The Medical journal of Australia
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To determine the extent to which children with a hospital admission related to assault or maltreatment or to a notified sexually transmitted infection (STI) have contact with the Western Australian Department for Child Protection (DCP), and to investigate injuries and conditions often associated with child maltreatment and subsequent contact with the DCP. ⋯ The health system effectively identifies and notifies real cases of maltreatment, and a high proportion of these are substantiated. Health data play an important role in improving maltreatment surveillance, providing opportunities to make valid comparisons over time and between jurisdictions, as well as to monitor conditions and injuries associated with child maltreatment.
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Concerns have been raised about the capacity of the health workforce to meet increasing future health care demands. Strategies aimed at improving workforce supply, at least in Australia, are focused heavily on education (ie, increasing the number of training places in key health professions) and recruitment (ie, recruiting overseas-trained health care professionals). Data from the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics census of population and housing indicate that while many Australians hold health professional qualifications, many are either not in the workforce or not employed within the health occupation they hold qualifications for. Some immediate solutions for increasing the health workforce are to attract qualified health professionals who are either not in the workforce or are working outside the health occupation back into their occupational role; to increase worker retention for those still working within the occupations they trained for; and to explore strategies for better retention of new graduates.
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To estimate the cost of the extra time worked by Australian workers due to their co-workers' alcohol drinking. ⋯ The results of this study suggest that Australian workers are significantly affected by other people's alcohol drinking, at considerable cost. This finding highlights the significant cost to the workplace of alcohol consumption, extending previous work which has focused only on alcohol-related absenteeism.
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To identify factors associated with psychiatric morbidity and hazardous alcohol use in Australian doctors. ⋯ The mental health of medical practitioners is crucial to the quality of care their patients receive. Doctors should reflect on their hours of work and need for holidays. Involvement with medicolegal processes, such as lawsuits, complaints and inquiries, is a stressful part of medical practice today. Doctors need to be educated about these processes and understand how the experience may affect their health, work and loved ones.
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To examine the impact of a national current affairs television program about the association between osteonecrosis of the jaw and bisphosphonates on subsequent prescription use, fractures and deaths. ⋯ Although it is important for patients to be informed of the risks of medication, media coverage that does not present a balanced view has the potential to do more harm than good.