Experiences of Primary Healthcare Workers in Australia towards Women and Girls Living with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): A Qualitative Study.

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a harmful cultural practice with significant health consequences for affected women and girls. Due to migration and human mobility, an increasing number of women with FGM/C are presenting to healthcare facilities of western countries (including Australia) where the practice is non-prevalent. Despite this increase in presentation, the experiences of primary healthcare providers in Australia engaging and caring for women/girls with FGM/C are yet to be explored. The aim of this research was to report on the Australian primary healthcare providers' experiences of caring for women living with FGM/C. A qualitative interpretative phenomenological approach was utilised and convenience sampling was used to recruit 19 participants. Australian primary healthcare providers were engaged in face-to-face or telephone interviews, which were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Three major themes emerged, which were: exploring knowledge of FGM/C and training needs, understanding participants' experience of caring for women living with FGM/C, and mapping the best practice in working with women. The study shows that primary healthcare professionals had basic knowledge of FGM/C with little or no experience with the management, support, and care of affected women in Australia. This impacted their attitude and confidence to promote, protect, and restore the target population's overall FGM/C-related health and wellbeing issues. Hence, this study highlights the importance of primary healthcare practitioners being skilled and well-equipped with information and knowledge to care for girls and women living with FGM/C in Australia.

From the World to Western: A Community-Engaged Teaching Strategy to Enhance Students' Learning of Cultural Issues Relevant to Healthcare.

Using the transformational learning theory and action research method, this study captured the experiences of students from health-related disciplines in the cultural immersion program From the World to Western. A total of nine students participated in the pilot program with four host families from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and four cultural facilitators who connected the host families and students. The findings of this research showed that it was beneficial for students in health-related disciplines to engage in the cultural immersion program to further prepare them for culturally competent care in their future roles as healthcare professionals. In addition, the students indicated the need for the cultural immersion program to be part of the curriculum for future students to develop cultural skills, awareness and encounters with diverse populations.

Academic mothers, professional identity and COVID-19: Feminist reflections on career cycles, progression and practice.

Based on a collection of auto-ethnographic narratives that reflect our experiences as academic mothers at an Australian university, this paper seeks to illustrate the impact of COVID-19 on our career cycles in order to explore alternative feminist models of progression and practice in Higher Education. Collectively, we span multiple disciplines, parenting profiles, and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Our narratives (initiated in 2019) explicate four focal points in our careers as a foundation for analyzing self-definitions of professional identity: pre- and post-maternity career break; and pre- and post-COVID-19 career. We have modeled this research on a collective feminist research practice that is generative and empowering in terms of self-reflective models of collaborative research. Considering this practice and these narratives, we argue for a de-centering of masculinized career cycle patterns and progression pathways both now and beyond COVID-19. This represents both a challenge to neo-liberal norms of academic productivity, as well as a call to radically enhance institutional gender equality policies and practice.

Exploring Tertiary Health Science Student Willingness or Resistance to Cultural Competency and Safety Pedagogy.

There is an increasing body of literature that considers the relevance and experiences of cultural competency and safety training in health professional students. However, less is written about Australian tertiary learners' experiences of engaging with cultural competency training. The aim of this study is to explore tertiary students' willingness or resistance to cultural competency and safety pedagogy. Qualitative student feedback to a teaching unit was collected and triangulated with data from focus groups with tutors. Results were thematically analyzed. Willingness and resistance to cultural competency and safety teaching emerged as two key themes. Willingness to engage with the unit was largely due to student interest in the content, teaching environment and relevance of cultural competency to students' future practice. Resistance was linked to the students feeling personally attacked, or culturally confronted, with tutors noting the topics around sexuality and white privilege being more resisted. Acknowledging reasons for student resistance and developing strategies to reduce resistance can facilitate more student engagement with cultural competency topics, ultimately leading to their future provision of culturally competent healthcare.