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Despite the importance of evidence-based practice, the translation of knowledge into quality healthcare continues to be stymied by an array of micro, meso and macro factors. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a need to consider different – if not unconventional approaches – like the role of positive emotion, and how it might be used to promote and sustain knowledge translation (KT).

By reviewing and coalescing two distinct theories – the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and the organisational knowledge creation theory – this paper presents a case for the role of positive emotion in KT.

Theories pertaining to positive emotion and organisational knowledge creation have much to offer KT in healthcare. Three conceptual “entry points” might be particularly helpful to integrate the two domains – namely, understanding the relationship between knowledge and positive emotions; positive emotions related to Nonaka’s concept of knowledge creation; and the mutual enrichment contained in the parallel “upward spiralling” of both theories.

This is a conceptual paper and as such is limited in its applicability and scope. Future work should empirically explore these conceptual findings, delving into positive emotion and KT.

This is the first paper to bring together two seemingly disparate theories to address an intractable issue – the translation of knowledge into quality healthcare. This represents an important point of departure from current KT discourse, much of which continues to superimpose artefacts like clinical practice guidelines onto complex healthcare context.

The purpose of this paper is to present lessons learnt through the development of an evaluation framework for a clinical redesign programme – the aim of which was to improve the patient journey through improved discharge practices within an Australian public hospital.

The development of the evaluation framework involved three stages – namely, the analysis of secondary data relating to the discharge planning pathway; the analysis of primary data including field-notes and interview transcripts on hospital processes; and the triangulation of these data sets to devise the framework. The evaluation framework ensured that resource use, process management, patient satisfaction, and staff well-being and productivity were each connected with measures, targets, and the aim of clinical redesign programme.

The application of business process management and a balanced scorecard enabled a different way of framing the evaluation, ensuring measurable outcomes were connected to inputs and outputs. Lessons learnt include: first, the importance of mixed-methods research to devise the framework and evaluate the redesigned processes; second, the need for appropriate tools and resources to adequately capture change across the different domains of the redesign programme; and third, the value of developing and applying an evaluative framework progressively.

The evaluation framework is limited by its retrospective application to a clinical process redesign programme.

This research supports benchmarking with national and international practices in relation to best practice healthcare redesign processes. Additionally, it provides a theoretical contribution on evaluating health services improvement and redesign initiatives.

Evidence-based practice is pivotal to effective patient care. However, its translation into practice remains limited. Given the central role of primary care in many healthcare systems, it is important to identify strategies that bolster clinician-capacity to promote evidence-based care. The purpose of this paper is to identify strategies to increase Practice Nurse capacity to promote evidence-based sexual healthcare within general practice.

A survey of 217 Practice Nurses in an Australian state and ten respondent-interviews regarding two resources to promote evidence-based sexual healthcare – namely, a clinical aide and online training.

The perceived impact of both resources was determined by views on relevance and design – particularly for the clinical aide. Resource-use was influenced by role and responsibilities within the workplace, accessibility, and support from patients and colleagues.

This is the first Australian study to reveal strategies to promote evidence-based sexual healthcare among Practice Nurses. The findings provide a platform for future research on knowledge translation processes, particularly among clinicians who might be disengaged from sexual healthcare.

Given the benefits of evidence-based practices, it is important that managers recognize their role, and the role of their services, in promoting these. Without explicit support for evidence-based care and recognition of the Practice Nurse role in such care, knowledge translation is likely to be limited.

Knowledge translation among Practice Nurses can be facilitated by: resources-deemed informative, relevant, and user-friendly, as well as support from patients, colleagues, and their workplace.

The primary care sector is experiencing considerable change. How change and uncertainty are accommodated by the professional identity of medicine has not been examined. The purpose of this paper is to address the youth healthcare as an exemplar as this field is often a source of uncertainty for general practitioners (GPs).

Using heterogeneity sampling, 22 GPs participated in focus groups to explore perceptions of youth healthcare, factors that help and hinder it, and training needs. Analysis of the research material was guided by a theoretical model on professional identity.

GPs described tensions that challenged their professional identity – the challenges of working with young people and their complex issues, the extent to which youth healthcare sits within the purview of general practice, and the scope of training required. These tensions appeared to destabilise professional identity. Some participants had customised their identity by enriching understandings of and approach to general practice. Participants also reported work customisation as a way of managing the complex demands of the general practice role. Deepened insight appeared to bolster perceived capacity to support a complex patient cohort.

Participants are not representative of the primary care sector – furthermore, the methodology limits the generalisability of the findings.

To bolster youth health, mere clinician training is insufficient. Youth health requires explicit support from governments and training providers to be incorporated into the healthcare landscape.

This study extends current research on professional identity by examining youth healthcare within the changing context of primary care.

The purpose of this paper is to present a business process reengineering (BPR) framework of process and data integration with patient journey as the basis for process evaluation and the improvement of patient-flow.

A BPR framework is developed using a mixed-method research design, which incorporated a case study to demonstrate a healthcare scenario with associated processes and data elements, using process models based on event-driven process chain methodology as well as patient and data models, based on unitary structuring technique. The framework includes key processes including patient booking and rebooking, and associated inputs, outputs, and control parameters. In this case, the framework is demonstrated through application to computed tomography (CT) services in a hospital to improve patient-flow, with numerical simulation of CT data collected over time.

The framework supports flexible patient scheduling and the associated planning of healthcare operations and logistics – this in turn helps to improve patient-flow. Furthermore, mathematical modelling and simulation precisely reveal the impact of booking and rebooking on the performance of the CT department.

This innovative framework has potential value for other services, within and beyond the hospital setting.

The proposed framework of process modelling, data, and patient journey addresses the lack of a holistic approach to monitoring and evaluating service performance in hospital settings. Patient journey modelling is an integral part of process and data models that can be implemented in an integrated system environment such as an enterprise resource planning system for real-time monitoring of patient-flow under dynamic conditions.

As part of the wave of new public management (NPM), the purpose of this paper is to unveil reactions to, and the management of organizational change within a context seldom examined – juvenile justice. This is achieved via a state-wide study on the introduction of a policy framework in eight centers to manage detainee behavior by ensuring risk-based decision-making among staff.

Secondary research material was analyzed on organizational characteristics, framework-implementation, and the associated outcomes. The material was synthesized to develop descriptions of each center.

Two key findings are apparent. First, there were limited research material to make robust connections between framework-implementation and related outcomes. Second, of the material available, there is clear evidence of center differences. The contexts in which the framework was implemented were varied – this may partly explain the different ways the centers responded to the framework, some of which appear counterintuitive.

The findings are limited by the use of secondary research material and the limited availability of comprehensive material.

This study suggests that managing change within the public sector requires an acute understanding of organizational context. This encompasses the situation both within and beyond the organization.

This study casts doubt on whether NPM, which espouses accountability, holds value for juvenile justice. This is largely because: the introduction of the framework was not complemented by the collection of complete data and information; and that which is available suggests considerable variation among the centers, which may circumvent the ability to establish causal relationships between policy and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to call for strong medical co-leadership in transforming the Australian health system. The paper discusses how Health LEADS Australia, the Australian health leadership framework, offers an opportunity to engage medical clinicians and doctors in the leadership of health services.

The paper first discusses the nature of medical leadership and its associated challenges. The paper argues that medical leaders have a key role in the design, implementation and evaluation of healthcare reforms, and in translating these reforms for their colleagues. Second, this paper describes the origins and nature of Health LEADS Australia. Third, this paper discusses the importance of the goal of Health LEADS Australia and suggests the evidence-base underpinning the five foci in shaping medical leadership education and professional development. This paper concludes with suggestions on how Health LEADS Australia might be evaluated.

For the well-being of the Australian health system, doctors need to play an important role in the kind of leadership that makes measurable differences in the retention of clinical professions; improves organisational cultures; enhances the engagement of consumers and their careers; is associated with better patient and public health outcomes; effectively addresses health inequalities; balances cost effectiveness with improved quality and safety; and is sustainable.

This is the first article addressing Health LEADS Australia and medical leadership. Australia is actively engaging in a national approach to health leadership. Discussions about the mechanisms and intentions of this are valuable in both national and global health leadership discourses.

Positive organizational scholarship in healthcare (POSH) suggests that, to promote widespread improvement within health services, focusing on the good, the excellent, and the brilliant is as important as conventional approaches that focus on the negative, the problems, and the failures. POSH offers different opportunities to learn from and build resilient cultures of safety, innovation, and change. It is not separate from tried and tested approaches to health service improvement – but rather, it approaches this improvement differently. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

POSH, appreciative inquiry (AI) and reflective practice were used to inform an exploratory investigation of what is good, excellent, or brilliant health service management.

The researchers identified new characteristics of good healthcare and what it might take to have brilliant health service management, elucidated and refined POSH, and identified research opportunities that hold potential value for consumers, practitioners, and policymakers.

The secondary data used in this study offered limited contextual information.

This approach is a platform from which to: identify, investigate, and learn about brilliant health service management; and inform theory and practice.

POSH can help to reveal what consumers and practitioners value about health services and how they prefer to engage with these services.

Using POSH, this paper examines what consumers and practitioners value about health services; it also illustrates how brilliance can be theorized into health service management research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospective analysis of computer simulation’s role in accelerating individual innovation adoption decisions. The process innovation examined is Lean Systems Thinking, and the organizational context is the imaging department of an Australian public hospital.

Intrinsic case study methods including observation, interviews with radiology and emergency personnel about scheduling procedures, mapping patient appointment processes and document analysis were used over three years and then complemented with retrospective interviews with key hospital staff. The multiple data sources and methods were combined in a pragmatic and reflexive manner to explore an extreme case that provides potential to act as an instructive template for effective change.

Computer simulation of process change ideas offered by staff to improve patient-flow accelerated the adoption of the process changes, largely because animated computer simulation permitted experimentation (trialability), provided observable predictions of change results (observability) and minimized perceived risk.

The difficulty of making accurate comparisons between time periods in a health care setting is acknowledged.

This work has implications for policy, practice and theory, particularly for inducing the rapid diffusion of process innovations to address challenges facing health service organizations and national health systems.

The research demonstrates the value of animated computer simulation in presenting the need for change, identifying options, and predicting change outcomes and is the first work to indicate the importance of trialability, observability and risk reduction in individual adoption decisions in health services.