Lessons from the courtroom: Perspectives from child welfare attorneys and supervisors

Despite a history of child welfare worker performance difficulty in the courtroom, there has been little documentation regarding specific training needs for worker courtroom practice skills. This study expands the literature on child welfare courtroom practice skills by documenting child welfare worker conduct via perspectives from courtroom attorneys and child welfare supervisors. Separate focus groups with child welfare attorneys and supervisors were held to ascertain best and concerning practices for child welfare workers in the courtroom. Focus group participants identified themes related to preparation, adversarial nature of court proceedings, testimony, reasonable efforts, appearance and mannerisms, esteem of workers, duality of worker roles, and support. Study results have implications for focusing and improving training and supervision.     

Ideological Extremism and Public Participation*

Objectives. Does aggregate ideological extremism reduce public participation? Does participation in governance processes fall when the social environment shifts to the extreme left or the extreme right of the political spectrum? Our main hypothesis is that the aggregate ideological orientation of the social environment constrains volunteerism in social regulatory programs. Methods. We test our hypothesis using a panel tobit analysis of data from the federal Long‐Term Care Ombudsman Program. Results. Our model of public participation (expressed as volunteerism) shows that participation expands when the ideological position of a state's citizens is at the extreme left or right of the political continuum. We show the differential effects of two types of aggregate ideological orientation: of citizens and their political leaders. We further find that participation is greatest in states with extremely liberal citizen ideological positions. Conclusions. These findings paint a more complex picture of the effect of extremism in the social environment on public participation measured as production volunteerism. In sum, public participation is greatest when the social environment is ideologically polarized, and social regulation is strongest when volunteerism is greatest.     

From Further Education to Higher Education: Social Work Students' Experiences of Transition to an Ancient,Research‐Led University

In 2004, as part of its initiative to widen access, a Scottish university offered places for the first time to a group of students coming from further education (FE) colleges with Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs). A longitudinal study has followed the experiences of transition and subsequent progression of this cohort of students. The study, entitled ‘From FE to HE’ has interviewed and surveyed 45 students at key points since 2004. This paper reports on findings from the study overall, giving particular attention to the views and experiences of the nine Social Work students within the cohort. It will be argued that whilst FE colleges provide considerable support for their students, there is no easy transition to an ancient, research‐led university such as this one. The findings of this study have implications for all those involved in social work education.     

Dual‐earner parent couples’ work and care during COVID‐19

COVID‐19 and the associated lockdowns meant many working parents were faced with doing paid work and family care at home simultaneously. To investigate how they managed, this article draws a subsample of parents in dual‐earner couples (n = 1536) from a national survey of 2722 Australian men and women conducted during lockdown in May 2020. It asked how much time respondents spent in paid and unpaid labour, including both active and supervisory care, and about their satisfaction with work–family balance and how their partner shared the load. Overall, paid work time was slightly lower and unpaid work time was very much higher during lockdown than before it. These time changes were most for mothers, but gender gaps somewhat narrowed because the relative increase in childcare was higher for fathers. More mothers than fathers were dissatisfied with their work–family balance and partner’s share before COVID‐19. For some the pandemic improved satisfaction levels, but for most they became worse. Again, some gender differences narrowed, mainly because more fathers also felt negatively during lockdown than they had before.     

The experience of rural midwives in dual roles as nurse and midwife: “I’d prefer midwifery but I chose to live here”

ObjectiveTo explore and describe the experiences of working in the dual role as nurse and midwife in rural areas of far north Queensland, Australia.MethodThe methodology was informed by Heidegger's interpretive phenomenological philosophy and data analysis was guided by van Manen's analytical approach. Data was generated by conversational interviews. Eight midwives working in a dual role as midwife and nurse were interviewed individually.FindingsThree themes were identified: Making choices between professional role and lifestyle: “Because I choose to live here”; Integration of maternity and general nursing: “All in together this fine weather” and: “That's part of working in a small place”.ConclusionParticipants recognized that in rural areas it is important to be a multi-skilled generalist; however they were concerned that midwifery skills could be eroded or even lost with the diminishing amounts of midwifery work available. Appropriate re-structuring of maternity services could provide better use of the midwifery workforce in rural centres, and reduce the current problems associated with transferring birthing mothers to larger facilities. Further research is needed to examine the extent to which the requirement to work in a dual, or multifaceted role is an impediment to the recruitment and retention of midwives to rural areas.     

Regardless of where they give birth,women living in non-metropolitan areas are less likely to have an epidural than their metropolitan counterparts

QuestionCan differences in Australian birth intervention rates be explained by women's residence at the time of childbearing?.MethodsData were collected prospectively via surveys in 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 from women, born between 1973 and 1978, of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Analysis included data from 5886 women who had given birth to their first child between 1994 and 2009. Outcome measures were self-report of birth interventions: pharmacological pain relief (epidural and spinal block analgesia, inhalational analgesia and intramuscular injections), surgical births (an elective or emergency caesarean section) and instrumental births (forceps and ventouse).FindingsPrimiparous women residing in non-metropolitan areas of Australia experienced fewer birth interventions than women residing in metropolitan areas: 43% versus 56% received epidural analgesia; 8% versus 11% had elective caesarean sections; and 16% versus 18% had emergency caesarean sections. Differences in maternal age and private health insurance status at first birth accounted for differences in surgical birth rates but did not fully explain differences in epidural analgesia.ConclusionNon-metropolitan women had fewer birth interventions, particularly epidural analgesia, than metropolitan women. Differences in maternal age and private health insurance do not fully explain the differences in epidural analgesia rates, suggesting care provided to labouring women may differ by area of residence. The difference in epidural analgesia rates may be due to lack of choice in maternity services, however it could also be due to differing expectations leading to differences in birth interventions for primiparous women living in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.