Scoping review of health outcomes for people with disabilities in user-led organisations.

A user-led organisation (ULO) may be defined as an organisation that is run and controlled by the people who use the services provided by that organisation. ULOs provide services to their members, such as information, advice, support, treatment and training. ULOs may also be involved in advocacy, influencing local service provision, government policy and public perceptions of disability.

Towards understanding the availability of physiotherapy services in rural Australia.

Introduction: A recent exploration of factors affecting rural physiotherapy service provision revealed considerable variation in services available between communities of the study. Multiple factors combined to influence local service provision, including macro level policy and funding decisions, service priorities and fiscal constraints of regional health services and capacity and capabilities at the physiotherapy service level. The aim of this article is to describe the variation in local service provision, the factors influencing service provision and the impact on availability of physiotherapy services.

Allied health: integral to transforming health.

Objective South Australia is taking an innovative step in transforming the way its healthcare is organised and delivered to better manage current and future demands on the health system. In an environment of transforming health services, there are clear opportunities for allied health to assist in determining solutions to various healthcare challenges. A recent opinion piece proposed 10 clinician-driven strategies to assist in maximising value and sustainability of healthcare in Australia.

Service Level Decision-making in Rural Physiotherapy: Development of Conceptual Models.

Background: Understanding decision-making about health service provision is increasingly important in an environment of increasing demand and constrained resources. Multiple factors are likely to influence decisions about which services will be provided, yet workforce is the most noted factor in the rural physiotherapy literature. This paper draws together results obtained from exploration of service level decision-making (SLDM) to propose 'conceptual' models of rural physiotherapy SLDM.

Rationing is a reality in rural physiotherapy: a qualitative exploration of service level decision-making.

Background: Deciding what health services are provided is a key consideration in delivering appropriate and accessible health care for rural and remote populations. Despite residents of rural communities experiencing poorer health outcomes and exhibiting higher health need, workforce shortages and maldistribution mean that rural communities do not have access to the range of services available in metropolitan centres. Where demand exceeds available resources, decisions about resource allocation are required.

Utilising a collective case study system theory mixed methods approach: a rural health example.

Background: Insight into local health service provision in rural communities is limited in the literature. The dominant workforce focus in the rural health literature, while revealing issues of shortage of maldistribution, does not describe service provision in rural towns. Similarly aggregation of data tends to render local health service provision virtually invisible.

What factors influence physiotherapy service provision in rural communities? A pilot study.

Objective: To obtain stakeholder perspectives on factors influencing rural physiotherapy service provision and insights into decision making about service provision.

Design: Purposive sampling, open-ended survey questions and semi-structured interviews were used in this exploratory, qualitative study.

Setting: A rural centre and its regional referral centre formed the pilot sites.

Snakes and ladders: the barriers and facilitators of elective hip- and knee-replacement surgery in Australian public hospitals.

Objectives: Waiting lists for elective surgery are a persistent problem faced by health systems. The progression through elective surgery waiting lists can be likened to a game of snakes and ladders where barriers (snakes) delay access to surgery and facilitators (ladders) expedite access. The aim of the present study was to describe the barriers and facilitators to delivery of total hip- and total knee-replacement surgery in South Australian public-funded hospitals.

The journey to total hip or knee replacement.

Objectives: Despite the incidence of joint replacements in Australia, there is a paucity of information regarding how patients progress from their referral to their surgery. The aim of this study was to describe a patient pathway from referral to receipt of total hip replacement (THR) or total knee replacement (TKR) surgery in South Australian public hospitals.

Methods: Patient perspectives of the pathway to THR and TKR surgery were obtained via a postal survey (n=450) and hospital employee perspectives were attained via semi-structured interviews (n=19).

Using staffing ratios for workforce planning: evidence on nine allied health professions.

Background: Modern healthcare managers are faced with pressure to deliver effective, efficient services within the context of fixed budget constraints. Managers are required to make decisions regarding the skill mix of the workforce particularly when staffing new services. One measure used to identify numbers and mix of staff in healthcare settings is workforce ratio.

Comparison of the effects of using the Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool versus informal appraisal in assessing health research: a randomised trial.

In systematic reviews, evidence-based practice and journal clubs critical appraisal tools are used to rate research papers. However, little evidence exists on whether the critical appraisal tool, subject matter knowledge or research design knowledge affect the appraisal of research papers. A match paired randomised trial was conducted in August/September 2010 in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Science, James Cook University, Australia.

Reliability analysis for a proposed critical appraisal tool demonstrated value for diverse research designs.

Objective: To examine the reliability of scores obtained from a proposed critical appraisal tool (CAT).

Study Design And Setting: Based on a random sample of 24 health-related research papers, the scores from the proposed CAT were examined using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), generalizability theory, and participants' feedback.

Results: The ICC for all research papers was 0.

A general critical appraisal tool: an evaluation of construct validity.

Background: Many critical appraisal tools (CATs) exist for which there is little or no information on development of the CAT, evaluation of validity, or testing reliability. The proposed CAT was developed based on a number of other CATs, general research methods theory, and reporting guidelines but requires further study to determine its effectiveness.

Objectives: To establish a scoring system and to evaluate the construct validity of the proposed critical appraisal tool before undertaking reliability testing.

How do allied health professionals evaluate new models of care? What are we measuring and why?

The aim of this study was to identify what outcome measures or quality indicators are being used to evaluate advanced and new roles in nine allied health professions and whether the measures are evaluating outcomes of interest to the patient, the clinician, or the healthcare provider. A systematic search strategy was used. Medical and allied health databases were searched and relevant articles extracted.

Examining primary and secondary school canteens and their place within the school system: a South Australian study.

In Australia, school canteens are an integral part of the school environment and an ideal site to encourage healthy eating. However, when the canteen is not supported within the school system, healthy menus may be difficult to implement. The aim of this study was to investigate school canteens and their place within the school system in primary and secondary schools in South Australia.

A review of critical appraisal tools show they lack rigor: Alternative tool structure is proposed.

Objectives: To evaluate critical appraisal tools (CATs) that have been through a peer-reviewed development process with the aim of analyzing well-designed, documented, and researched CATs that could be used to develop a comprehensive CAT.

Study Design And Setting: A critical review of the development of CATs was undertaken.

Results: Of the 44 CATs reviewed, 25 (57%) were applicable to more than one research design, 11 (25%) to true experimental studies, and the remaining 8 (18%) to individual research designs.

Patient satisfaction with physiotherapy in the emergency department.

Study Aim: This research aims to explore patient satisfaction with ED physiotherapy within the Australian context by providing a qualitative perspective with in-depth exploration of the factors underlying patients' satisfaction. The physiotherapist was part of the Emergency Department Allied Health Team of social worker and occupational therapist.

Methods: A qualitative, interpretive, field-based study using face-to-face interviews were carried out post-physiotherapy treatment within the emergency department, followed-up 2-3 weeks later with telephone interviews.

Returning to physiotherapy practice: the perspective of returners, potential returners and clinical supervisors.

The experience of returning to physiotherapy practice needs to be understood from the perspective of those who have returned to practice, those thinking of returning, and clinical supervisors who have worked with people that have returned to practice. A qualitative methodology using an interpretivist theoretical framework was utilised. Participants were selected using a combination of purposive and snowballing sampling techniques.

The 'lone ranger': a descriptive study of physiotherapy practice in Australian emergency departments.

Objectives: Physiotherapy services have recently been introduced to Australian emergency departments in an attempt to address service delivery issues such as access block. This study aimed to determine the roles, including those relating to extended scope practice, currently undertaken by physiotherapists in Australian emergency departments.

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional design.

The role of teamwork and communication in the emergency department: a systematic review.

The aim of this study was to develop a systematic review using international research to describe the role of teamwork and communication in the emergency department, and its relevance to physiotherapy practice in the emergency department. Searches were conducted of CINAHL, Academic Search Premier, Scopus, Cochrane, PEDro, Medline, Embase, Amed and PubMed. Selection criteria included full-text English language research papers related to teamwork and/or communication based directly in the emergency department, involvement of any profession in the emergency department, publication in peer-reviewed journals, and related to adult emergency services.

Lost in translation? How patients perceive the extended scope of physiotherapy in the emergency department.

Objectives: To investigate the perceptions of emergency department physiotherapy practice by emergency patients in metropolitan and regional Australia with a view to probing how consumers interpret the place of physiotherapy in such an acute, non-traditional setting.

Design: A qualitative investigation using a descriptive open-ended questionnaire technique was administered to emergency patients in order to thematically analyse their perceptions of emergency physiotherapy practice.

Setting: Case 1 was a metropolitan emergency department in Melbourne, Australia.

The patient experience in the emergency department: A systematic synthesis of qualitative research.

The aim of this study was to systematically review qualitative literature published between 1990 and 2006 exploring the patient experience within the emergency department (ED) with the intent of describing what factors influence the patient experience. Twelve articles were retrieved following combination of key words using five databases. The overarching categories developed from this integration of literature were; emotional impact of emergency, staff-patient interactions, waiting, family in the emergency department, and emergency environment.

Self-regulation in a small professional group is an important step toward professionalization: the Chiropractic Association in Singapore.

Objective: The chiropractic profession is immersed in the process of professionalization with particular consideration of self-regulation as an avenue toward state recognition in Singapore. The purpose of this article is to discuss the emergence of chiropractic as a profession in Singapore and the Chiropractic Association (Singapore).

Discussion: The concept of professionalization is varied and context based, and the institutionalization of formal knowledge plays an important role in the socialization of how a profession forms a unifying identity.

Effects of introducing an allied health assessment pro forma on the management of acute stroke patients.

Purpose: There is a small body of evidence that supports the use of care pathways and assessment pro formas for the management of acute stroke patients, however, such tools applied specifically to the allied health disciplines are not in widespread use. This study sought to evaluate the effects of introducing an assessment pro forma on the allied health management of acute stroke patients.

Methods: The allied health management of 40 consecutive stroke patients admitted after the introduction of the assessment pro forma was compared with that of a historical control group of the same size.