Home is Where the Heart is: Identity and Belonging Among Older Chinese Immigrants in Australia.

The concept of home encompasses relationships people develop with the physical, familial, social, and cultural environments in which they are embedded. It is through navigating these relationships that immigrants negotiate their identity and belonging in the settlement country. Yet, a significant gap exists in the current knowledge of the process through which a sense of home is created and experienced by immigrants as they undergo acculturation.

Factors associated with non-beneficial treatments in end of life hospital admissions: a multicentre retrospective cohort study in Australia.

Objective: To quantitatively assess the factors associated with non-beneficial treatments (NBTs) in hospital admissions at the end of life.

Design: Retrospective multicentre cohort study.

Setting: Three large, metropolitan tertiary hospitals in Australia.

Doctors' perceptions of how resource limitations relate to futility in end-of-life decision making: a qualitative analysis.

Objective: To increase knowledge of how doctors perceive futile treatments and scarcity of resources at the end of life. In particular, their perceptions about whether and how resource limitations influence end-of-life decision making. This study builds on previous work that found some doctors include resource limitations in their understanding of the concept of futility.

Experiences of women, hospital clinicians and general practitioners with gestational diabetes mellitus postnatal follow-up: A mixed methods approach.

Problem: Postnatal screening rates to detect type two diabetes following gestational diabetes are low. The quality of communication is an important element to consider in developing targeted strategies that support women in completing recommended follow-up care.

Aims: To explore the communication perspectives, practices and preferences of women, hospital clinicians and general practitioners, to determine strategies that may promote completion of recommended postnatal GDM follow-up, in Queensland Australia.

Ageing well in a foreign land as a process of successful social identity change.

Purpose: Over and above the risks associated with ageing, older migrants are also at risk of social isolation. The social identity approach, and the Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC) in particular, provides a theoretical basis from which to understand the factors contributing to social isolation and how this then impacts on older migrants' capacity to age well in a foreign land. Building on the recognition that migration involves a major life change, we explore this transition qualitatively focusing specifically on social connectedness and adjustment.

Postnatal gestational diabetes mellitus follow-up: Perspectives of Australian hospital clinicians and general practitioners.

Problem: The reasons for low postnatal screening rates for women with gestational diabetes mellitus are not well understood. Multiple care providers, settings and changes to diagnostic criteria, may contribute to confusion over postnatal care. Quality of communication between clinicians may be an important influence for the completion of postnatal gestational diabetes mellitus follow-up.

Incidence, duration and cost of futile treatment in end-of-life hospital admissions to three Australian public-sector tertiary hospitals: a retrospective multicentre cohort study.

Objectives: To estimate the incidence, duration and cost of futile treatment for end-of-life hospital admissions.

Design: Retrospective multicentre cohort study involving a clinical audit of hospital admissions.

Setting: Three Australian public-sector tertiary hospitals.

Reasons doctors provide futile treatment at the end of life: a qualitative study.

Objective: Futile treatment, which by definition cannot benefit a patient, is undesirable. This research investigated why doctors believe that treatment that they consider to be futile is sometimes provided at the end of a patient's life.

Design: Semistructured in-depth interviews.

What does "futility" mean? An empirical study of doctors' perceptions.

Objective: To investigate how doctors define and use the terms "futility" and "futile treatment" in end-of-life care.

Design, Setting, Participants: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 96 doctors from a range of specialties which treat adults at the end of life. Doctors were recruited from three large Brisbane teaching hospitals and were interviewed between May and July 2013.

Complementary and alternative medicine practitioner use prior to pregnancy predicts use during pregnancy.

The objective of the authors in this study was to determine if prior visits to a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioner were associated with CAM use during pregnancy. The study sample comprised the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Women were surveyed prior to pregnancy in 2006, and then again in 2010 if they were pregnant or had recently given birth, and asked a range of questions relating to demographic variables, health status, and use of CAM.

The importance of effective communication in interprofessional practice: perspectives of maternity clinicians.

Midwives and doctors require effective information-sharing strategies to provide safe and evidence-based care for women and infants, but this can be difficult to achieve. This article describes maternity care professionals' perceptions of communication in their current workplace in Australia. We invoke social identity theory (SIT) to explore how these perceptions affect interprofessional practice.

Overcoming language barriers in healthcare: A protocol for investigating safe and effective communication when patients or clinicians use a second language.

Background: Miscommunication in the healthcare sector can be life-threatening. The rising number of migrant patients and foreign-trained staff means that communication errors between a healthcare practitioner and patient when one or both are speaking a second language are increasingly likely. However, there is limited research that addresses this issue systematically.

Postnatal gestational diabetes mellitus follow-up: Australian women's experiences.

Problem: Postnatal follow-up screening is recommended for all women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). However follow-up rates are poor and highly variable in Australia and internationally. The reasons that mothers are not completing recommended postnatal screening after GDM diagnosis are not well understood or studied.

Women's Perceptions of Communication in Pregnancy and Childbirth: Influences on Participation and Satisfaction With Care.

In this study, 3,531 Queensland women, who had recently given birth, completed a questionnaire that included questions about their participation in decision making during pregnancy, their ratings of client-centered care, and perceived quality of care. These data tested a version of the Linguistic Model of Patient Participation in Care, adapted to the maternity context. The authors investigated how age and education influenced women's perceptions of their participation and quality of care.

Women's Use and Self-Prescription of Herbal Medicine during Pregnancy: An Examination of 1,835 Pregnant Women.

Background: Recent research points to high levels of herbal medicine use during pregnancy. The objectives of this study were to elucidate the prevalence and understand the determinants of both the use and self-prescription of herbal medicine during pregnancy.

Methods: The study sample was obtained via the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.

Majority of women are influenced by nonprofessional information sources when deciding to consult a complementary and alternative medicine practitioner during pregnancy.

Objectives: Up to 87% of women are using some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) during their pregnancy, and this study was conducted to investigate the information sources that these women find influential in relation to such use.

Design: The study sample was obtained via the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. This article is based on a substudy of 1835 pregnant women who were surveyed in 2010.

Relationship between complementary and alternative medicine use and incidence of adverse birth outcomes: an examination of a nationally representative sample of 1835 Australian women.

Objective: there is evidence of high use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by pregnant women. Despite debate and controversy regarding CAM use in pregnancy there has been little research focus upon the impacts of CAM use on birth outcomes. This paper reports findings outlining the incidence of adverse birth outcomes among women accessing CAM during pregnancy.

Determinants of women consulting with a complementary and alternative medicine practitioner for pregnancy-related health conditions.

The objective of this study was to explore the determinants that are related to women's likelihood to consult with a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioner during pregnancy. Primary data were collected as a sub-study of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) in 2010. We completed a cross-sectional survey of 2,445 women from the ALSWH "younger" cohort (n=8,012), who had identified as being pregnant or had recently given birth in 2009.

Managing the pain of labour: factors associated with the use of labour pain management for pregnant Australian women.

Background: Despite high rates of women's use of intrapartum pain management techniques, little is known about the factors that influence such use.

Objective: Examine the determinants associated with women's use of labour pain management.

Design: Cross-sectional survey of a substudy of women from the 'young' cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health (ALSWH).

The influence of complementary and alternative medicine use in pregnancy on labor pain management choices: results from a nationally representative sample of 1,835 women.

Objectives: This study examines involvement with a range of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) during pregnancy on the use of pharmacologic (PPMT) and nonpharmacologic (NPMT) pain management techniques for labor and birth.

Design: Longitudinal analysis of survey data.

Participants: A substudy (n=2445) of the "young" cohort of the nationally representative Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health was conducted.

Prevalence and determinants of complementary and alternative medicine use during pregnancy: results from a nationally representative sample of Australian pregnant women.

Background: Pregnant women have been identified as high users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). However, no research to date has provided a detailed analysis of the prevalence and determinants of CAM consumption amongst pregnant women.

Aim: To examine the prevalence and determinants of CAM use by pregnant women, utilising a national representative sample.

Utilisation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners within maternity care provision: results from a nationally representative cohort study of 1,835 pregnant women.

Background: There is little known about women's concurrent use of conventional and complementary health care during pregnancy, particularly consultation patterns with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This study examines health service utilisation among pregnant women including consultations with obstetricians, midwives, general practitioners (GPs) and CAM practitioners.

Methods: A sub-study of pregnant women (n=2445) was undertaken from the nationally-representative Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH).

Memory and communication support strategies in dementia: effect of a training program for informal caregivers.

Background: People with dementia have a range of needs that are met by informal caregivers. A DVD-based training program was developed using research-based strategies for memory and communication in dementia. The effectiveness of the training on the caregiver experience and the well-being of the person with dementia was evaluated.

An empirical investigation into beliefs about collaborative practice among maternity care providers.

Objective: To investigate agreement with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) definition of collaboration in maternity care by care providers, and to examine their preferences for models of care in order to shed light on the lack of success in implementing collaborative practice.

Methods: Maternity care providers completed a survey in Queensland. The final sample consisted of 337 participants, including 281 midwives (83.