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Background: Nurses are key decision makers in residential aged care facilities and play a significant role in the transfer of residents from residential aged care facilities to emergency departments. There is scant literature about the role of nurses in the transfer decision-making process. Aim: To describe the experiences of residential aged care facility nurses who engage in decision-making to transfer residents to emergency department. Methods: This research has adopted interpretive qualitative approach of phenomenography. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 20 residential aged care facility nurses across two sites. Uniquely,drawing was used as one way to collect rich, textured data in these in-depth interviews. Findings: Six categories emerged to represent residential aged care facility nurses’ conceptions of decision-making about transferring a resident to the emergency department: “Being a marionette”; “Too dumb to have an opinion”; “Making the family happy”; “Not about the resident”; “Having experience”; and “Being on your own”. Discussion: Residential aged care facility nurses experienced decision-making as not being able to do what is right for the resident most of the time due to a myriad of factors, with heavy influence of other key stakeholders. Conclusion: Decision-making is described as a professional responsibility wherein residential aged care facility nurses face dilemmas related to the transfer of a resident to the emergency department and perceived as a constraint.

The public role of Christianity in Africa has gained increased attention from scholars. This article gives four snapshots of the responses of churches to COVID-19 in Africa in the early weeks of disease spread on the continent. In many countries, churches are at the forefront of formal and informal health delivery and disease control, through medical services and faith healing. An examination of different approaches of Christian communities to the pandemic shows the influence and the limits of Christian action as governments acted quickly to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Using research methods (remote interviews and surveys, and analysis of authors' own denominations or congregations) consonant with physical distancing measures, the authors observed Churches attempting to carry out their mission as measures were put in place to arrest disease. They maintained worship services, moving them online. They helped Christians make sense of the pandemic and offered themselves as repositories of public trust. In some cases, however, they were less successful than they wished in carrying out their social responsibility because many of their institutions were closed as part of the measures to restrict the spread of disease.

In the past twenty years, there have been exciting new developments in the field of anthropology. This second edition of Barnard's classic textbook on the history and theory of anthropology has been revised and expanded to include up-to-date coverage on all the most important topics in the field. Its coverage ranges from traditional topics like the beginnings of the subject, evolutionism, functionalism, structuralism, and Marxism, to ideas about globalization, post-colonialism, and notions of 'race' and of being 'indigenous'. There are several new chapters, along with an extensive glossary, index, dates of birth and death, and award-winning diagrams. Although anthropology is often dominated by trends in Europe and North America, this edition makes plain the contributions of trendsetters in the rest of the world too. With its comprehensive yet clear coverage of concepts, this is essential reading for a new generation of anthropology students.

Background: The South African National Policy Framework and Strategy on Palliative Care (NPFSPC) recommends that when integrating palliative care (PC) into the health system, a PC indicators tool should be used to guide clinicians to recognise a patient who should receive PC. The policy document recommends ‘a simple screening tool developed for use in South Africa that would assist healthcare professionals (HCPs) to recognise patients who may have unmet palliative care needs’.Aim: This research study sought to develop South African consensus on indicators for PC to assist clinicians to recognise a patient in need of PC.Setting: The South African healthcare setting.Methods: A Delphi study was considered suitable as a methodology to develop consensus. The methodology was based on the Conducting and REporting of DElphi studies (CREDES) guidance on Delphi studies to ensure rigour and transparency in conducting and reporting. Six different Delphi rounds were used to develop consensus. Each round allowed participants to anonymously rate statements with predefined rating scales.Results: Cognisant of the disparities in healthcare provision and access to equitable healthcare in South Africa, the expert advisory group recommended, especially for South Africa, that ‘this tool is for deteriorating patients with an advanced life-limiting illness where all available and appropriate management for underlying illnesses and reversible complications has been offered’. The expert advisory group felt that disease-specific indicators should be described before the general indicators in the South African indicators tool, so all users of the tool orientate themselves to the disease categories first. This study included three new domains to address the South African context: trauma, infectious diseases and haematological diseases. General indicators for PC aligned with the original Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT) tool.Conclusion: The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool for South Africa (SPICTTM-SA) is a simple screening tool for South Africa that may assist HCPs to recognise patients who may have unmet PC needs.

This chapter explores the notion of territoriality with reference to its social context. The social boundaries maintained in Bushman, or southern African hunter-gatherer, society are defined according to language, culture and kinship relations. Land tenure refers to the appropriation of resources, while territoriality involves social relations which are spatially based, or more specifically, those directly contingent upon the spatial organisation of resource extraction. The degree to which rights to such resources are defended depends again on local custom. Various species of monkeys, birds, hyenas, and so on, have been observed as exhibiting increased territorial behaviour when they have more resources to defend. The Namibian case aside, among most Bushman groups there is a degree of flexibility in territorial ideology which permits the temporary occupation of territories by alien groups. Territoriality, in the sense of defence of resources and spatial boundary maintenance, functions primarily in relation to like populations.

Recent and ongoing developments in microbiome science are enabling new frontiers of research for probiotics and prebiotics. Novel types, mechanisms, and applications currently under study have the potential to change scientific understanding as well as nutritional and healthcare applications of these interventions. The expansion of related fields of microbiome-targeted interventions, and an evolving landscape for implementation across regulatory, policy, prescriber, and consumer spheres, portends an era of significant change. In this review we examine recent, emerging, and anticipated trends in probiotic and prebiotic science, and create a vision for broad areas of developing influence in the field.

The study of hunter-gatherers has had a profound impact on thinking about human nature and about the nature of society. The subject has especially influenced ideas on social evolution and on the development of human culture. Anthropologists and archaeologists continue to investigate living hunter-gatherers and the remains of past hunter-gatherer societies in the hope of unearthing the secrets of our ancestors and learning something of the natural existence of humankind. Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology provides a definitive overview of hunter-gatherer historiography, from the earliest anthropological writings through to the present day. What can early visions of the hunter-gatherer tell us about the societies that generated them? How do diverse national traditions, such as American, Russian and Japanese, manifest themselves in hunter-gatherer research? What is the most up-to-date thinking on the subject and how does it reflect current trends within the social sciences? This book provides a much-needed overview of the history of thought on one of science's most intriguing subjects. It will serve as a landmark text for anthropologists, archaeologists and students researching anthropological theory or the history of social anthropology and related disciplines. The study of hunter-gatherers has had a profound impact on thinking about human nature and about the nature of society. The subject has especially influenced ideas on social evolution and on the development of human culture. Anthropologists and archaeologists continue to investigate living hunter-gatherers and the remains of past hunter-gatherer societies in the hope of unearthing the secrets of our ancestors and learning something of the natural existence of humankind. Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology provides a definitive overview of hunter-gatherer historiography, from the earliest anthropological writings through to the present day. Wh

'Hunter-gatherer society' was in essence a late eighteenth-century invention, and it came to be realized as meaningful in social theory largely within Scotland. Any notion of 'hunting-and-gathering society' must therefore be an economic notion; and any theory about such a society must, at least in part, be an economic theory. The Scottish tradition was certainly built upon a foundation of economic concerns. These related to early eighteenth-century periods of economic as well as social instability in Scotland and to a time in the middle and late eighteenth century when Scottish farming practices, as well as other economic concerns, were undergoing great change. Hume seemingly had little interest in the matter; Ferguson saw the transitions from savagery to barbarism to civilization as dependent at least as much on intellectual outlook and political domination as on subsistence; and Robertson consistently regarded the search for simple causes, such as means of subsistence, as inadequate in light of the complexity of human existence.

Background Elders often experience multiple chronic diseases associated with frequent early return visits to emergency departments (EDs). There is limited knowledge of the experiences and concerns of elders during ED return visits. Objectives The purpose of the research was to explore the experiences of elders during ED return visits, with a view toward identifying factors that contribute to return visits. Methods The qualitative approach of phenomenography was used. Data were collected at one ED in a 3,000-bed medical center in Taiwan. Inclusion criteria were aged 65 or above and return visits to the ED within 72 hours of discharge from an index ED visit. The seven steps of qualitative data analysis for a phenomenographic study were employed to develop understanding of participants’ experiences. Results Thirty return-visit elders were interviewed in 2014. Four categories of description were established from the participants’ accounts. These were “being tricked by ED staff,” “doctor shopping,” “a sign of impending death,” and “feeling fatalistic.” The outcome space of elders with early return visits to ED was characterized as “seeking the answer.” Conclusion Index ED visits are linked to return visits for Taiwanese elders through physiological, psychological, and social factors.

Background Workplace violence (WPV) is a serious problem in health care in Taiwan, as it is worldwide. Among all nursing staff, emergency department (ED) nurses are at the highest risk of WPV; yet, little attention has been paid to nurses as WPV victims. Purpose The purpose of the study was to understand ED nurses' WPV experiences and perspectives. Methods An interpretive qualitative phenomenographic design was used to answer the following research question: what are the qualitatively different ways in which nurses in Taiwan experience WPV in the ED? Thirty ED nurses who identified as experienced with WPV were interviewed, and phenomenographic analysis was used to assess the data. Findings Four categories of description emerged. WPV was seen as a continuing nightmare, a part of daily life, and a direct threat, and it had a negative impact on nurses' passion for emergency care. WPV adversely affected nurses on physical, psychological, social, personal, and professional levels. Conclusion The findings of this study have practical implications for in-service WPV training programs and may be used to inform potential changes to policy and legislation designed to establish a safer ED environment for staff.

In Australia there is limited access to acute care support for residents living within the residential aged care sector. Competing demands from families, residents, government agencies and the acute care sector has meant that staff with the sector struggle often to meet the acute care needs of residents, leading sometimes to transfer of residents to emergency departments with major hospitals. Hospital in the nursing home is a care delivery model designed to reduce transfers, facilitate appropriate care intervention, effectively utilize existing health resources, and extend support to the residential care sector. This research project used an interpretive qualitative framework to explore through focus group method, hospital in the home experiences of 20 residential care Directors of Nursing in South East Queensland. Research outcomes emphasize hospital in the nursing home as a mutually beneficial support strategy that can improve residential based management of acute and chronic illness, can positively assist family support, and assists with decision making and ongoing communication. Hospital in the home emphasises a move from hospital destination based acute care services to community based delivery supported by a multidisciplinary team.

The three volumes reviewed here have different origins but a common theme: all try to put some social or cultural anthropology into, or back into, archaeology. In the United Kingdom these are separate disciplines anyway, but in North America they are usually taught in the same department and have similar interests. The problem is that they are growing apart.

The paper highlights the problem of academic engagement with the idea of indigenous or indigeneity, which stands problematic as anthropological categories, both for anthropology at a theoretical level and for the engagement of the discipline with those of the subjects who make that claim, in the light of anthropology particularly in southern Africa. It is argued using both empirical evidences and theoretical insights that both the notion of culture and idea of indigeneity share certain peculiar attributes, similar in essence, especially as a means of referencing identities of those people who present themselves different from some wider society, and in this sense, anthropological enquiry would be meaningful in the domain of such common traits. Precisely, in this paper, an effort is made of searching for a perspective approach to anthropological engagement with indigeneity.

In September 2000, the United Nations adopted their Millennium Declaration: a commitment to improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. Of the eight Millennium Goals declared, the foremost was to “Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger,” with a target to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than US $1 per day. Many have attempted to address this problem, yet debate rages as to what causes poverty in many communities. Dr. Christopher Wright, a Church of England minister, contends that the root causes of poverty are indeed identifiable from Old Testament texts: natural disasters, laziness, and oppression. While Wright presented a brief overview of this biblical approach to the causes of poverty, he did not elaborate on whether it would be reflected in the experience of poor people. This study therefore presents a critical synthesis of Wright’s model with contemporary field research. We conclude by reinforcing the importance of the Church engaging with the causes of poverty—not just the expressions of poverty—in order to fully demonstrate the love of God to the world.

Published research on discharge planning is written from the perspective of hospital wards and community services. Limited research focuses on discharge planning in the emergency department (ED). The objective of this study was to identify ED nurses’ perceptions of factors influencing the implementation of discharge planning. This qualitative study collected data from 25 ED nurses through in-depth interviews and a drawing task in which participants were asked to depict on paper the implementation of discharge planning in their practice. Factors influencing discharge planning were grouped into three categories: discharge planning as a neglected issue in the ED, heavy workload, and the negative attitudes of ED patients and their families. The study highlighted a need for effective discharge planning to be counted as an essential clinical competency for ED nurses and factored into their everyday workload. Nurses perceived that organizational culture, and parents’ and relatives’ attitudes were barriers to implementing discharge teaching in the ED.

This paper explores the failure of anthropology, at least since the 1970s, to look at the big picture: what the four fields can contribute to each other. It focuses on kinship as a key example, on other aspects of sociality, and on language and symbolic thought. I argue that an understanding of humanity as a whole, and especially hunter-gatherers, is important for grasping the nature of the human species. Cultural or social anthropology progressed to a large extent through kinship studies, and it is here also that we should look. The transformation of a Ju/’hoan kinship structure to a Khoe one is used as one key example. The deeper history of language itself is another. After these examples, I return to general issues, including the ways in which the diverse branches of anthropology, especially social anthropology and linguistic anthropology, serve to enlighten each other.

The QUT School of Nursing is currently trialling peer review of teaching (PRoT) as one strategy to support clinical facilitators working with undergraduate students. Work integrated learning (WIL) relies on collaborative partnerships and clinical facilitators need specific skills and knowledge.

The integration of technology in care is core business in nursing and this role requires that we must understand and use technology informed by evidence that goes much deeper and broader than actions and behaviours. We need to delve more deeply into its complexity because there is nothing minor or insignificant about technology as a major influence in healthcare outcomes and experiences. Evidence is needed that addresses technology and nursing from perspectives that examine the effects of technology, especially related to increasing demands for efficiency, the relationship of technology to nursing and caring, and a range of philosophical questions associated with empowering people in their healthcare choices. Specifically, there is a need to confront in practice the ways technique influences care. Technique is the creation of a kind of thinking that is necessary for contemporary healthcare technology to develop and be applied in an efficient and rational manner. Technique is not an entity or specific thing, but rather a way of thinking that seeks to shape and organize nursing activity, and manage efficiently individual difference(s) in care. It emphasizes predetermined causal relationships, conformity, and sameness of product, process, and thought. In response is needed a radical vision of nursing that attempts in a real sense to ensure we meet the needs of individuals and their community. Activism and advocacy are needed, and a willingness to create a certain detachment from the imperatives that technique demands. It is argued that our responsibility as nurses is to respond in practice to the errors, advantages, difficulties, and temptations of technology for the benefit of those who most need our assistance and care.