Advancing understanding of health professionals' work and communication patterns and the effectiveness of work reform initiatives. Health systems internationally need to improve productivity and the way hospital staff work together. Yet we have surprisingly poor data about these and few measurement techniques. This project will deliver new methods, information and theoretical advances to support the design and evaluation of future workforce reform initiatives.
Enhancing Community Knowledge and Engagement with Law at the End of Life. This project explores how and if members of the community understand and act upon their legal right to participate in decisions about medical treatment for themselves or for their loved ones at the end of life. Little is currently known about whether individuals know the law, or are able to exercise their legal rights to be involved in the process of making decisions about treatment. This research aims to enhance patient a ....Enhancing Community Knowledge and Engagement with Law at the End of Life. This project explores how and if members of the community understand and act upon their legal right to participate in decisions about medical treatment for themselves or for their loved ones at the end of life. Little is currently known about whether individuals know the law, or are able to exercise their legal rights to be involved in the process of making decisions about treatment. This research aims to enhance patient and family decision-making through a better understanding of legal rights, powers and duties and to improve the experiences of patients and families at the end of life.Read moreRead less
A critical public health examination of complementary self-medication in later life in indigenous, non-indigenous and CALD communities. This project aims to provide the first in-depth coordinated critical public health examination of an unregulated and 'covert' area of health and treatment seeking behaviour - complementary self-medication (CAM SM) use in later life. It will focus on healthy ageing and living with chronic illness and draw upon fieldwork with Indigenous, non-Indigenous and cultura ....A critical public health examination of complementary self-medication in later life in indigenous, non-indigenous and CALD communities. This project aims to provide the first in-depth coordinated critical public health examination of an unregulated and 'covert' area of health and treatment seeking behaviour - complementary self-medication (CAM SM) use in later life. It will focus on healthy ageing and living with chronic illness and draw upon fieldwork with Indigenous, non-Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. This project aims to identify the challenges of, and possibilities for, 'covert' CAM SM use in later life. It will provide an evidence-base to inform safe, effective care and policy for older Australians and generate novel analyses to provide significant advances and new directions for public health scholarship with regards to chronic illness and community health in later life.Read moreRead less
Engaging the public in healthcare decision making: quantifying preferences for healthcare through Citizens’ Juries. This project promotes public engagement and quantifies preferences in key areas of relevance to the industry partners Queensland Health and South Australia Health. These areas identified are elective surgery priorities, optimising appropriate use of emergency care, and interventions for obesity. A series of choice experiments and citizens' juries will be used. The project will f ....Engaging the public in healthcare decision making: quantifying preferences for healthcare through Citizens’ Juries. This project promotes public engagement and quantifies preferences in key areas of relevance to the industry partners Queensland Health and South Australia Health. These areas identified are elective surgery priorities, optimising appropriate use of emergency care, and interventions for obesity. A series of choice experiments and citizens' juries will be used. The project will facilitate identification and application of optimal methods for engaging the public in healthcare decision-making, provide guidance on the appropriate population groups to consider when eliciting consumer preferences, and provide direct public input to guide health policy. The approach will be able to be applied to different policy areas.Read moreRead less
Beyond successful ageing: Longevity & healthy ageing among Australian women. This project has three key aims. First, to test and contrast two empirical models of successful ageing. Secondly, to compare these empirical models with women’s own perspectives of their ageing gained from prospective qualitative data. Thirdly, provide insights into women’s experience of very old age through interviews with women in their 90s. In addition to interview data, the project will analyse data from the 1921-2 ....Beyond successful ageing: Longevity & healthy ageing among Australian women. This project has three key aims. First, to test and contrast two empirical models of successful ageing. Secondly, to compare these empirical models with women’s own perspectives of their ageing gained from prospective qualitative data. Thirdly, provide insights into women’s experience of very old age through interviews with women in their 90s. In addition to interview data, the project will analyse data from the 1921-26 and 1946-51 cohorts of the Australian longitudinal study on women’s health. The expected outcomes will provide significant benefits, such as projecting potential health trajectories as women enter their later years.Read moreRead less
Driving health care efficiencies and patient care outcomes by improving communication in acute to primary transitions of care. Communication problems are a major contributor to poor outcomes for patients transferring from acute to primary care, accounting for 41 per cent of preventable hospital readmissions. This project aims to identify risk factors for readmission and barriers to successful transitions of care for high-risk patient groups (including the elderly, paediatric and mental health pa ....Driving health care efficiencies and patient care outcomes by improving communication in acute to primary transitions of care. Communication problems are a major contributor to poor outcomes for patients transferring from acute to primary care, accounting for 41 per cent of preventable hospital readmissions. This project aims to identify risk factors for readmission and barriers to successful transitions of care for high-risk patient groups (including the elderly, paediatric and mental health patients), it will then apply these findings to provide effective, measurable and cost-efficient protocols to improve discharge transition outcomes for patients, carers and health service providers. Research outcomes will have general relevance to Australian healthcare settings and include the development of ‘The Safe Transition Communications Tool.’Read moreRead less
Implementing and evaluating the impact of the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) in community palliative care. The support needs of family caregivers at end of life will be assessed using a comprehensive tool and addressed by service providers to improve carers' psychological and physical wellbeing, carer burden, bereavement outcomes and the likelihood of the patient achieving their preferred place of death.
The nature and consequences of interruptions and multi-tasking. This project aims to generate new evidence of the nature and consequences of interruptions and multitasking in safety-critical clinical environments. Interruptions are ubiquitous in modern work environments. Multitasking, particularly with information technology, is now an attribute prized by many. However, there are increasing concerns that interruptions and multitasking contribute to errors and work inefficiency. Significant gaps ....The nature and consequences of interruptions and multi-tasking. This project aims to generate new evidence of the nature and consequences of interruptions and multitasking in safety-critical clinical environments. Interruptions are ubiquitous in modern work environments. Multitasking, particularly with information technology, is now an attribute prized by many. However, there are increasing concerns that interruptions and multitasking contribute to errors and work inefficiency. Significant gaps in our understanding of these relationships inhibit action to improve work productivity and safety. This project plans to measure the effects of these work practices, and to develop methods, statistical approaches and theory. It also plans to propose practical strategies to support safe and efficient work processes.Read moreRead less
The role of threat expectancy and attentional bias modification in promoting attentional capture and disengagement in acute experimental pain. This study will test the effectiveness of a number of variants of a promising new treatment in changing responses to an experimental pain task, the cold pressor. The aim is to develop a novel treatment, with preliminary evidence for its efficacy, that can be tested as a treatment for the prevention and treatment of chronic pain.
Drunk, high or sober: How do alcohol and illicit drug prices affect young Australians' plans for Saturday night? Amidst widespread concern, both in Australia and internationally, about young people's practice of drinking to intoxication and their illicit drug use, this project canvass young Australians' responses to hypothetical changes in prices of alcoholic beverages, cannabis and ecstasy. The outcomes will contribute to policy debate about alcohol pricing.