Health Services - Faculty of Business - Charles Sturt University

Health Services Research

Research Area leader: Dr Oliver Burmeister

Overview
Members
Projects
Current Students
PHD/DIT Topics
Honours Topics

The delivery and management of effective health services in regional, rural and remote areas faces a number of ongoing challenges. For example, an ageing population in Australia requires health organisations to increase their capacity for aged care, while managing simultaneous challenges such as workforce shortages. Health services research is a priority funding area for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and promoting and maintaining good health is recognised as a national priority area by the Australian Research Council, highlighting the importance and relevance of this research. Traditionally, health services management has been researched primarily from disciplinary approaches incorporating clinical perspectives, medical education and public health, amongst others. Our research area (RA) combines these approaches with a number of business disciplines such as information technology, economics, marketing and management with a view to providing additional input and suggestions of different ways to approach the challenges of health services management.

Our research aims to provide a cross-disciplinary perspective that will seek to explore problems and challenges that the health industry faces and develop interventions for improving health service delivery at an individual, group and organisational level.

Our research will contribute to both scholarly knowledge and health industry practice in a number of ways. Scholarly knowledge pertaining to health service delivery will be enhanced through a cross-disciplinary research approach through the input of researchers from diverse academic backgrounds. By researching various facets of health service delivery, researchers within the RA are also contributing directly to national research priority areas. From a practice perspective, the RA is able to provide information and advice to industry partners through roles on boards and committees, by communicating results of research, through assisting industry partners with developing capacity to recognise and research their own organisational problems, and through the development of organisationally-specific interventions aimed at enhancing health service delivery.

Name	Title/Position	Employer if not Faculty of Business, CSU	Location
Oliver Burmeister	Senior Lecturer		Wagga
Melanie Bryant	Head, Research Professional Development Programs, CSU Research Office Senior Lecturer		Wagga
Ramudu Bhanugopan	Senior Lecturer		Wagga
John Hicks	Professor		Bathurst
Mark Morrison	Professor		Bathurst
PK Basu	Senior Lecturer		Bathurst
Lan Snell	Lecturer		Bathurst
Tony Kolbe	Director	Centre for Inland Health	Albury
Sue McAlpin	Associate Professor	School of Dentistry and Health Sciences	Wagga
Karen Frances	Professor	School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health	Wagga
Maree Bernoth	Lecturer	School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health	Wagga
David Ritchie	Lecturer	School of Biomedical Science	Bathurst
Sharyn Kelleher	Executive Officer, Health Research and Ethics	Murrumbidgee Local Health District	Wagga
Greg Dresser	Senior Project Manager Aged Care Workforce Reform	Care West	Orange

+ Current Projects

Project Name	Brief Description	Funding Body	Investigators
Evaluation of a Chronic Disease Self- management Program; My Health My Life!	Evaluation of a locally developed chronic disease self management program aimed at developing self efficacy. Employs a mixed methods approach including repeated measures using validated questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with participants.	Health Department of Victoria	Guinever Threlkeld (LaTrobe University) Tony Kolbe, Alana Hulme Chambers (LaTrobe University)
Indigenous Mental Health: An Investigation of the Service and Infrastructure Needs in Wagga Wagga	This research aims to highlight the need for a culturally appropriate indigenous mental health programme for the city of Wagga Wagga. The research will document the perceptions, beliefs, insights and concerns of the indigenous community in Wagga Wagga, with reference to mental health and well being. There are a number of mental health specific indigenous programmes across rural communities in NSW, however there is a lack of culturally appropriate resources and community-based supports available for indigenous people in Wagga Wagga. Yet 4.2% of Wagga Wagga’s 63,500 people are indigenous, compared to the national average of 2.3% of the population.	Community Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Research Network	Oliver Burmeister
Organisational Socialisation Experiences of Rural and Remote Health Employees	This research seeks to develop an understanding of whether health organisations develop socialisation practices before, during and after health professionals move to a rural or remote area and the role that these might play in a health professionals’ intention to remain or leave a rural area.	Compact funding	Melanie Bryant and Fiona Douglas
Voices of the Past	This research involves an oral history of rural health professionals who have worked in rural practice for 23 plus years. The project aims to determine common themes across the interviews that have contributed to attracting and retaining these health professionals in rural practice over a significant period. To date 23 interviews of medical practitioners, 9 GPs and 14 Specialists, and 2 community health nurses and 2 dieticians have been conducted.	Centre for Inland Health, School of Dentistry & Health Sciences Research Seeding Grant	Sue McAlpin
The Economic and Social Impact of Ageing in Rural and Regional Australia	While retirees have traditionally been viewed as a “drain on the public purse” given their withdrawal from a productive role in the labour market and assumed reliance on welfare, the newfound superannuation affluence of retiring baby boomers transforms them to active consumers of goods and services. In regional economies the ageing of the population can in fact provide economic stimulus that leads to industry development and labour market expansion and diversification. However, the challenge for rural/regional communities is to develop strategies to optimise industry growth while retaining the “country” lifestyle and social capital considered by their citizens to be at the core of productive ageing.		John Hicks and Jennifer Sappey
Building Communities of Practice Around the Prevention of Functional Decline in the Community	This research seeks to investigate whether improved training and use of technology by clinicians (support workers) and training of volunteers improves human resource management outcomes among employees and volunteer carers who are involved in reducing the rate of functional decline among seniors. This research involves the use of experiments and pre-post surveys of subjects.	Care West	Mark Morrison, Oliver Burmeister, Zahid Islam, Ramudu Bhanugopan and Maree Bernoth

+ Past Projects

Project Name	Brief Description	Funding Body	Investigators
Enabling the Rural Academic Practice	This project involved an investigation of six rural and regional general practice clinics involved in hosting learners (medical students, interns, registrars). Specifically, the project evaluated the organisational processes involved in current training schemes and developed recommendations for single-level or non-learner clinics to develop into a multi-level learner organisation. In doing so, the project focused on understanding organisational culture as well as the barriers and enablers for organisational change.	Australian General Practice Training	Melanie Bryant, Debra Nestel (Monash Uni) and James Brown (Southern General Practice Training Vic)
Team Dynamics in Operating Theatres	This research involved an observational study of inter-disciplinary team dynamics and communication in operating theatres across two hospital settings. Using studies of communication error as a basis for theorising, we utilised an organisational behaviour framework to explore observed differences in defined hierarchical and clinical roles; divergent zones of communication; and issues pertaining to the use of time and timing.	Monash University Small Grants Scheme	Vaughan Higgins, Melanie Bryant, Elmer Villanueva (Monash University) and Simon Kitto (Monash University)
The Future of eHealth Infrastructure Provision for the Riverina Region: An Investigation of Mental Health Services	This project was focussed on determining how future expenditure on eHealth could improve mental health treatment and service provision in the western Murray Darling Basin (MDB). The project was designed to access the knowledge of both professionals and mental health clients concerning eHealth options, the extent of eHealth use in the region, and the possibilities for eHealth use in the region.	Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development & Local Government	Oliver Burmeister, Merrilyn Crichton and Ingrid Muenstermann
Crossing The Great Divide: A Case Study of a Regional Nursing Labour Market in the Central West of New South Wales	This study contributes to the labour market research into nurse shortage in an Australian regional context. It indicates that supply decisions are influenced by family circumstances, attachment to regional life and characteristics of the profession, particularly the emphasis on caring. Aspects of nursing work, particularly workloads and working with competent people (as opposed to autonomy and career prospects), and conditions of work, particularly wages, protection from violence and flexibility of working time are more able to be affected by government and management.		John Hicks, PK Basu, Heather Latham, Graham Tyson, Megan Daniel and Richard Sappey
Nursing Workloads: the Impact of the Employment Relationship, the Organisation of Work and Occupational Identity on the Intensification of Work	The phenomenon of work intensification has caused scholars to seek answers to questions related to its cause, processes and consequences and to propose policy prescriptions and IR systems solutions to alleviate its impact. Generally, research intensification has been located within institutional industrial relations and/or labour process theory. The findings of this study enhance our understanding of work intensification in the occupational context of nursing. We find that both institutional and organisation of work factors are significant. However, we also find that an occupational identity, including established traditions of core skills, tasks, standards, training, decision-making and relations with other health occupational groups influenced both institutional and work organisational factors.		John Hicks, PK Basu and Richard Sappey
A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Service Quality and Adherence Amongst Elderly Patients: A Pilot Study	Exploratory study investigating the influence of socio-cognition on perceptions of service quality and its relationship to adherence within the Home Medicines Review.		Lan Snell, Lesley White and Tracey Dagger (Monash University)
An Exploratory Study of the Role of Emotional Intelligence and Self-efficacy on Service Quality and Adherence in a Weight Loss Setting	Qualitative study on the relationship of EI and self-efficacy on service quality and adherence within a weight loss setting		Lan Snell, Lesley White and Tracey Dagger
A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Customer Adherence in Health Care	Using structural equation modelling, this study examines the joint impact of psycho-social factors and traditional service factors in determining adherence behaviour and future intentions within high involvement health services		Lan Snell, Lesley White, Tracey Dagger (Monash University)
A Review of the Aged Care Industry in Regional NSW	This pilot project sought to map the issues facing aged care industry in the Bathurst regional area of Central West New South Wales. These issues are explored through a case study of a regional city (Bathurst), a nearby regional town (Blayney) and a rural village (Wattle Flat). The study drew on: interviews with community based service providers, commercial providers, seniors’ organisations, and local, state and federal government agencies; and, focus groups with seniors (aged 60+ years) in each of the localities.	Bathurst Regional Council, Blayney Council, DADHC	Jennifer Sappey, Zelma Bone and Rod Duncan
Mapping the Funding and Communication Practices of Aged Care Services in a Regional Australian Community	This project aimed to examine the funding sources and communication links between aged and community care services within a regional centre in Central West NSW.		Rhonda Shaw, Jenni Greig, Zelma Bone and Mark Morrison

Content Required

The following opportunities exist in Health Services Research:

Contact	Topic
Dr Oliver Burmeister oburmeister@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2591	Mobile devices, ehealth and cloud computing Privacy in rural ehealth systems The role of organisational and community socialisation in retaining a rural health workforce
Dr Ramudu Bhanugopan bramudu@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2696	High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) and HR practices in hospitals Human Capital Management (HCM) and Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB) in Health Care Sector Organisations Restructuring health care work practices: Workforce architecture, knowledge-intensive teams and team boundary spanning
Dr Zahid Islam zislam@csu.edu.au 02 6338 4214	Health Data Mining: Solutions for privacy mining Data integration for interagency communication on private health data