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Objective: To explore health student perspectives of rural and remote placements during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Setting: Australia. Participants: Allied health, nursing and medical students with a planned rural or remote placement between February and October 2020. Design: Semi-structured interviews (n = 29) with data thematically analysed. Results: Five main themes emerged from student experiences: (1) ‘Do we go? Don't we go? Like how much risk is involved?’ related to student concerns regarding acquiring and transmitting COVID-19 on placement; (2) ‘We are sort of just standing at the door trying to watch’ encompassed student perceptions of missed clinical learning opportunities in response to health and safety measures related to COVID-19; (3) ‘I, as a student, sort of fell under the radar’ related to student perceptions of suboptimal supervision; (4) ‘It was a bit more difficult to engage with that wider community’ recognised student feelings of social disconnection and their lack of opportunity for community immersion; and (5) ‘We felt like we got something that is more than we expected’ emerged from student reflections on training during the pandemic and alternative placements (virtual, simulated and non-clinical) that exceeded expectations for learning. Conclusions: Although most students were willing and able to undertake their rural or remote placement in some form during the early stages of the pandemic and identified unanticipated learning benefits, students recognised lost opportunities to build clinical skills, become culturally aware and connect with rural communities. It remains unknown how these rural and remote placement experiences will impact rural intention and in turn, rural workforce development.

This paper describes the health of older Australians (>65 years) attending rural events to inform health promotion interventions for rural populations. This cross-sectional study collected survey data and objective health measures between 2017 and 2020 at two events held in rural New South Wales, Australia. Participants included in the analysis were adults > 65 years of age. Data included demographic and health information, anthropometric measures (height, weight, waist circumference), and dietary and physical activity data. A total of 256 people > 65 years participated. Our sample, which was mostly male (59.0%), contained people aged between 66 and 75 years (72.3%). Participants lived in either a large rural (34.0%) or small rural town (22.3%), with low levels of education (60.9% did not complete high school). Dietary quality was rated as below average. All but 17.2% of the participants reported having a health condition. The risk of a health condition was associated with increasing age, lower education, and higher waist circumference, but not remoteness. Rural events may provide an opportunity to access, engage with, and understand the health of older rural Australians, especially males. They may offer ideal contexts for health and nutrition promotion opportunities in rural areas where access to health professionals is limited.

Rationale, aims and objectives: Clinicians' means of stratification of risk of violence has been previously studied in health settings, but not in general practice. This study aimed to investigate the means by which general practitioners (GPs) assess risk of violence in their clinical practice. Method: A qualitative design using focus group interviews and written responses on a subsequent questionnaire. Focus group discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. Questionnaires were sent to all members of three Divisions of General Practice offering the opportunity for respondents to make qualitative comments. The focus group transcripts and qualitative questionnaire responses were coded independently by members of the research team and subjected to thematic analysis. The setting was three Urban Divisions of General Practice in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were one hundred and seventy-two urban GPs - 18 participants in four focus groups and 154 GPs providing written responses. Results: Assessment and stratification of risk by GPs conformed to a schema based on the physical environment of the consultation, individual characteristics of the patient, individual characteristics of the doctor, and characteristics of the doctor-patient relationship. Despite this, risk assessment and risk stratification were often on the basis of ad hoc, subjective decision making. An aspect of the ad hoc nature of risk assessment was the pre-eminence afforded 'instinct' or 'intuition' in subjects' responses. Conclusion: A schema of factors involved in GPs' assessment of risk of violence is presented. An appreciation of these will be of clinical and policy importance. © 2008 The Authors.

OBJECTIVE: To explore GPs' opinions about the causes of occupational violence in general practice. DESIGN: A cross-sectional qualitative study. SETTING: Three urban divisions of general practice in New South Wales, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 172 GPs: 18 GPs participated in focus group discussions and a further 154 provided written responses. METHOD: Purposive sampling was used to recruit GPs to participate in focus groups. Discussions were audiotaped and transcribed; each transcript was separately coded by all members of the research team. Focus groups were conducted until thematic saturation was achieved. Further qualitative data were obtained by offering GPs the opportunity, during completion of a written questionnaire sent to all GPs practising in the 3 urban divisions, to provide additional comments regarding their experiences and perceptions of violence. A modified grounded-theory approach, employing thematic analysis of the focus group transcripts and written responses from the questionnaires, was used. MAIN FINDINGS: All focus group participants and 75% of questionnaire respondents had experienced episodes of violence during their general practice careers. Key themes that emerged in data analysis were used to construct a schema of participating GPs' perceptions of the causes of occupational violence. Elements in the schema include underlying causes, proximate causes, and GP vulnerability. Perhaps the most noteworthy findings within this structure were the emergent constructs - culture of fear, "naïve" practice culture, and GP vulnerability. To date these themes have not been evident in general practice literature on this topic. CONCLUSION: An understanding of GPs' perceptions regarding the causes of violence will be useful in planning general practice service provision and promoting GP safety.

Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (XRMA) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used as a method to measure elemental silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P) in dinoflagellate cysts. Cysts were prepared by quick jeep freezing and then freeze-drying, ther, Addresses: Rengefors K, Uppsala Univ, Dept Limnol, Norbyvagen 20, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden. Uppsala Univ, Dept Limnol, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden. Dept Agr No Ireland, Aquat Syst Grp, Belfast BT9 5PX, Antrim, North Ireland.