meeting the selection criteria included male participants.

Relevance to clinical practice. This review provides recommendations for the use of the Geriatric Depression Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales and The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist based on examination of the published evidence for the application of these screening tools in samples approximated to community nursing cohorts. Findings and recommendations would guide community nurses, managers and health planners in the selection of mental health screening tools to promote holistic community nursing care.