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Background: Early childhood teachers (ECTs) play a significant role in equipping children with oral language and emergent literacy skills ahead of school entry. They are well positioned to play a vital role in ensuring preschool children receive a high‐quality preschool curriculum to prepare them for later literacy learning. Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore early career ECTs' views and confidence regarding their role in providing preschoolers with oral language and emergent literacy support and to examine their perceptions of their preservice preparation. Methods & Procedures: Nine Australian early career ECTs were recruited via purposive sampling for an in‐depth, semi‐structured interview. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Outcomes & Results: Participants attached strong significance to their role in facilitating children's oral language growth and emergent literacy skills and reported a range of practices to support children's learning. However, they rarely referred to using established language facilitation strategies or using dialogic book reading prompts. Further, emergent literacy concepts such as phonological awareness and print awareness were not routinely described as features of participants' classroom activities. Participants did not consistently make a clear conceptual distinction between the constructs of oral language and emergent literacy and often used these terms interchangeably. Notably, participants indicated that they did not feel confident in their ability to identify preschool children who were not meeting developmental language milestones and reported that they felt poorly equipped to do so by their preservice training. Conclusions & Implications: ECTs' strong willingness to support preschool children's oral language and emergent literacy skills may be hindered by gaps in their knowledge; these may contribute to important and missed opportunities for identifying and supporting preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. What this paper adds: What is already known on this subject?: High‐quality learning experiences in preschool are important for maximising preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy growth. Early childhood teachers can play an important role in facilitating this development and preparing children for later literacy learning. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: The study findings provide insight into ECTs' perceptions of their role and support in developing children's oral language and emergent literacy skills. The results indicated ECTs did not feel confident with their knowledge of children's language milestones or identifying children with language difficulties. Participants reported that their preservice training left them underprepared in the area of oral language. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: ECTs demonstrated a strong willingness to support preschoolers' oral language and emergent literacy skills. However, their self‐reported knowledge gaps and low confidence may have implications for the early detection of children who are not reaching language developmental milestones in a timely way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the study was to understand the experiences of nurses who were newly appointed to a position of leadership including facilitators and barriers to success and what they considered important for the development of their role. Methods: We used a qualitative descriptive research design. The study was conducted in Norway with 10 nurses who had been appointed to a leadership position within the last 2 years. Participants were interviewed with individual qualitative interviews which were transcribed and subsequently analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The following four main themes were identified from the data: I feel lonely in the leadership position, I am not confident as a leader, I am unsure of the requirements and expectations of me, and I need support and supervision. Conclusion: The results underscore the challenges reported by new leaders in nursing and their advocacy for mentorship as a facilitator for success. The qualifications of mentors were emphasised with a need for a comprehensive leadership skill set to address the multifaceted aspects of leadership development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Within Australia, the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has led to a growth in paediatric occupational therapists working in community settings. This growth has increased the demand for support from more senior paediatric occupational therapists to novice clinicians. Mentoring has long been valued by occupational therapists as a means to provide this support. Despite its apparent benefit, there is limited research on the contribution of mentoring as distinct from supervision, and its impact on mentees' skills and confidence in providing care. This study examined the contribution of mentorship to the development of professional capability in paediatric occupational therapy practice from the perspective of mentors and mentees. Methods: Interpretive description methodology was used. In‐depth interviews were conducted with nine mentors and eight mentees from three Australian states. Data were analysed inductively and thematically. Findings: All participants reflected on the challenges presented by the complexity of practice, requiring a knowledge base that mentees perceived they did not possess. The essential nature of non‐judgemental, emotional support allowed mentees to feel safe to discuss their concerns when they were often overwhelmed by practice. Mentorship was viewed as capacity building, building competence by scaffolding clinical reasoning and supporting theory to practice translation while developing resilience to cope with complexity. Conclusion: Study participants reported that successful mentorship assisted novice practitioners to integrate knowledge and skills required for complex clinical and professional reasoning. The emotional support provided through the relationship supported novice therapists to build their confidence and resilience while promoting professional identity and socialisation into the profession. The study raised questions related to how the profession best supports novice paediatric therapists in the current employment contexts, and the need to review how bodies of knowledge relevant to paediatrics are brought together to be used by both novice clinicians and senior therapists, who support them, for translation to effective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the UK, district nursing services (DNS) deliver care to people intheir own homes and have regular contact with people with dementia. Research conducted with nurses working in similar roles outside the UK suggests their contribution to high quality dementia care is limited by compassion fatigue, lack of dementia training and low levels of confidence. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the role and learning and support needs of nurses within DNS. Objectives: The aim was to gain insight into the role and experiences of nurses caring for people living with dementia at home. Methods: The study was informed by a descriptive phenomenological approach. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of ten nurses working in DNS. Data were analysed thematically. Results: Five main themes were identified: 'Home as a care setting' reflected how delivering home‐based care shaped participants experiences of caring for people with dementia; 'Taking it in their stride' revealed how participants adapted and responded to the complexity of care needs for people with dementia; 'Complexity and unpredictability' related to the unpredictable nature of people with dementia's care needs and the impact this had on participants' workloads; 'Expertise and support within the wider team' detailed which networks nurses used for advice and support to manage the complex needs of people living with dementia at home; 'Specialist support' identified the need for structural changes and resources to enable the nurses to deliver the care needed. Conclusions: This study enables better understanding of the role of DNS in supporting people with dementia to live at home. This is important for defining how dementia care can become effectively integrated into primary care. Recommendations include improved models of care, which factor in specialist nurses, additional time for home visits and greater emphasis on education and training. Implications for practice: Improved models of working that factor in additional time and staffing such as specialist nurses in dementia and palliative care would allow DNS to meet the needs of people with dementia more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Biopsychosocial approaches to understanding behavioural and psychological (otherwise known as "non‐cognitive" or "neuropsychiatric") symptoms of dementia tend to be conducted by specialist psychology professionals. To increase service users' access to these approaches, healthcare professionals from nursing and allied health disciplines are being trained to use them. However, little is known about healthcare professionals' experiences of implementing biopsychosocial approaches in everyday practice. Objectives: To explore nursing and allied healthcare professionals' views of using the "Newcastle Model," which is a biopsychosocial approach to understanding behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Method: Thirteen community mental healthcare professionals from nursing, social work and occupational therapy backgrounds were interviewed about their views and experiences of using the Newcastle Model to understand and work with behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Five themes were identified. The first theme reflected the perceived positive value of taking a more psychosocial approach to understanding behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. The second theme reported participants' expressions of low confidence in using the approach, as well as their reported difficulties in prioritising it. The third theme highlighted the perceived time‐consuming nature of the approach, and the adaptations that some staff made to increase its practicality. The fourth theme highlighted the importance of working in collaboration with those who provided direct care and support to the person with dementia. The final theme reflected participants' positive view of the effectiveness of the approach for delivering person‐centred care Conclusion: Community healthcare professionals valued the integration of a biopsychosocial approach into their practice, although identified key implementation barriers. Implications for Practice: Formalising this approach within professional role descriptions; increasing collaborative working within multidisciplinary teams; and increasing carers' psychological understanding of dementia, are key ways in which this biopsychosocial approach could be implemented more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]