Search results

Workplaces are challenging environments which place workers at the risk of obesity. This is particularly true for Australian road transport industry workplaces. The Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework is a public health tool which can be used to conceptualise obesogenic environments. It suggests that workplaces have a variety of roles (in the physical, economic, political and sociocultural domains) in responding to obesity in transport industry workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings which explore this idea.

The project used a mixed-methods approach located within a participatory action research framework, to engage workplace managers and truck drivers in the implementation and evaluation of workplace health promotion strategies. The project involved six transport industry workplaces in Queensland, Australia.

This study found that transport industry workplaces perceive themselves to have an important role in addressing the physical, economic, political and sociocultural aspects of obesity, as per the ANGELO framework. However, transport industry employees – specifically, truck drivers – do not perceive workplaces to have a major role in health; rather, they consider health to be an area of personal responsibility.

Balancing the competing perceptions of truck drivers and workplace managers about the workplace’s role in health promotion is an important consideration for future health promotion activities in this hard-to-reach, at-risk population.

The use of the ANGELO framework allows the conceptualisation of obesity in a novel workplace context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine post‐graduate health promotion students' self‐perceptions of information literacy skills prior to, and after completing PILOT, an online information literacy tutorial.

Post‐graduate students at Queensland University of Technology enrolled in PUP038 New Developments in Health Promotion completed a pre‐ and post‐self‐assessment questionnaire. From 2008‐2011 students were required to rate their academic writing and research skills before and after completing the PILOT online information literacy tutorial. Quantitative trends and qualitative themes were analysed to establish students' self‐assessment and the effectiveness of the PILOT tutorial.

The results from four years of post‐graduate students' self‐assessment questionnaires provide evidence of perceived improvements in information literacy skills after completing PILOT. Some students continued to have trouble with locating quality information and analysis as well as issues surrounding referencing and plagiarism. Feedback was generally positive and students' responses indicated they found the tutorial highly beneficial in improving their research skills.

This paper is original because it describes post‐graduate health promotion students' self‐assessment of information literacy skills over a period of four years. The literature is limited in the health promotion domain and self‐assessment of post‐graduate students' information literacy skills.

The purpose of this research is to understand reflective journalling in a first year Public Health practice unit.

This research uses pure phenomenography to interpret students’ descriptions of reflective journalling. Data were collected from 32 students enrolled in PUB215 Public Health Practice in the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology. Participants completed a brief open‐ended questionnaire to evaluate the first assessment item in this unit, a reflective journal. Questionnaire responses were analysed through Dahlgren and Fallsberg's seven phases of data analysis.

The reflective journal required students to reflect on lecture content from five of seven guest speakers. Participants’ responses were categorised into four conceptions: engagement in learning, depth of knowledge, understanding the process and doing the task. Participants describe reflective journalling as a conduit to think critically about the content of the guest speakers’ presentations. Other participants think journalling is a vehicle to think deeply about their potential career pathways. Some define journalling as a pragmatic operation where practical issues are difficult to navigate. The reflective journal successfully: engaged students’ learning, increased students’ depth of knowledge and deepened students’ understanding of the journalling process.

This research gives an insight into how first year public health students understand reflective journalling, supports educators in reflective journalling assessments and confirms a reflective journal assessment can move student reflection towards higher order thinking about practice.