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The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of media representation on the mental health of Australians of African descent during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analysing the media coverage of COVID-19 restriction breaches, particularly focusing on individuals from African backgrounds, the study aims to shed light on how racially charged narratives can contribute to emotional distress and exacerbate feelings of alienation within these communities. The findings highlight the detrimental effects of such portrayals, emphasising the need for more responsible and inclusive media reporting to safeguard the mental well-being of culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

The study employed media content analysis to explore representations of Australians of African origin versus the broader Anglo–Australian population during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on racial identity’s impact on news coverage of COVID-19 restriction breaches. Researchers classified and distilled extensive textual content, using a diverse sample from various ethnic-racial backgrounds, with an emphasis on African Australians within the CALD community. Data analysis was conducted using NVivo (version 12) software, following an inductive approach.

The findings underscore the consistent portrayal of people from African communities as outsiders and the racial profiling they experience in media coverage of significant issues like COVID-19.

There is very limited research that examines the impact of media coverage on African migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The patient flow performance achievable by care pathways is constrained by competing flow and resource efficiency, which can negatively impact improvements. This paper probes the divergence between resource and flow efficiency and how care pathways can lead to improved patient flow. By framing the problem through the lens of paradox theory, a set of design principles is proposed to assist decision-makers in care pathway implementation. Implications are derived for research and practice.

The authors used conceptual research to develop design principles for care pathways based on a systematic review of relevant care pathway research. The initial search contained 515 unique articles, resulting in a final sample of 56 studies.

When applying care pathways, patient flow may be negatively affected in relation to the dimensions of bottlenecks, non-value-adding activities, and variability. However, the findings also indicate methods that can be applied to manage organizational paradoxes, which can contribute to more efficient patient flow along each of the three dimensions.

The study is limited to care pathways and therefore could have missed relevant studies in similar fields, such as care coordination.

Health care managers, politicians, and IT developers can apply the proposed design principles when developing, implementing, and improving care pathways and supporting technologies.

While existing research has studied care pathways from a medical perspective, this is the first paper to the author’s knowledge that addresses care pathways directly by considering paradox theory and in light of the operations management literature.

This study aims to determine the relationship between health literacy and the self-care of hypertension in older adults in five regions in Jordan.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,100 older adult patients with hypertension who had follow-ups in cardiac clinics of the five biggest hospitals in five regions of Jordan. The research instruments included a Health Literacy Questionnaire (CHEWQ) and the self-care of hypertension inventory.

The average health literacy score was 8.52 ± 1.6, indicating inadequate health literacy, while their self-care of hypertension score was 42.33 ± 10.9, indicating low self-care. Inadequate health literacy and factors such as marital status, education level, income and overall health status were linked to poor self-care of hypertension (p < 0.05).

This study suggests that there is a need to assess the effectiveness of various health literacy interventions, such as educational programs and customized communication strategies, in enhancing self-care behaviors across diverse populations, particularly among the elderly.

The study findings highlight the need for nursing interventions aimed at improving health literacy to enhance the ability of older adults in Jordan to manage their hypertension.