Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2004. / Also available online.

Although equine charities’ presence in developing countries is assumed to improve working equine health, little scientifically substantiated information is available on the impact of such projects in targeted communities or about communities’ horse health priorities. This work aims to (i) evaluate and quantify the impact of World Horse Welfare training in farriery, saddlery and nutrition-related interventions on health of Lesotho’s working horses (ii) elicit community priority horse health topics using participatory methods for comparison with topics identified using epidemiological techniques. A baseline cross-sectional survey was conducted before World Horse Welfare’s first training course, with two follow-up surveys 9 and 20 months after first year course completion. Each followed a standardised clinical examination protocol for horses and administered a structured questionnaire on equine husbandry/primary health care knowledge and practices with study horses’ owners. Standardised data on tack used on horses was also collected. Data was analysed quantitatively to assess changes in equine health and tack parameters and owners’ knowledge and practices over the intervening period. Following impact evaluation, owner discussion groups were convened, employing participatory facilitation techniques to elicit owner-specified key horse health-associated issues and their priority order. Limited changes in farriery-related parameters were identified, but few saddlery-related improvements resulted; problems including high prevalence of poor tack and tack-associated injuries persisted. High prevalence of suboptimal body condition score, sharp enamel teeth points, parasite infestation, overgrown hooves and adverse clinical pathology parameters persisted throughout the study. Owners’ basic husbandry knowledge and application remained variable. Community-specified horse health priorities were mouthcare, nutrition, disease management, feet and husbandry. Engaging horse owners to understand country-specific issues and elicit community priorities is essential before designing interventions to improve equine health. A complex change process involving owner knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, underpinned by community support and bespoke step-wise interventions is required to achieve sustainable equine health improvements.

Current UK public health policy and research identifies potential health risks of physical inactivity and high levels of sitting. This is a particularly pertinent issue for office workers, who spend, on average, over two-thirds of the work day sitting. This thesis reports on the design and evaluation of a multicomponent sit-stand desk intervention, delivered within two not-for-profit office-based organisations in London, England. A mixed method study design was employed. A pilot randomised controlled trial examined the efficacy of the intervention on reducing sitting and increasing standing and physical activity, using wearable monitors to measure outcome variables at baseline, and at four additional timepoints up to 12-months following the onset of the intervention. A process evaluation, including in-depth qualitative interviews and participant observation, investigated the processes that influenced the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of the intervention. Mixed-model ANOVA indicated that the intervention reduced workplace sitting, on average, by 38 minutes, however there was no significant influence on workplace physical activity, or any of the outcome variables across the whole day. The process evaluation revealed that discourses surrounding employee health and organisational effectiveness, and employees' health-focused occupational identities increased the acceptability of sit-stand desk provision, whereas monetary concerns, a centralised organisational structure and incompatibility of the sit-stand desks with the workplace environment negatively influenced implementation feasibility. The sit-stand desk design, expectations and outcomes related to health and productivity, and the organisational culture and interpersonal relationships positively and negatively influenced sit-stand desk experience to differing degrees between participants. Mixed method analyses of outcome and process data illustrated the potential for integrating findings to enhance understanding of 'what works' within behavioural intervention research. Sit-stand desks are not a one-size-fits-all solution to reducing sitting and increasing physical activity, however, they should be available to office-based employees as part of a wider workplace health strategy.

In aquaculture worldwide, diseases are a significant constraint to economic expansion. The Scottish salmonid industry has experienced many cycles of development, with episodes of little or negative profitability caused by excess of production, and times of crisis due to different disease problems. In Scotland, the early implementation of regulation largely contributed to the control of infectious disease outbreaks. The recent Chilean outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) illustrated the threats and the impacts of disease in the aquaculture industry and the importance of implementing good regulation and husbandry practices to reduce the impact of the spread of infectious disease. Databases of site production data have an important role to play in the investigation and understanding of diseases. They store valuable data collected during the time of production, which are essential for the identification of potential health and production problems during the production cycle of farmed fish. Mortality records are one of the most important sources of information on a farm, especially if it includes the cause of death as deformities, predators and diseases. Any deviation from the expected levels of mortality may indicate production problems, infectious diseases, or inadequate welfare. The investigation of increased rates of mortality must include examining farm records, determining the influence of death rate on production and the potential risk factors of diseases in a farm. This project demonstrated the importance of mortality records for setting industry standards of “expected” mortality losses and for investigating the value of recorded mortalities as a tool for aiding in surveillance and control of infectious diseases. It also aimed to determine the utility of reported mortality in supporting and assisting management-strategy decisions at the farm and industry level. In this project, we developed a baseline benchmark curve for expected mortality losses for Atlantic salmon in seawater. This novel approach constitutes a first attempt to establish a baseline curve for normal mortality, which allows detection of potential production problems based on deviations of mortality from the baseline curve of normal mortality. The results of this study also indicated that mortality levels may vary across production cycles, which can again be identified by using the baseline. We found that site was the factor with the highest contribution to variance in mortality. This site-to-site variation in mortality may have resulted from epidemics and environmental incidents, or other local event/effects. Temperature, and/or geographical area were also characteristics that contribute to variation in mortality. The regulator, Marine Scotland Science, with the backing and support of the salmonid industry has suggested potential mortality thresholds as an indicator of presence of infectious diseases, which could be used as alerts for inspection by the official authority. In this study, high mortality rates on fish farms were investigated as an indicator of the presence of infectious disease. The analysis was performed using several analytical approaches: receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, measures of sensitivity and specificity, and bootstrap methods. The study was performed by splitting the production cycle into small fish with mean weight below 750 g and large fish with mean weight over 750 g. In the small fish, the results did not suggest reported mortality as a strong indicator of the presence of infectious disease, which may be caused by the lack of records of infectious disease at this stage of the production cycle. In the larger fish, high mortality rates were found to be a strong potential indicator of the presence of infectious diseases, including the suggested mortality threshold. In a survey, the role of traditional diagnosis in the prevention and control of disease outbreaks was assessed. For that, key informant interviews were performed with open questions to the health or farm manager of several trout and Atlantic salmon farms and we also used the diagnostic reports of the Veterinary Diagnostic Services (VDS) from Stirling University to triangulate the data. We showed that disease diagnoses are of great importance for disease identification and control of actual diseases. Farmer’s experience was also indicated as essential in the identification of the first signs of disease, which was principally through the daily monitoring of fish. This study suggested that disease diagnosis starts at the farm level with the daily monitoring of fish and the records of different parameters by the farmer, including mortality. Those records were showed to be vital to identify problems within the production. This thesis illustrated a novel approach to investigate and interpret recorded mortality at the farm level. The results presented in this thesis indicated reported mortality as a vital on-farm tool for identification of diseases and production problems. This thesis suggested priority areas where further investigation is required.

O presente estudo teve a intenção de contribuir para a “produção de vida” – intensidades, potência, movimento, experimentação e metamorfose –, em relação a usuários dos serviços de saúde mental, trabalhadores da saúde e atores sociais produtores de fatos da cultura. O trabalho se fez pensando em uma Educação da Saúde, contribuição para as práticas de atenção e formação, a partir da escuta de narrativa de um jovem artesão presente no campo das artes e também usuário de um serviço de saúde mental da cidade de Porto Alegre/RS. Nosso objetivo foi de apresentar aproximações e contatos entre os campos da educação em saúde e da arte e cultura, por meio da trajetória intensa e sensível de um jovem adulto, suas experiências, sensações e reflexões envolvendo estes campos. Renato narra seu percurso na cultura e na saúde, nos fazendo pensar não apenas a formação de profissionais ou a cultura como setor que abriga as artes e as manifestações expressivas, mas a educação como a produção das práticas sociais onde se inserem o acolhimento da vida sob a forma de atenção à saúde. Em nossas “conversas”, sinaliza a importância de o campo da saúde estar aberto a compor-se com outros campos, como o da cultura, especialmente quando presente na vida local, na vida no bairro, na vida de relações. As questões tematizadas foram: como as expressões da cultura contribuem para a produção de saúde e como a cultura pode contribuir no cuidado de usuários de serviços de saúde? A abordagem proposta foi uma “escuta de narrativa” (interação sensível, margem aberta às interações desejadas pelo interlocutor e mesmo a expectativa de sua interferência, atenção às entrelinhas da comunicação e esforço pela escuta com o corpo todo), utilizando a conversação e a construção de “analisadores temáticos”, isto é, eleição de tópicos para a tematização ou tópicos para pensar foram-se abrindo os disparadores conceituais de apoio à compreensão das conexões arte, vida e saúde mental coletiva. Com este estudo percebemos o quanto se faz necessário trabalhadores de saúde abertos às experimentações, ao que é singular e potente em cada usuário; e como a cultura, através de suas expressões, oferta para trabalhadores e usuários uma pedagogia social e espaço para uma educação da cidade. / This study intended to contribute to the "production of life" – intensities, power, motion, experimentations and metamorphosis – regarding to users of mental health services, health workers and social actors producers of cultural facts. The work was done thinking of a Health Education, a contribution to the care and training practices, starting from the listening of a young craftsman narrative present in the arts field, and also an user of mental health service in Porto Alegre/RS. Our goal was to present approaches and contacts between the fields of health education and art and culture through the intensive and sensitive story of a young adult, his experiences, feelings and reflections involving these fields. Renato narrates his journey in culture and health making us think, not merely the training of professionals or culture as a sector which houses the arts and expressive manifestations, but education as the production of social practices which are inserted the acceptance of life under the form of health care. In our "conversations", they signaled the importance of the health field being open to compose itself with other fields, such as culture, especially when present in local life, in neighborhood life and on relationships life. The themed questions were: how expressions of culture contribute to the production of health and how culture can contribute in the care of health service users? The proposed approach was a "story listening" (sensitive interaction, open margins to desired interactions by the interlocutor and even the expectation of his interference, an attention to communication interrows and an effort by listening with the whole body), using the conversation and the construction of "thematic analysis", i.e., the topics election for the thematization, or topics to think, began to open up the conceptual triggers to support the understanding of connections between art, life and collective mental health. With this study we realized how much it is necessary to health workers being open to experimentations, to what is unique and powerful in each user; and how culture, through its expressions, offer to workers and users a social pedagogy and room for a city education.

O presente estudo teve a intenção de contribuir para a “produção de vida” – intensidades, potência, movimento, experimentação e metamorfose –, em relação a usuários dos serviços de saúde mental, trabalhadores da saúde e atores sociais produtores de fatos da cultura. O trabalho se fez pensando em uma Educação da Saúde, contribuição para as práticas de atenção e formação, a partir da escuta de narrativa de um jovem artesão presente no campo das artes e também usuário de um serviço de saúde mental da cidade de Porto Alegre/RS. Nosso objetivo foi de apresentar aproximações e contatos entre os campos da educação em saúde e da arte e cultura, por meio da trajetória intensa e sensível de um jovem adulto, suas experiências, sensações e reflexões envolvendo estes campos. Renato narra seu percurso na cultura e na saúde, nos fazendo pensar não apenas a formação de profissionais ou a cultura como setor que abriga as artes e as manifestações expressivas, mas a educação como a produção das práticas sociais onde se inserem o acolhimento da vida sob a forma de atenção à saúde. Em nossas “conversas”, sinaliza a importância de o campo da saúde estar aberto a compor-se com outros campos, como o da cultura, especialmente quando presente na vida local, na vida no bairro, na vida de relações. As questões tematizadas foram: como as expressões da cultura contribuem para a produção de saúde e como a cultura pode contribuir no cuidado de usuários de serviços de saúde? A abordagem proposta foi uma “escuta de narrativa” (interação sensível, margem aberta às interações desejadas pelo interlocutor e mesmo a expectativa de sua interferência, atenção às entrelinhas da comunicação e esforço pela escuta com o corpo todo), utilizando a conversação e a construção de “analisadores temáticos”, isto é, eleição de tópicos para a tematização ou tópicos para pensar foram-se abrindo os disparadores conceituais de apoio à compreensão das conexões arte, vida e saúde mental coletiva. Com este estudo percebemos o quanto se faz necessário trabalhadores de saúde abertos às experimentações, ao que é singular e potente em cada usuário; e como a cultura, através de suas expressões, oferta para trabalhadores e usuários uma pedagogia social e espaço para uma educação da cidade. / This study intended to contribute to the "production of life" – intensities, power, motion, experimentations and metamorphosis – regarding to users of mental health services, health workers and social actors producers of cultural facts. The work was done thinking of a Health Education, a contribution to the care and training practices, starting from the listening of a young craftsman narrative present in the arts field, and also an user of mental health service in Porto Alegre/RS. Our goal was to present approaches and contacts between the fields of health education and art and culture through the intensive and sensitive story of a young adult, his experiences, feelings and reflections involving these fields. Renato narrates his journey in culture and health making us think, not merely the training of professionals or culture as a sector which houses the arts and expressive manifestations, but education as the production of social practices which are inserted the acceptance of life under the form of health care. In our "conversations", they signaled the importance of the health field being open to compose itself with other fields, such as culture, especially when present in local life, in neighborhood life and on relationships life. The themed questions were: how expressions of culture contribute to the production of health and how culture can contribute in the care of health service users? The proposed approach was a "story listening" (sensitive interaction, open margins to desired interactions by the interlocutor and even the expectation of his interference, an attention to communication interrows and an effort by listening with the whole body), using the conversation and the construction of "thematic analysis", i.e., the topics election for the thematization, or topics to think, began to open up the conceptual triggers to support the understanding of connections between art, life and collective mental health. With this study we realized how much it is necessary to health workers being open to experimentations, to what is unique and powerful in each user; and how culture, through its expressions, offer to workers and users a social pedagogy and room for a city education.

O presente estudo teve a intenção de contribuir para a “produção de vida” – intensidades, potência, movimento, experimentação e metamorfose –, em relação a usuários dos serviços de saúde mental, trabalhadores da saúde e atores sociais produtores de fatos da cultura. O trabalho se fez pensando em uma Educação da Saúde, contribuição para as práticas de atenção e formação, a partir da escuta de narrativa de um jovem artesão presente no campo das artes e também usuário de um serviço de saúde mental da cidade de Porto Alegre/RS. Nosso objetivo foi de apresentar aproximações e contatos entre os campos da educação em saúde e da arte e cultura, por meio da trajetória intensa e sensível de um jovem adulto, suas experiências, sensações e reflexões envolvendo estes campos. Renato narra seu percurso na cultura e na saúde, nos fazendo pensar não apenas a formação de profissionais ou a cultura como setor que abriga as artes e as manifestações expressivas, mas a educação como a produção das práticas sociais onde se inserem o acolhimento da vida sob a forma de atenção à saúde. Em nossas “conversas”, sinaliza a importância de o campo da saúde estar aberto a compor-se com outros campos, como o da cultura, especialmente quando presente na vida local, na vida no bairro, na vida de relações. As questões tematizadas foram: como as expressões da cultura contribuem para a produção de saúde e como a cultura pode contribuir no cuidado de usuários de serviços de saúde? A abordagem proposta foi uma “escuta de narrativa” (interação sensível, margem aberta às interações desejadas pelo interlocutor e mesmo a expectativa de sua interferência, atenção às entrelinhas da comunicação e esforço pela escuta com o corpo todo), utilizando a conversação e a construção de “analisadores temáticos”, isto é, eleição de tópicos para a tematização ou tópicos para pensar foram-se abrindo os disparadores conceituais de apoio à compreensão das conexões arte, vida e saúde mental coletiva. Com este estudo percebemos o quanto se faz necessário trabalhadores de saúde abertos às experimentações, ao que é singular e potente em cada usuário; e como a cultura, através de suas expressões, oferta para trabalhadores e usuários uma pedagogia social e espaço para uma educação da cidade. / This study intended to contribute to the "production of life" – intensities, power, motion, experimentations and metamorphosis – regarding to users of mental health services, health workers and social actors producers of cultural facts. The work was done thinking of a Health Education, a contribution to the care and training practices, starting from the listening of a young craftsman narrative present in the arts field, and also an user of mental health service in Porto Alegre/RS. Our goal was to present approaches and contacts between the fields of health education and art and culture through the intensive and sensitive story of a young adult, his experiences, feelings and reflections involving these fields. Renato narrates his journey in culture and health making us think, not merely the training of professionals or culture as a sector which houses the arts and expressive manifestations, but education as the production of social practices which are inserted the acceptance of life under the form of health care. In our "conversations", they signaled the importance of the health field being open to compose itself with other fields, such as culture, especially when present in local life, in neighborhood life and on relationships life. The themed questions were: how expressions of culture contribute to the production of health and how culture can contribute in the care of health service users? The proposed approach was a "story listening" (sensitive interaction, open margins to desired interactions by the interlocutor and even the expectation of his interference, an attention to communication interrows and an effort by listening with the whole body), using the conversation and the construction of "thematic analysis", i.e., the topics election for the thematization, or topics to think, began to open up the conceptual triggers to support the understanding of connections between art, life and collective mental health. With this study we realized how much it is necessary to health workers being open to experimentations, to what is unique and powerful in each user; and how culture, through its expressions, offer to workers and users a social pedagogy and room for a city education.

No description available.

The aim of this study is to explore and describe the coping skills of registered nurses in a changed working environment. The research is conducted in the City Health clinics. The objectives of the study are:  to identify strategies which nurses use to cope with the changes in the health care services;  to explore appropriate support systems that will enhance the coping skills of registered nurses in clinics in the City Health Department; and  to deduce guidelines on how to support staff from the literature study and the results of the research. The research problem is the following: nurses in primary health care facilities do not adequately cope with major changes in health care delivery. A qualitative approach for the research was chosen. Personal interviews and focus group discussions were used to identify the coping skills of registered nurses. Data analysis was done manually. Transcriptions of recordings of the individual interviews and group discussions were done. Themes were organized and categorized into meaningful links and relationships. The findings indicate that the following factors improve the coping skills of registered nurses:  team-work and support;  to voice your opinion when necessary and good communication between staff;  regular breaks during working hours;  inherent factors for example strong spiritual and emotional strength that assist registered nurses to cope;  family support;  the provision of quality care is rewarding;  the assistance and support from the church (congregation);  the effective re-organisation of health services;  continuous support programs for staff; and  continuous education to develop skills of registered nurses. / Advanced Nursing -- Psychological aspects / M.A.

The aim of this study is to explore and describe the coping skills of registered nurses in a changed working environment. The research is conducted in the City Health clinics. The objectives of the study are:  to identify strategies which nurses use to cope with the changes in the health care services;  to explore appropriate support systems that will enhance the coping skills of registered nurses in clinics in the City Health Department; and  to deduce guidelines on how to support staff from the literature study and the results of the research. The research problem is the following: nurses in primary health care facilities do not adequately cope with major changes in health care delivery. A qualitative approach for the research was chosen. Personal interviews and focus group discussions were used to identify the coping skills of registered nurses. Data analysis was done manually. Transcriptions of recordings of the individual interviews and group discussions were done. Themes were organized and categorized into meaningful links and relationships. The findings indicate that the following factors improve the coping skills of registered nurses:  team-work and support;  to voice your opinion when necessary and good communication between staff;  regular breaks during working hours;  inherent factors for example strong spiritual and emotional strength that assist registered nurses to cope;  family support;  the provision of quality care is rewarding;  the assistance and support from the church (congregation);  the effective re-organisation of health services;  continuous support programs for staff; and  continuous education to develop skills of registered nurses. / Advanced Nursing -- Psychological aspects / M.A.