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Copyright of Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine (Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd) is the property of Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This literature-informed position paper examines the state of (humanities) education, focusing on Australia, with some specific references to New South Wales. It reflects on a forty-year career in teaching and teacher education, and invokes a theme of 'virtuous vices': well-intentioned interventions that appear innocuous, but that may have harmful or limiting effects, on education. It concludes with a call to courage, to critically examine, and to stand against, any influence that might serve to tranquilise education and its power to overthrow our current thinking -- that is, its capacity to help us learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pictures speak a thousand words. The traditional romantic image of an Australian aeromedical service is a male doctor and male pilot, out to rescue the male stockman from the red dust of the Australian outback. However, the reality is considerably different, particularly in the current context of the Australian healthcare system. This paper examines the images of flight nursing using a critical lens. The images are derived from popular literature sources from the early 1940s through to the present. A textual analysis of the images of flight nursing using the methodology of institutional ethnography reveals a number of themes including the glamorous, the romantic, and the heroic nurse. This study illustrates that the way these nurses are portrayed within popular literature mirrors the Australian cultural ethic of heroic bush pioneer, yet at the same time the work these nurses do is undervalued by various omissions and misrepresentations. The results from this study have the potential to significantly improve recognition of the work performed by flight nurses and to challenge incorrect cultural myths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how being located in regional Australia and inhabiting a sexual identify marked as 'other' positions one as exiled in a place unthinkingly labelled 'home.' In the words of Big Brother 2006, do we need people in our house who 'fly under the radar'? What is the value of citizens in their own eyes who find themselves trained to avoid taking a stand on social justice issues that rob them of their dignity? What if we ourselves are those people? My own identity in this regard is representative. It has been formed out of the emptiness that charactises regional New South Wales and is an existential state of exile that continues into the present in the body and mind I uneasily call 'me. The heart of the town I grew up in, a town of 5000 people called Narrabri, is best revealed on a Saturday afternoon when the shops have closed and the people are gone, or at night when there is silence and stars overarching the paper houses and patterns of streets. The great sense of vacancy at the centre of the town seeped into my blood even before I was born and has become a trope for my sense of who I may be. At age nine, I tried to run away but what I found when I came to the edge of the town was the meaningless landscape of the North Western slopes and plains stretching away from my centrelessness. There is no belonging there, only a melancholic sense of defeat. How then is it possible to be an active citizen when one's sense of oneself is an absence? Furthermore, what takes place when one is inwardly marked by a deviant sexuality in a place where hatred is essential for sameness? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the current state of the Liberal Party in Australia and the need for reassessment and fresh thinking. It highlights the negative impact of heavy-handed regulations during the pandemic and argues against surrendering to "woke" identity politics. The author emphasizes the importance of policy, ideas, and principles, and calls for a restoration of faith in the party's philosophical traditions of liberalism, meritocracy, and conservatism. The article also addresses the issue of factionalism within the party and the need for party reform to empower members and prioritize ideas over compliance. The author concludes by urging the party to be bold, offer a real choice to voters, and take back control. [Extracted from the article]

Aim To determine which characteristics of academic leadership are perceived to be necessary for nursing deans to be successful. Background Effective leadership is essential for the continued growth of the discipline. Method A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 30 deans (academics in universities who headed a nursing faculty and degree programmes) was conducted in three countries - Canada, England and Australia. The conversations were analysed for leadership attributes. Result Sixty personal and positional attributes were nominated by the participants. Of these, the most frequent attribute was 'having vision'. Personal attributes included: passion, patience, courage, facilitating, sharing and being supportive. Positional attributes included: communication, faculty development, role modelling, good management and promoting nursing. Conclusion Both positional and personal aspects of academic leadership are important to assist in developing a succession plan and education for new deans. Implications for nursing management It is important that talented people are recognised as potential leaders of the future. These future leaders should be given every chance to grow and develop through exposure to opportunities to develop skills and the attributes necessary for effective deanship. Strategic mentoring could prove to be useful in developing and supporting the growth of future deans of nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rebranding men's dietary choices in the mind of the mainstream Australians to include more plant-based options, is a difficult task. Eating meat is a way to satisfy nutritional requirements but also has an embedded symbolism of power to which Australian men are accustomed. Vegetarian men are seen by the majority of the male population and the social discourse surrounding gendered food as betraying the social expectations about masculine behavior despite research showing the need for higher intake of fiber to reduce non-communicable diseases and improve planetary health. Those who have adopted vegetarian diets are exposed to ridicule and may face social isolation because of their unorthodox food choices. In order to reshape the meat consumption of men in Australia, we must recognize the gendered dynamics of dietary choices that associate meat consumption with masculinity. This research examines the power of the current food discourse and social constrains imposed on vegetarian men based on a 2019 survey in Sydney, Australia with 1053 male participants who have different frequencies of meat consumption. The participants were asked to express their opinion about vegetarian dietary choices, and the dominant view is that they provoke non-acceptance and various degrees of aversion. Instead of practicing overt dietary choices, those who embrace vegetarianism prefer to be unidentifiable as such to avoid social prejudice. While individual dislike may change over time, the current mass perception of vegetarianism is of unmanly behavior. A new role for institutions and policies related to public health, environmental wellbeing and use of resources in motivating a greater uptake of plant-based food choices, is also needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The VIA Classification characterizes six culturally defined virtues as latent variables underlying 24 character strengths. Factor analyses of measures based on the Classification usually suggest 4–5 factors that do not correspond well to traditional lists of virtues. This article describes the identification of a three-virtue model across multiple measures of strengths in four samples encompassing 1,070,549 cases. The general pattern involved a first component representing good character that split into two components reflecting Goodness and Inquisitiveness. The former divided further into components reflecting Caring and Self-Control. This pattern recurred in all data sets. The model consisting of Caring, Inquisitiveness, and Self-Control is proposed as a reliable latent structure for the VIA Classification strengths, an intuitive classification of traditional cultural virtues, and a framework for social efforts encouraging the development of virtue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses several issues on the establishment of war memorials dedicated to state-sanctioned theme of heroism and masculinity in Australia. It examines the comparison of the actions of same-sex desiring men and the remembrance of men killed at war to unveil the open secret of male sexuality. It also explores the liberation of Europe and its relevance in revealing the secrets of gay men and lesbians. It is noted that there is a public space designed to commemorate the persecution of gay men which is inspired by Third Reich oppression of homosexuality. It also asserts that the appropriation and subversion of nationhood and manhood to be expressed in public is unAustralian.