Nicole Masters

A convenience sample of doctors working in UCCs since 1 July 2023 were invited to participate in an online survey. This was advertised through The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), The Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care (RNZCUC), corporate general practices, UCC peer groups and LinkedIn.  RESULTS: A convenience sample of doctors working in UCCs since 1 July 2023 were invited to participate in an online survey. This was advertised through The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), The Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care (RNZCUC), corporate general practices, UCC peer groups and LinkedIn.  DISCUSSION: Findings were compared with practices in other Western countries. This study highlights the potential for national standards to address unwarranted variation in health care delivery in Australian UCCs.

Background
Fractures account for approximately 1% of patient presentations in general practice. Uncomplicated, low-risk fractures rarely require orthopaedic intervention and can be treated exclusively in primary care by the general practitioner (GPs).

Objective
The aim of this paper is to improve the skill set of GPs to enable them to manage low-risk fractures in the primary care setting.

Discussion
Three key factors underpin the safe development and deployment of a primary care fracture clinic (PCFC) in primary care practices: (1) understand fracture healing; (2) acquire a deep understanding of initial examination and management principles; and (3) have a referral network. The right referral network includes orthopaedic surgeons; allied health practitioners such as physiotherapists; and appropriate handouts. Additional considerations are having the right medical insurance; online and hard copy academic and clinical references; and adequate consumables.

Background and objectives
Since 2019, numerous urgent care clinic (UCC) models have been introduced to Australia. This study investigates concerns raised by medical doctors working in UCC models.

Methods
A convenience sample of medical doctors working in UCC models in Australia since 1 July 2023 were invited to participate in a custom-designed 22-item online survey. This was advertised through The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), The Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care (RNZCUC), corporate general practices, UCC peer groups and on LinkedIn.

Results
Overall, 52 responses were received. Descriptive statistics and qualitative descriptive content analysis was used to identify concerns raised by participants, which included: capacity, accreditation standard, qualifications and experience of medical doctors and nurse practitioners, training, funding, public education and UCCs taking work general practitioners (GPs) could do if appropriately funded.

Discussion
Four practical solutions to the seven concerns were: (1) adoption of Medicare Benefits Schedule UCC item numbers for UCCs and general practices; (2) introducing recognition of extended skills for UCC medical doctors through the RACGP; (3) developing an Australian UCC standard; and (4) increased public health campaigns.

Blended Learning (BL) as a pedagogical approach has increased in significance during the COVID-19 pandemic, with blended and online learning environments becoming the new digital norm for higher educational institutions around the globe. While BL has been discussed in the literature for thirty years, a common approach has been to categorise learner cohorts to support educators in better understanding students’ relationships with learning technologies. This approach, largely unsupported by empirical evidence, has failed to adequately address the challenges of integrating learning technologies to fit with non-traditional students’ preferences, their BL self-efficacy and the associated pedagogical implications. Focusing on student preference, our study presents findings from a pre-COVID survey of undergraduate students across four campuses of an Australian regional university where students shared their learning technology preferences and the self-regulated learning that influenced their academic self-efficacy in a BL context. Findings show students want consistency, relevance, and effectiveness with the use of BL tools, with a preference for lecture recordings and video resources to support their learning, while email and Facebook Messenger were preferred for communicating with peers and academic staff. Our study suggests a quality BL environment facilitates self-regulated learning using fit-for-purpose technological applications. Academic self-efficacy for BL can increase when students perceive the educational technologies used by their institution are sufficient for their learning needs.

Introduction:
Implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) is recognised as challenging, and well-designed programs can have differing levels of success depending on implementation quality. The aim of this review was to summarise the evidence for implementation of IPE, and identify challenges and key lessons to guide faculty in IPE implementation.

Methods:
Five stage scoping review of methodological characteristics, implementation components, challenges and key lessons in primary studies in IPE. Thematic analysis using a framework of micro (teaching), meso (institutional), and macro (systemic) level education factors was used to synthesise challenges and key lessons.

Results:
Twenty-seven primary studies were included in this review. Studies were predominantly descriptive in design and implementation components inconsistently reported. IPE was mostly integrated into curricula, optional, involved group learning, and used combinations of interactive and didactic approaches. Micro level implementation factors (socialisation issues, learning context, and faculty development), meso level implementation factors (leadership and resources, administrative processes), and macro level implementation factors (education system, government policies, social and cultural values) were extrapolated. Sustainability was identified as an additional factor in IPE implementation.

Conclusion:
Lack of complete detailed reporting limits evidence of IPE implementation, however, this review highlighted challenges and yielded key lessons to guide faculty in the implementation of IPE.

Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology. The 'Movement of Substances' core concept with the descriptor 'the movement of substances (ions or molecules) is a fundamental process that occurs at all levels of organisation in the organism', was unpacked by a team of three Australian Physiology educators from the Delphi Task Force into hierarchical levels. There were ten themes and twenty-three sub-themes arranged in a hierarchy, some three levels deep. Using a five-point Likert scale, the unpacked core concept was then rated for level of importance for students to understand (ranging from 1=Essential to 5=Not Important) and level of difficulty for students (ranging from 1=Very difficult to 5=Not difficult) by the twenty-three physiology educators from different Australian universities, all with a broad range of teaching and curriculum experience. Survey data was analyzed using a one-way ANOVA to compare between and within concept themes. The main themes all were rated on average as important. There was a wide range of difficulty ratings and more variation for this concept compared with the other core concepts. This may in part to be due to the physical forces (such as gravity, electrochemistry, resistance, thermodynamics) that underpin this concept, which in themselves are inherently complex. Separation of concepts into sub-themes can help prioritize learning activities and time spent on difficult concepts. Embedding of core concepts across curricula will allow commonality and consistency between programs of study and inform learning outcomes, assessment and teaching and learning activities.

Despite questions about academic rigor, undergraduates use Wikipedia for opportunistic learning: self-regulated study to learn, relearn, or be introduced to concepts. STEM topics are potentially immune from some of Wikipedia's criticism, as many are based on well-established facts. This article evaluates 28 articles from seven STEM disciplines on four criteria important for undergraduate opportunistic learners. Some articles contained inaccuracies, while common criticisms included poor conceptual development, poor procedural explanations, poor diagrams and failing to utilize internet technologies. Often, the best advice is to read the first paragraph: the rest of the article generally did not enhance opportunistic learning.

Introduction: Evidence-based teaching and learning strategies should underpin any educational activity. This is particularly important for interprofessional education (IPE) activities, where there is an expectation that healthcare professions are taught using best available evidence. There is a research–practice gap that this review aims to address by using the current evidence to develop recommendations regarding optimal design components to better inform faculty who design IPE.

Methods: A five-stage scoping review was conducted. Methodological characteristics and IPE design components of primary and review studies were extracted. Three important components of design—participants (level and stage of progression, discipline type and number, group size and ratios), learning constructs (theories, frameworks, learning objectives) and learning approaches (exchange, observation, action, simulation and practice)—were reviewed to develop recommendations regarding effective design.

Results: A total of 41 papers were eligible for inclusion, 24 primary and 17 review studies. The primary studies were predominantly descriptive case studies with 31 disciplines involved in IPE activities across the studies. There was inconsistent reporting of learning constructs utilised in design, and the most reported learning approach was exchange. There was significant variability in the aims and design of the 17 review studies, ranging from systematic reviews to realist reviews, with the number of included studies ranging from six to 104.

Conclusions: There was a lack of detailed reporting regarding design components, which limits the evidence base to inform IPE design. Reported components from the primary studies were augmented by findings from the review studies and the wider literature, which enabled the development of recommendations to assist faculty in the design of IPE programs and activities.

Animal faecal contamination of surface waters poses a human health risk, as they may contain pathogenic bacteria or viruses. Of the numerous animal species residing along surface waterways in Australia, macropod species are a top contributor to wild animals’ faecal pollution load. We characterised the gut microbiota of 30 native Australian Eastern Grey Kangaroos from six geographical regions (five kangaroos from each region) within South East Queensland in order to establish their bacterial diversity and identify potential novel species-specific bacteria for the rapid detection of faecal contamination of surface waters by these animals. Using three hypervariable regions (HVRs) of the 16S rRNA gene (i.e., V1–V3, V3–V4, and V5–V6), for their effectiveness in delineating the gut microbial diversity, faecal samples from each region were pooled and microbial genomic DNA was extracted, sequenced, and analysed. Results indicated that V1-V3 yielded a higher taxa richness due to its larger target region (~480 bp); however, higher levels of unassigned taxa were observed using the V1-V3 region. In contrast, the V3–V4 HVR (~569 bp) attained a higher likelihood of a taxonomic hit identity to the bacterial species level, with a 5-fold decrease in unassigned taxa. There were distinct dissimilarities in beta diversity between the regions, with the V1-V3 region displaying the highest number of unique taxa (n = 42), followed by V3–V4 (n = 11) and V5–V6 (n = 8). Variations in the gut microbial diversity profiles of kangaroos from different regions were also observed, which indicates that environmental factors may impact the microbial development and, thus, the composition of the gut microbiome of these animals.