Search

Covid‐19 public health measures prompted a significant increase in online research. This approach has several benefits over face‐to‐face data‐collection methods, including lower cost and wider geographical reach of participants. Yet when the online data‐collection instrument is a survey, there are also well‐documented drawbacks of participant misrepresentation and related data‐authenticity issues. However, the scholarly literature has not looked at participant misrepresentation in online focus‐group empirical research. This case study communicates a concerning situation that arose during our research project: dishonest participant behavior threatened the integrity and validity of our data collected through online focus‐group sessions as well as e‐surveys. We describe the study context, initial red flags alerting us to the issue, subsequent investigations, and implications for research ethics, funding, and data quality. We conclude with a discussion of potential steps to safeguard future online focus‐group research against similar issues.

ABSTRACTStudents with disability experience numerous challenges when engaging in Work-Integrated Learning (WIL). Successful WIL requires stakeholder collaboration to provide an equitable and relevant WIL experience. Stakeholder disparity around disclosure, accommodations, poor attitudes, and behaviours result in negative WIL experiences for students with disability. Understanding stakeholder preparedness and capabilities, in particular host organisations, is key to providing equitable WIL opportunities. Searches of five electronic databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Embase/Scopus, A + Education Informit and Web of Science) were conducted. Twenty-one peer-reviewed articles published between 2005 and 2022 were included in the review. Four themes were identified: Disclosure of the disability; University staff and WIL supervisor attitudes and training; Surviving WIL and Adjusting WIL to the individual. Embedding a strengths-based approach to WIL through strong relationships between student, host organisation and university will produce safe environments that are essential for high quality and fit for purpose WIL experiences for students with disability.

ABSTRACTThis article argues the insufficiency of the traditional application of cultural, social and economic capital in conceptualising the non-traditional student experience. Built on the thematic analysis of 52 in-depth interviews with 28 mature-age women nursing undergraduates with family responsibilities in Australia, an alternative, expanded model of capital is proposed.The qualitative study, underpinned by Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Philosophy, revealed multiple threats and enablers to progression throughout the degree. Dimensions of capital previously unacknowledged in the nursing literature were necessary to fully conceptualise these rich and complex findings, including important student strengths. These dimensions: aspirational, navigational, resistant, familial and experiential capital, compensated when traditional dimensions were lacking, or incongruent with university expectations. This longitudinal study further revealed how the availability and importance of capital altered with the changing curriculum and participants’ personal growth.

ABSTRACTThis article argues for an expansion of the idea of the first-in-family student to include the student whose spouse or partner has not been to university. Between 2015 and 2016, a qualitative longitudinal study, guided by Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy, was undertaken. Twenty-nine undergraduate women nursing students who began university in a heterosexual intimate relationship participated. All 29 were interviewed in their fourth semester of their degree (or part-time equivalent), and 23 of these 29 completed a second interview in their last semester. Thematic analysis of the resultant 52 interviews revealed the participants who were the first person in their intimate relationship to go to university faced a series of difficulties associated with this relationship. The partners of these women were less willing to share in the university journey and offered little emotional support. Participants experienced personal growth and widened worldviews during their degree, and developed a more liberal stance on gender roles within the relationship. The women’s changing perspectives and their partners’ ongoing lack of emotional, and also practical support, tested the dynamics of the intimate relationship. The situations of tension and conflict that ensued challenged the women’s progression and with this, the stability and functioning of the relationship itself. Higher education initiatives are proposed to support this vulnerable student group. This includes partner outreach activities, enhanced pastoral support systems, and a flexible and responsive approach from the university to women who experience relationship difficulties during their degree. Further research is required to build a body of evidence around the first-in-relationship student experience.

Objective:To identify behavioural barriers of service provision within general practice that may be impacting the vaccination coverage rates of Aboriginal children in Perth, Western Australia (WA). Methods:A purposive developed survey was distributed to 316 general practices across Perth and three key informant interviews were conducted using a mixed‐methods approach. Results:Of the surveyed participants (n=101), 67.4% were unaware of the low vaccination coverage in Aboriginal children; 64.8% had not received cultural sensitivity training in their workplace and 46.8% reported having inadequate time to follow up overdue child vaccinations. Opportunistic vaccination was not routinely performed by 30.8% of participants. Key themes identified in the interviews were awareness, inclusion and cultural safety. Conclusion:Inadequate awareness of the current rates, in association with a lack of cultural safety training, follow‐up and opportunistic practice, may be preventing greater vaccination uptake in Aboriginal children in Perth. Cultural safety is a critical component of the acceptability and accessibility of services; lack of awareness may restrict the development of strategies designed to equitably address low coverage. Implications:The findings of this study provide an opportunity to raise awareness among clinicians in general practice and inform future strategies to equitably deliver targeted vaccination services to Aboriginal children.

To identify behavioural barriers of service provision within general practice that may be impacting the vaccination coverage rates of Aboriginal children in Perth, Western Australia (WA).