Conectar
People in rural areas of Australia experience poorer health in almost every indicator compared with urban populations; however, rural communities have lower access to primary health, allied health and specialist healthcare. Timely access to care is compounded by persistent and widespread health workforce issues, including attracting and retaining staff.
Australian University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH) have been established to address the needs of rural populations with the goal of improving recruitment and retention of health professionals across rural and remote Australia. The work-integrated learning team within The University of Melbourne works with nursing and allied health university students on clinical placement to provide exposure to working in rural health, with a remit to build the capacity of the existing and future workforce. The service-learning model aims to provide reciprocal benefits to stakeholders through purposefully co-designed placements that respond to rural health needs by providing services to underserved communities and ensuring university students are exposed to real world, diverse practice settings.
The overarching aim of this project is to determine the impact of the SL programme for key stakeholders, predominately end users and those stakeholders involved in the delivery of the SL model. The key stakeholders are host site staff, allied health university students, allied health supervisors and the end users of the programme. End users are those individuals that have received allied health services through the programme, such as clients, residents and children.
This study will adopt a convergent mixed methods methodology underpinned by a RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance)/PRISM (Practical, Robust Implementation Sustainability Model) approach. Data collection will include document review, existing programme data review and primary data collection. This will involve conducting surveys and interviews with allied health university students, host organisations and allied health supervisors, and interviews with adult recipients of the service-learning programme. Art-based consultation will be conducted with school-aged children recipients of the service-learning programme. Analysis will be underpinned by the RE-AIM/PRISM framework to inform programme learnings and impact for key stakeholders.
This study has been approved by the University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (Project ID: 30409).
Findings will be published in a stakeholder project report and peer-review journals in the fields of rural health, implementation science and work integrated learning.
The Quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Evaluation Study with Addition of the Nonavalent Vaccine Study (QUEST-ADVANCE) aims to provide insight into the long-term immunogenicity and effectiveness of one, two and three HPV vaccine doses. Here, we describe the protocol for QUEST-ADVANCE.
QUEST-ADVANCE is an observational cohort study including males and females who are unvaccinated or vaccinated with the quadrivalent or nonavalent HPV vaccine in British Columbia, Canada. Female participants who are unvaccinated or vaccinated with 1–3 doses of the quadrivalent or nonavalent HPV vaccine at 9–14 years of age will be recruited approximately 5 or 12 years postvaccination eligibility. Male participants who are unvaccinated or vaccinated with 1 or 2 doses of the nonavalent HPV vaccine at 9–14 years of age will be recruited at approximately 5 years postvaccination eligibility. The study involves a maximum of four visits over a period of 4–5 years for female participants, and two visits over a 12-month period for male participants. At each visit, self-collected swabs (cervico-vaginal or penile) and questionnaire data will be collected. In each study group, a subset of participants will be invited to participate in a substudy evaluating the long-term humoral immunogenicity of the HPV vaccine. Additional blood samples will be collected from participants who are part of the immunogenicity substudy. The total required sample size is 7180 individuals. The primary objectives are (1) to examine vaccine effectiveness in males and females against prevalent genital HPV infections for one, two and three doses of the HPV vaccine compared with unvaccinated participants and (2) to evaluate if there is non-inferior immunogenicity as indicated by type-specific antibody response of one dose of the HPV vaccine in 20–27-year-old females vaccinated at 9–14 years of age compared with historical data of three doses of the HPV vaccine females vaccinated at 16–26 years of age up to 12 years postvaccination.
QUEST-ADVANCE was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the University of British Columbia/Children’s and Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia (H20-02111). Individual electronic informed consent or assent will be obtained from each participant before any study-specific procedures are undertaken. Results will be published in an international peer-reviewed journal and on the study website.
Despite the increasing number of doctorally prepared midwives in Europe, particularly after the Bologna Declaration 1999, little is known about the context and experiences of their doctoral education.
To explore European initially qualified midwives' experiences with doctoral education; and the context of their education through their professional associations.
An exploratory descriptive observational survey.
An ethically approved web-based survey was used to collect data from midwifery associations and midwives in 33 European countries between October and December 2024. Descriptive statistics and inductive thematic analysis were used to analyse the responses.
Twenty-two midwifery associations from 19 European countries and 207 midwives from 23 European countries participated. Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of doctorally prepared midwives. Common reasons to gain doctoral qualifications included an interest in research, career progression, in particular in education, and improving healthcare. Midwives reported growing availability of European-wide opportunities for doctoral programmes, alongside an increase in the number of doctoral midwifery programmes and supervisors with midwifery expertise. Although many barriers were reported, effectively combining study with their personal life and support from family, friends and colleagues was highlighted as crucial factors in completing their doctoral studies.
This is the first study exploring the experiences of European midwives pursuing a doctoral degree. The findings highlight a need for universities to improve the collaboration with midwives' supportive networks as well as for the profession to reduce intraprofessional hostilities to enhance doctoral midwifery students' well-being.
Implications for the profession: Acknowledging challenges faced by these midwives is necessary to improve professional and institutional support in academia and midwifery.
Findings of this study inform strategies to improve doctoral education for midwives and, in this way, strengthen the contributions of midwives to maternal evidenced-based care development and healthcare innovations.
The Consensus-Based Checklist for Reporting of Survey Studies (CROSS) was used to guide reporting.
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct or reporting.
The efficacy and safety of SMS text message-delivered interventions for providing pain self-management education and improving clinical pain outcomes have been demonstrated in several randomised controlled trials. However, little is known about the feasibility and effectiveness of these interventions within Australian hospital settings. The current protocol describes a trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of an SMS text message-delivered intervention designed to support patients’ engagement with pain self-management strategies and improve clinical pain outcomes after total knee replacement surgery.
A hybrid, type 1 effectiveness-implementation trial will be conducted at a private hospital in Australia. Participants (n=130) will be randomised to either the intervention group (receiving a pain self-management educational video prior to surgery, plus daily SMS text message reminders for 3 weeks after surgery) or an active control group (receiving the pre-surgery video alone, without text message reminders) in addition to usual care. Effectiveness outcomes will be pain intensity (primary), opioid dose, knee function and pain-related distress and will be recorded at baseline, 3 days, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months after surgery using self-reported surveys. Pain self-efficacy and health-related quality of life will be measured at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months post-surgery. Implementation outcomes (Reach, Experience, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) will be evaluated using mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods. This trial represents a first step towards the translation of digitally delivered postoperative support for engaging with pain self-management in the Australian healthcare system.
The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Austin Health Human Ethics Research Committee (Australia, HREC/110142/Austin-2024). Study results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at scientific and professional meetings.
ACTRN12624001060538
FreshRSS 