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Aims and objectives: This review aimed to demonstrate the self‐care behaviours of first‐generation Chinese immigrants with cardiovascular disease in western countries and identify related cultural factors. Background: Self‐care is the cornerstone to mitigate disease symptoms and maintain health status. Chinese immigrants to western countries, operating within a cross‐cultural context, may find self‐care to manage their cardiovascular disease challenging. Design: An integrative review was conducted. Methods: Seven databases were searched Scopus, ProQuest Health & Medicine, Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), AMED (Ovid), PsycINFO and CINAHL, with output limited to peer‐reviewed studies published from 2000 to 2020 in English or Chinese. Initially, 2037 papers were screened. Six papers were retained and critiqued using the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools. Deductive and inductive approaches were utilised to analyse the findings. The PRISMA 2020 checklist informed review reportage. Result: In general, Chinese immigrants with cardiovascular disease took an active role in management of their cardiovascular disease, including through diet and activity adaptation and adherence to western medication. Families also played a significant role in disease decision‐making and management. However, language and cultural barriers impeded their access to health information and resources in host countries. Relevance to clinical practice: Understanding self‐care behaviours and associated cultural factors among Chinese immigrants with cardiovascular disease is important to improve nurses' culturally sensitive practices and provide tailored health education interventions to promote self‐care behaviours among immigrant populations. The scarcity of literature on self‐care behaviours among Chinese first‐generation immigrants with cardiovascular disease indicates the need for further research in this area. Development of culturally and linguistically sensitive health resources and education programs is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Online knowledge translation (KT) approaches are becoming increasingly prevalent within healthcare due to their accessibility and facilitation of international support networks. Online platforms enable timely and far‐reaching dissemination of current evidence and best‐practice recommendations. Although there is potential to improve the uptake of rehabilitation guidelines, it is essential to consider the acceptability of online approaches to healthcare professionals to ensure their successful integration within everyday clinical settings. Aims: To establish the prospective acceptability of a theoretically informed online intervention for speech pathologists, Aphasia Nexus: Connecting Evidence to Practice, that aims to facilitate the implementation of aphasia best practice. Methods & Procedures: A mixed‐methods multinational electronic survey based on the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA) completed by aphasia researchers and clinicians. Outcomes & Results: A total of 43 participants completed the survey with 91% (n = 39) indicating that they would use Aphasia Nexus. Understanding the intervention and how it works (intervention coherence as per the TFA) was the key factor influencing the likelihood of integration within everyday clinical practice. Participants identified potential areas where the intervention could influence service change and also recommended further design and content changes to improve the intervention. Conclusions & Implications: Aphasia Nexus is an acceptable platform for further feasibility testing in the form of a pilot trial within an Australian‐based health service. The study progresses the theory of TFA as it was a valuable framework facilitating the identification of prominent factors influencing acceptability. The study also informs further intervention refinements in preparation for the next stage of research. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject: Online strategies have the potential to enhance KT and promote the uptake of rehabilitation guidelines. An online intervention, however, can only be effective if implemented well. For this reason, it is essential to establish the acceptability of online interventions to the intended recipients and therefore increase the likelihood of successful implementation. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: This study used a theoretically based framework to establish the acceptability of an online implementation intervention, Aphasia Nexus, to multinational aphasia clinicians and researchers. It demonstrated the value in identifying the prominent factors influencing acceptability to inform further intervention refinements and warrant continuing research. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Speech pathologists should use online platforms to drive the implementation of best practice on an international scale. It is important for clinicians to have an in‐depth understanding of online interventions and how they work to enhance their successful uptake into routine clinical practice. Aphasia Nexus is an acceptable online platform for implementing best practice in aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this scoping review is to synthesise current evidence around the clinical skill development of preregistration registered nurses (RNs) in Australia, United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, United States (US), Canada and New Zealand, to inform nurse education, policy and clinical practice. Background: Nursing is a practical profession, and registered nurses require specific skills, knowledge and attributes in order to care for patients safely. The context for health care delivery is shifting, and the education of nurses must adapt to effectively equip the registered nurse of the future. Design: A scoping review was conducted of clinical skill development in preregistration nurses. CINAHL Plus, MEDLINE, Health Source (Nursing/Academic edition) and Scopus were searched. Included studies were primary Australian studies and international literature reviews, which focussed on preregistration nursing education. Papers were written in the English language and focussed on clinical skill development. Results were synthesised narratively. The review is reported here in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta‐analyses Scoping Review extension (PRISMA‐ScR) guidelines. Results: One hundred fifty‐five Australia studies and 89 international reviews were included in the review. Six key themes were identified, namely clinical skills, approaches to teaching and learning, interprofessional education, assessment of learning, clinical placement and simulation. Conclusion: There is substantial variation in strategies and programmes to facilitate clinical skill development both within Australia and internationally, indicating a genuine shift away from traditional didactic pedagogy. New graduate registered nurses were expected to be "work‐ready," albeit at a novice level, when they enter the workplace. Future research should consider measures of impact on actual clinical practice and focus on developing work‐ready graduates for the range of clinical settings in which they may practice. Educators, policymakers and educational institutions can use these findings to inform curriculum developments to ensure that clinical skill development is evidence‐based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The involvement of speech and language therapists (SLTs) within paediatric palliative care (PPC) settings has been recognized within the extant literature. However, there is little understanding of SLT's specific roles and practices when working with this vulnerable cohort of children and their families. As part of a larger body of work to develop consensus‐based recommendations for SLTs working in PPC, it is important to investigate demographic and caseload characteristics. Aims: This exploratory study aimed to gather previously undocumented international demographic data pertaining to SLT service provision, caseload and training in PPC. Additionally, it sought to ascertain the current treatment and assessment approaches of SLTs, and if variations exist in beliefs and practices. Methods & Procedures: An anonymous cross‐sectional survey was designed and reported according to the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E‐Surveys (CHERRIES). The online survey consisted of 40 items spanning four domains: (1) demographic information, (2) caseload information, (3) service provision and (4) training and education. SLTs from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and the United States were recruited using a purposive snowball sampling approach. Descriptive analysis of closed‐ended survey responses and content analysis of open‐ended responses are presented. Outcomes & Results: A total of 52 respondents completed the survey. SLTs worked in a variety of PPC settings, with patients of varying age and disease groups. Over 50% of participants reported working in PPC for ≤ 4 years. Genetic disorders (34%), oncology (27%) and neurological conditions (21%) made up a significant portion of respondents' caseloads. Reported treatments and assessment approaches used by SLTs are not unique to a PPC population. Barriers and enablers for practice were identified. A portion of participants did not feel trained and prepared to assess (19.2%) or treat (15.4%) PPC clients. Conclusions & Implications: This study confirms that SLTs internationally have a role in the management of communication and swallowing impairments in a PPC context. However, whether current training and resources adequately support SLTs in this role remains questionable. This paper helps to provide SLTs, administrators, professional associations and tertiary institutions with foundational data to help inform workforce planning, advocacy efforts and training priorities. What this paper addsWhat is already known on the subjectThe published multidisciplinary literature has identified that SLTs have a role in PPC. However, there has been no targeted research investigating the professional characteristics of clinicians in this context, nor any detailed information regarding associated clinician beliefs or management approaches.What this paper adds to existing knowledgeThis study is a snapshot of attributes, practice patterns and beliefs of SLTs who work with a PPC population. It highlights SLT perspectives of education and training, as well as meta‐perceptions of themselves within the multidisciplinary team.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?Data presented in this paper will help to enable SLTs, organizations and associations to augment service provision and determine future professional development priorities within the field of PPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The climate crisis necessitates urgent decarbonisation. The health sector must address its large carbon footprint. In the present study, we sought healthcare thought leaders' views about a future environmentally sustainable health system. Methods: The present study was a qualitative exploratory study consisting of semistructured, in-depth interviews with 15 healthcare thought leaders from Australia, the UK, the US and New Zealand. Audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed and analysed by matrix display and thematic analysis. Results: Overall, healthcare thought leaders believe that to reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare we need to look beyond traditional 'green' initiatives towards a more fundamental and longer-term redesign. Five main themes and one 'key enabler' (information communication technology) were identified. In this paper we draw on other relevant findings, but chiefly focus on the fifth theme about reshaping the role of healthcare within society and using the size and influence of the health sector to leverage wider health, environmental and societal benefits. Conclusions: These ideas represent potentially low-carbon models of care. The next step would be to pilot and measure the outcomes (health, environmental, financial) of these models. What is known about the topic?: The health sector needs to reduce its large carbon footprint. Traditional 'green' initiatives, such as recycling and improving energy efficiency, are insufficient to achieve the scale of decarbonisation required. What does this paper add?: Healthcare thought leaders surveyed in the present study suggested that we also consider other, non-traditional ways to achieve environmental sustainability. In this paper we discuss their ideas about adopting an anticipatory approach to healthcare using predictive analytics, and using the size and influence of the health sector to effect wider health and environmental benefits. What are the implications for practitioners?: Achieving an environmentally sustainable healthcare system is likely to require broad and fundamental (i.e. transformational) change to the current service model. Health practitioners throughout the sector must be closely engaged in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore whether a relationship exists between the number of disasters a jurisdiction has experienced and the presence of disaster-specific pharmacy legislation. Methods: Pharmacy legislation specific to disasters was reviewed for five countries: Australia, Canada, UK, US and New Zealand. A binary logistic regression test using a generalised estimating equation was used to examine the association between the number of disasters experienced by a state, province, territory or country and whether they had disaster-specific pharmacy legislation. Results: Three of six models were statistically significant, suggesting that the odds of a jurisdiction having disaster-specific pharmacy legislation increased as the number of disasters increased for the period 2007–17 and 2013–17. There was an association between the everyday emergency supply legislation and the presence of the extended disaster-specific emergency supply legislation AH19093_IE1.gif. Conclusions: It is evident from this review that there are inconsistencies as to the level of assistance pharmacists can provide during times of crisis depending on their jurisdiction and location of practice. It is not a question of whether pharmacists have the skills and capabilities to assist, but rather what legislative barriers are preventing them from being able to contribute further to the disaster healthcare team. What is known about the topic?: The contributing factors to disaster-specific pharmacy legislation has not previously been explored in Australia. It can be postulated that the number of disasters experienced by a jurisdiction increases the likelihood of governments introducing disaster-specific pharmacy legislation based on other countries. What does this paper add?: This study compared five countries and their pharmacy legislation specific to disasters. It identified that as the number of disasters increases, the odds of a jurisdiction having disaster-specific emergency supply or disaster relocation or mobile pharmacy legislation increases. However, this is likely to be only one of many factors affecting the political decisions of when and what legislation is passed in relation to pharmacists' roles in disasters. What are the implications for practitioners?: Pharmacists are well situated in the community to be of assistance during disasters. However, their ability to help patients with chronic disease management or providing necessary vaccinations in disasters is limited by the legislation in their jurisdiction. Releasing pharmacists' full potential in disasters could alleviate the burden of low-acuity patients on other healthcare services. This could subsequently free up other healthcare professionals to treat high-acuity patients and emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the principles and practices that have influenced outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand find their genesis in the United Kingdom and North America. In recent times, many of these foundational assumptions have been called into question. This paper highlights how emerging ‘local’ voices are questioning and reframing how outdoor education is conceptualised and practiced. In large part this is due to a sense of distinctiveness borne from the bicultural foundations that underpin governance and policy-making. This paper explores how outdoor educators are developing pedagogies that acknowledge the particularities of our context, particularly the bicultural foundation of Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper highlights how social and cultural influences shape educational policy and how outdoor educators are responding, both theoretically and practically, to meet the needs of learners in an increasingly diverse society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background/aim The successful development and maintenance of professional identity is associated with professional development and retention in the health workforce. This paper explores students' perspectives on the ways pre-entry experiences and curricula content shape professional identity. Methods An online cross-sectional survey was sent to students enrolled in the final year of entry-level programmes in five countries. Descriptive statistical analyses of data were completed. Results The results reflect the perceptions of 319 respondents from five countries. Respondents identified professional education (98%) and professional socialisation during placement (92%) as curricula components with the greatest influence on professional identity formation. Discipline-specific knowledge such as, occupation-focussed models and occupational science were ranked lower than these aspects of practice. The students' length of programme and level of entry-level programme did not impact on these results. Conclusion When designing curricula educators need to be mindful that students perceive practice education and professional socialisation have the greatest affect on professional identity formation. The findings reinforce the need for curricula to provide students with a range of practice experiences, which allow the observation and application of occupation-based practices. It highlights a need for educators to provide university-based curricula activities, which better prepare students for a potential dissonance between explicit occupation-based curricula and observed practice education experiences. The study indicates the need for further research into the role curricula content, and in particular practice education, plays in the multidimensional formation of professional development within entry-level programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BURRELL B and TRIP H. Nursing Inquiry 2011; : 174-183 In this paper we provide a post structural analysis of the theoretical shifts informing changes to service delivery over the past 150 years in relation to people with intellectual disability. We utilise the New Zealand experience of reform as it reflected global knowledge at any given period. Firstly, we address the historical modes of treatment and care, with reference to the eugenics movement, the concepts informing 'Prisons of protection' and moral treatment. Secondly the paper traces reforms commencing in the 1960s where changes from institutional care to community care were informed by humanistic ideals, a key driver being the concept of normalisation. Theorists offered competing discourses that formed the bases of arguments for the status quo whilst resistant voices advocated change. Covering such significant changes leads us to assess the state of de-institutionalisation' as it stands today and how it may be perceived in the future. We assert that Foucault's genealogical approach provides analytic tools to uncover the dynamics of changing attitudes and approaches to service delivery. In applying a Foucauldian lens to the trajectory of reforms concerning institutionalisation to de-institutionalisation we question whether a form of re-institutionalisation may be occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on business-to-business relationships in tourism distribution by examining questions of supplier selection in the New Zealand inbound tourism industry. In particular, the paper examines the factors that influence offshore intermediaries' selection of new suppliers; analyses the factors that would lead them to change suppliers; and investigates the ways they stay abreast of what products and suppliers are available in New Zealand. An open-ended approach is taken to addressing these questions based on interviews with a range of intermediaries in New Zealand's three main international markets: Australia, Great Britain and the USA. Three broad sets of factors are found to influence their behaviour in terms of selecting and changing New Zealand suppliers of travel products: those related to products, people and pricing. In contrast to earlier work in this field, product-related factors are shown to be particularly important. TRENZ, the country's annual travel trade fair, and the activities of the national tourism marketing organization are the main means by which intermediaries remain abreast of product development. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of these results for those researching tourism distribution and for suppliers operating, or seeking to operate, in international markets. doi:10.1300/J073v23n01_05 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Lone parents and their children experience higher than average levels of adverse health and social outcomes, much of which are explained by high rates of poverty. Many high income countries have attempted to address high poverty rates by introducing employment requirements for lone parents in receipt of welfare benefits. However, there is evidence that employment may not reduce poverty or improve the health of lone parents and their children.Methods: We conducted a systematic review of qualitative studies reporting lone parents' accounts of participation in welfare to work (WtW), to identify explanations and possible mechanisms for the impacts of WtW on health and wellbeing. Twenty one bibliographic databases were searched. Two reviewers independently screened references and assessed study quality. Studies from any high income country that met the criteria of focussing on lone parents, mandatory WtW interventions, and health or wellbeing were included. Thematic synthesis was used to investigate analytic themes between studies.Results: Screening of the 4703 identified papers and quality assessment resulted in the inclusion of 16 qualitative studies of WtW in five high income countries, USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, covering a variety of welfare regimes. Our synthesis found that WtW requirements often conflicted with child care responsibilities. Available employment was often poorly paid and precarious. Adverse health impacts, such as increased stress, fatigue, and depression were commonly reported, though employment and appropriate training was linked to increased self-worth for some. WtW appeared to influence health through the pathways of conflict and control, analytical themes which emerged during synthesis. WtW reduced control over the nature of employment and care of children. Access to social support allowed some lone parents to manage the conflict associated with employment, and to increase control over their circumstances, with potentially beneficial health impacts.Conclusion: WtW can result in increased conflict and reduced control, which may lead to negative impacts on mental health. Availability of social support may mediate the negative health impacts of WtW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Speech and language therapists can improve the quality of life of people receiving palliative care through the management of communication and swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). However, their role in this domain is poorly defined and little is understood about the current international professional practice in this field. Aims: To examine how speech and language therapists perceive their role in the delivery of palliative care to clients, to discover current international speech and language therapist practices and to explore the similarities and differences in speech and language therapists’ practice in palliative care internationally. This will inform professional clinical guidelines and practice in this area.Design:Anonymous, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design.Participants:Speech and language therapists working with adult and paediatric palliative care populations in Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where the speech and language therapist profession is well established. Method: Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants internationally using gatekeepers. An online survey was disseminated using Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com). Results: A total of 322 speech and language therapists responded to the survey. Speech and language therapist practices in palliative care were similar across continents. Current speech and language therapist practices along with barriers and facilitators to practice were identified. The need for a speech and language therapist professional position paper on this topic was emphasised by respondents. Conclusion: Internationally, speech and language therapists believe they have a role in palliative care. The speech and language therapist respondents highlighted that this area of practice is under-resourced, under-acknowledged and poorly developed. They highlighted the need for additional research as well as specialist training and education for speech and language therapists and other multidisciplinary team members in the area of palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview, including methodology and preliminary findings, of a current and ongoing doctoral research study of the impact of national library associations. The study uses the impact assessment framework provided by IS016439:2014 Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries. Design/methodology/approach -- If the professional associations supporting the profession are to become sustainable we need to understand the difference they make to the individual members of the profession, to the employers of those individuals and to the profession of librarianship. This study applies the framework provided by ISO 16439:2014 to the national library association environment to explore and gather evidence of impact. To align with the ISO model, impact is differentiated into impact on individuals; social impact -- institution (library or employing organization); and social impact -- community (the profession). Preliminary findings show evidence of impact in all categories. Findings -- Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews that were conducted with members of national library associations in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA during the third quarter of 2013. Originality/value -- This study contributes to research methodologies by testing the use of a qualitative assessment tool in a way that could be transferable to other associations both within and external to the library environment and to enable it to be adapted more broadly for other purposes within the library and information environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diversity of terms and meanings relating to housing with services for older people confounds systematic analysis, especially in international comparative research. This paper presents an analysis of over 90 terms identified in literature from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reporting types of housing with services under the umbrella of ‘service integrated housing’ (SIH), defined as all forms of accommodation built specifically for older people in which the housing provider takes responsibility for delivery of one or more types of support and care services. A small number of generic terms covering housing for people in later life, home and community care, and institutional care are reviewed first to define the scope of SIH. Review of the remainder identifies different terms applied to similar types of SIH, similar terms applied to different types, and different terms that distinguish different types. Terms are grouped into those covering SIH focused on lifestyle and recreation, those offering only support services, and those offering care as well as support. Considerable commonality is found in underlying forms of SIH, and common themes emerge in discussion of drivers of growth and diversification, formal policies and programmes, and symbolic meanings. In establishing more commonality than difference, clarification of terminology advances policy debate, programme development, research and knowledge transfer within and between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The purpose of credentialing is to ensure that clinicians provide safe, high-quality health-care services in accordance with good practice and legal requirements. This review assessed the institutional credentialing processes and governance structures required to support credentialing processes at an institutional, regional or health-care system level. Methods: Searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE and PubMed were conducted. Additional grey literature searches were performed using the Google search engine and specific searches of government web sites were conducted. The inclusion criteria were developed a priori and standardized extraction of the information to appraise the research questions was conducted systematically. Results: A total of 33 white papers were included in this systematic literature review: 18 were published in Australia, 1 in New Zealand, 10 in the United Kingdom, 2 in the United States of America and 2 in Canada. Four key principles were common throughout all studies included in this review: clear lines of responsibility for the credentialing process and supportive governance structures, clear standards for credentialing, a culture of continuous improvement and evaluation of credentialing process outcomes. Conclusions: No data were available to evaluate the relationship between the credentialing process and the safety and quality of health-care services or patient outcomes; and capturing such data is difficult because of the numerous factors that affect the relationship between credentialing, patient outcomes, and the safety and quality of health-care services. Consequently, developing methods to measure the effectiveness of credentialing processes represents an area for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This paper examines how negative experiences with the health-care system create a lack of confidence in receiving medical care in seven countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Methods The empirical analysis is based on data from the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey 2007, with nationally representative samples of adults aged 18 and over. For the analysis of the experience of cost barriers and confidence in receiving medical care, we conducted pairwise comparisons of group percentages as well as country-wise multivariate logistic regression models. Results Individuals who have experienced cost barriers show a significantly lower level of confidence in receiving safe and quality medical care than those who have not. This effect is most pronounced in the United States, where people who have foregone necessary treatment because of costs are four times as likely to lack confidence as individuals without the experience of cost barriers (adjusted odds ratio 4.00). In New Zealand, Germany, and Canada, individuals with the experience of cost barriers are twice as likely to report low confidence compared with those without this experience (adjusted odds ratios of 1.95, 2.19 and 2.24, respectively). In the Netherlands and UK, cost barriers are only a marginal phenomenon. Conclusions The fact that the experience of financial barriers considerably lowers confidence indicates that financial incentives, such as private co-payments, have a negative effect on overall public support and therefore on the legitimacy of health-care systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The professional identity of counsellors and guidance practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand is currently under review as a result of the passing of legislation regulating health professionals and the proposed introduction of national registration of counsellors. In this paper I explore this debate, and examine the professional identities claimed by counsellors, counselling psychologists and psychotherapists. The current discussion in this country is both informed by and provides an illuminating lens on professional identity issues in Australia, the UK and the US. An alternative construction of professional identities that are localised and dynamic, yet distinctly of Aotearoa New Zealand, is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the results of the world's largest ever survey of international relations (IR) scholars with an eye to establishing the particularities of the discipline in Australia and New Zealand. The survey covered the areas of teaching, research, the structure of the profession and scholars' views on foreign policy. From these results, this paper compares IR in New Zealand and Australia, and discusses the extent to which the discipline in these two countries is distinctive from its overseas counterparts, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. The particular areas of focus include the degree to which the field in Australasia conforms to or differs from US or Commonwealth identities; epistemological and gender divides; the distinctive foci of what IR scholars in both countries teach and research; which publications are favoured and disfavoured; and the contrasting linkages between academia and the world of government and policy. We conclude with some suggestions about how the field in both countries might be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 15 years geographers in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere have been increasingly concerned with issues of sexuality and space and have produced an array of work under the heading 'queer geographies'. This paper considers the importance of place in the production of queer geographies. Material representing queer geographies is drawn from Web pages, conversations and e-mail exchanges (a questionnaire survey) with key individuals in geography (or related spatial disciplines) departments in New Zealand and Australia. Complex politics of place mean that queer geographies in Australasia are both similar to and different from queer geographies produced elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to reconcile work-life balance goals are at the heart of the design of tax-benefit programs. Yet this relationship between work-life balance and tax-benefit programs is relatively unexplored. To help address this lacuna this paper compares approaches to reconciling work-life balance goals in the designs of earned and child tax credits in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These designs indicate different approaches to reconciling work-life balance. In their design of earned and child tax credits the United States places emphasis upon targeting tax relief by paid employment (to breadwinners), Australia and Canada by family structures (to caregivers), and New Zealand and the United Kingdom by both paid employment and family structures, although in New Zealand assistance is provided on a more residual basis. Of these designs the dual objective approach, particularly of the United Kingdom, appears to offer greater opportunity for both directly addressing relatively high rates of child poverty and increasing low wage caregivers' labor supply (as part of a broader poverty reduction strategy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a comparative survey in five nations: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The survey finds a high level of citizen dissatisfaction with the health care systems in all five countries. Citizens with incomes below the national median were more likely than were those with higher incomes to be dissatisfied. In contrast, relatively few citizens reported problems getting needed health care. Low-income U.S. citizens reported more problems getting care than did their counterparts in the other four countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical analyses of crime increasingly rely on integrated data. This paper considers advantages and limitations of integrated data sets, comparative uses of such data in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, British Journal of Criminology and Criminology, as well as speculations based on these findings. Integrated data analysis has amplified methodological issues. The reliability of secondary data analysis is both supported and challenged. Relevant questions include how crime is associated with actuarial measures and which measures are most reliable. The more difficult question is whether actuarial measures are valid indicators. One extreme empirical orientation, positivism, relies on empirical, often quantitative, data, and scientific method to derive conclusions and guide policy (Young, 1992a). The other extreme relies on discourse and persuasion. Implications of relying on or rejecting actuarialism are discussed in the context of integrated data research published in the above-mentioned criminology journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian government has announced major reforms with the move to a primary maternity care model. The direction of the reforms remains contentious; with the Australian Medical Association warning that the introduction of non-medically led services will compromise current high standards in maternity services and threaten the safety of mothers and babies. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a critical review of the literature to determine whether there is convincing evidence to support the safety of non-medically led models of primary maternity care. Twenty-two non-randomised international studies were included representing midwifery-led care, birth centre care and home birth. Comparative outcome measurements included: perinatal mortality; perinatal morbidity; rates of medical intervention in labour; and antenatal and intrapartum referral and transfer rates. Findings support those of the three Cochrane reviews, that there is sufficient international evidence to support the conclusion of no difference in outcomes associated with low risk women in midwifery-led, birth centre and home birth models compared with standard hospital or obstetric care. These findings are limited to services involving qualified midwives working within rigorous exclusion, assessment and referral guidelines, limiting the number of urgent intrapartum transfers that come with increased risk of perinatal mortality. What is known about the topic? Systematic reviews of maternal and perinatal outcomes associated with midwifery-led care when compared to conventional intrapartum hospital care concluded that these non-medically led models of care are associated with several benefits for low risk women and their babies with no identified adverse effects. What does this paper add? The finding of no difference in outcomes associated with midwifery-led, birth centre and home birth compared with standard hospital or obstetric care is limited to international studies involving women in the care of qualified midwives working within rigorous guidelines for practice involving inter-professionally agreed exclusion, assessment and referral criteria. What are the implications for practitioners? Midwives caring for women in non-medically led models are urged to be vigilant to the need for early detection and prompt action in the event of unforseen complications to avoid an over emphasis on normality. This decreases the likelihood of urgent intrapartum transfers that come with an increased risk of perinatal mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses governmental incentives for researchers to publish their findings in international journals, arguing that the lack of increase in the number of articles published by U.S. scientists is attributable to international competition created by changes in incentives. The authors of the study looked at the number of papers submitted to the journal "Science" by scientists in the U.S. as well as in countries such as Great Britain, New Zealand, and China which reward publications with cash bonuses, funding, and career-based incentives. They conclude that such incentives are positively correlated with the number of both submissions and publications.