Australian Literature Research Articles

The non-medical surgical assistant and inequity in the Australian healthcare system

Objectives: The objective of this discussion paper is two-fold. The first is to quantify if the non-medical surgical assistant increases access to surgery by investigating what percentages of cases these clinicians undertake in the private sector surgical units where they work. The second is to examine procedural and distributive justice and how they impact on private sector surgical care. Aim: The aim of this paper is to investigate if the non-medical surgical assistant increases equity via access, for the patient, to private sector surgical care; and if government policy has an impact on equity in the form of access. Background: The private healthcare sector completes approximately two-thirds of all elective surgery in Australia; without this contribution, there would be more pressure on the public healthcare sector. In the private sector, recognition and federal funding of the surgical assistant differs depending on whether this clinician has a medical or non-medical, eg. nursing, qualification. The role of the non-medical surgical assistant is well established internationally and this role has been practiced in Australia for more than 20 years. Discussion: Inequity; as a result of the procedural injustice of government funding policy, impacts the private sector surgical patient causing distributive injustice. This distributive injustice results in an out-of-pocket expense to the patient. Rising outof-pocket expenses has started a trend of patients moving away from private health insurance and into the public sector. The registered nurse and nurse practitioner are qualified to practise as a non-medical surgical assistant and provide increased access to care, and effective care compared to the medical surgical assistant. The nurse practitioner is an eligible provider of Medical Benefits Schedule services but restricted from accessing the intraoperative assisting item numbers. Conclusion: The non-medical surgical assistant; or at least the nurse practitioner as non-medical surgical assistant; require access to the Medical Benefits Schedule intraoperative item numbers. Access would alleviate the out-of-pocket expense incurred by Australian patients when a non-medical surgical assistant assists with their surgery. Lack of access to these item numbers means patients may have their surgery delayed until an appropriately skilled medical surgical assistant is available, or the public healthcare sector can accommodate them. Implications for research, policy and practice: This paper illustrates a need for change in Australian government policy to reflect contemporary, evidencebased practice. What is already known about the topic? • The international literature reports that advanced practice nursing roles increase access to healthcare. • The nurse practitioner role in Australia is now well established, and the Australian literature illustrates increased access to care. • The Medical Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce was formed to investigate a system that is not consistent with contemporary, evidence-based healthcare. What this paper adds: • The nurse practitioner and registered nurse, in the role of non-medical surgical assistant, increase access to private sector surgical care. • Australian government policy limits access to private sector surgical care through its inequitable policies that contravene the spirit of fair trade. • According to peak professional bodies’ policy and position statements, the nurse practitioner and registered nurse are legitimate providers of surgical assisting services.

Muslim Community Organizations’ Perceptions of Islamophobia: Towards an Informed Countering Response

During the past two decades, Muslim Community Organizations (MCOs) in the West have increasingly become stakeholders in the public debates and the national consultations regarding the Muslim communities. MCO’s perception of Islamophobia is critical for understanding their collective response to the problem. Much of the Australian literature, nonetheless, tends to subsume Islamophobia within the dynamics of exclusion/inclusion within a social cohesion paradigm, and primarily through a focus on individuals. This article aims to contribute to the existing literature through a deeper contextual understanding of Australian MCOs’ framing of and engagement with Islamophobia in its various manifestations, in order to better cognize its impact on their agentic capacity. Deploying an expanded theoretical framework of agency structure, this article analyzes 25 interviews with representatives of Victorian MCOs, to explore their perceptions of Islamophobia across multiple domains of power—the social, discursive and the political. MCOs’ perceptions of the problem impact their responding anti-Islamophobia civic–political engagements towards soft grassroots connections and Muslims’ empowerment. In light of the findings, the article points for the need to enhance building inter-community solidarity, utilize supportive institutional multicultural schemes and establish a separate Muslim advocacy organization.

Backgazing: Reverse Time in Modernist Culture

Backgazing: Reverse Time in Modernist Culture

Dismantling of the Dominant European Discourse in the Poetry of Jeanine Leane

Until very recently a marginalised voice in Australian literary studies, Australian Indigenous literature has obtained an important role in the articulation of Indigenous peoples’ political thought, constituting an indictment of white Australian racism, a recuperation of neglected Aboriginal history, and a call for change. Based on the premise that literature can play an important role in both maintaining and disrupting the exercise of power, and written against the backdrop of post-colonial theory, the article deals with the collection of poems Dark Secrets: After Dreaming A.D. 1987-1961 (2010) by the contemporary Australian Indigenous author Jeanine Leane. Taking Leane’s poetry as exemplary of post-colonial textual resistance to colonialist representations, the article shows how the poet, relying on the “transgenerational blood memory” intervenes in the presupposed irreducible division between subjugating and subjugated cultures, that is, the assumptions about whiteness as a static privilege-granting category and a system of dominance upon which the logic of coloniality often stands. I argue that, by mobilising various techniques and strategies to challenge the reproduction of whiteness and affirm Indigenous Australians’ authentic, rather than an imposed cultural personality, Leane’s verse performs both personal and collective empowerment of Indigenous Australians, and represents an important site for the renegotiation of inter-racial relationships.

Books, Films, and Phonographs: Australian Interwar Magazines and the Intermediation of Historical New Media

Using two of Australia’s most prominent quality culture and leisure magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, BP and Home, this article turns to the periodical print culture of the Antipodes to examine the theme of this issue: ‘what was popular’ in the periodical press in the interwar period. These magazines are offered as case studies of the way in which these kinds magazines — which reviewed other forms of culture and media from books to films, theatre, and phonographs — are inherently intermedial forms. Moreover, it advances the idea that cultural values were remarkably unstable in Australia in the interwar years when historical new media, as well as Australian and American literature, were increasingly acceptable cultural pursuits.

The theme of nature in The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1937-2015) is one of the most popular Australian novels in Vietnam, which is mentioned in the curriculum of Australian Studies – a major of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City). In general, the themes which mainly attract readers’ attention are the great love story between Meggie Cleary – a beautiful, tough woman and Ralph de Bricassart – an ambitious Catholic priest, and (or) an inevitable tragedy resulted from the conflict between the love for God and that for man. However, exerting much focus on human relationships in The Thorn Birds makes it hard to see another important “figure” – nature – as well as the relationship between human and nature in the West of Australia, the main setting of the novel where the climate is harsh, unique and sometimes unpredictable. Since the theme of nature accounts for a large content of the novel, The Thorn Birds is likely to be an interesting subject to eco-critical studies. In this paper, from the perspective of ecocriticism, we try to point out how the theme of nature is treated in this novel, including how the figure of nature being depicted, how the human-nature relationship being dealt with and how nature is embracing human life and “telling” human stories. We also indicate the possible connection between literature and daily human life, and between a 1977 Australian novel which tells us the stories of the natural cycle, the bushfires, the imported animals, etc. and the unusual wildfires which occurred in this country at the beginning of the year 2020. In addition, by evaluating as a typical Australian novel from eco-critical perspectives, we hope to introduce a new approach to conduct research on Australian literature at the Department of Australian Studies and for other researches of literature major in the University.

Imagining Colonial Environments: Fire in Australian Children's Literature, 1841–1910

This article examines children's novels and short stories published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that feature bushfires and the ceremonial fires associated with Indigenous Australians. It suggests that British children's novels emphasise the horror of bushfires and the human struggle involved in conquering them. In contrast, Australian-authored children's fictions represent less anthropocentric understandings of the environment. New attitudes toward the environment are made manifest in Australian women's fiction including J. M. Whitfield's ‘The Spirit of the Bushfire’ (1898), Ethel Pedley's Dot and the Kangaroo (1899), Olga D. A. Ernst's ‘The Fire Elves’ (1904), and Amy Eleanor Mack's ‘The Gallant Gum Trees’ (1910). Finally, the article proposes that adult male conquest and control of the environment evident in British fiction is transferred to a child protagonist in Mary Grant Bruce's A Little Bush Maid (1910), dispensing with the long-standing association between the Australian bush and threats to children.

Book explores a stormy relationship between nature and culture

Book explores a stormy relationship between nature and culture Robert Zeller Chrystopher J. Spicer . Cyclone Country: The Language of Place and Disaster in Australian Literature. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020. 202 pp. $49.95. ISBN: 9781476681566 (print), 9781476640501 (ebook) In early February 2011, I read that North Queensland was being hit by Cyclone Yasi, a Category 5 storm. When I got online, the first story I encountered was a report of the devastation suffered by Mission Beach, a town I had visited several times when researching E. J. Banfield's Dunk Island books. I was reminded of those visits and that storm in Chrystopher Spicer's book. Although the subtitle speaks of Australian literature generally, it is mostly a book about North Queensland writing. In the book's early chapters, Spicer sets up his theoretical framework, discussing the relationship between people and place where violent storms can shape both individual psyches and communal experience—tearing communities apart with their passing and bringing them together during the process [End Page 151] of rebuilding. Of course, disastrous storms are not a purely Australian phenomenon, and in the first chapter, Spicer puts his subject in larger historical and geographical contexts. He introduces the concept of terroir as it relates not just to wine: "Literature too can be permeated and characterized by terroir in that the very land on which and in which the literature is created and developed nourishes it and imparts unique qualities to that literature, imbuing it with a sense of place" (27–28). In the second chapter, Spicer discusses the naming of storms, a practice pioneered in Queensland by the meteorologist Clement Wragge in the late nineteenth century. Why, he asks, do we need to assign names to violent weather events? His answer is that "we attempt to seize back some control and to make some sense of it all by establishing a personal relationship to the event, and so we name the storm" (44). Theoretical background established, Spicer moves on to discuss cyclones as they figure in the works of five authors: Vance Palmer, Thea Astley, Patrick White, Susan Hawthorne, and Alexis Wright. Each writer uses the cyclone in somewhat different ways, though a common thread is that the storm provides some kind of revelation to the characters or to the author. Spicer analyzes multiple works by Palmer and Astley, single novels by White and Wright, and a collection of poetry by Hawthorne. He presents detailed, if sometimes repetitive, readings of the works. To me, the most satisfying readings are those of the works by Vance Palmer and Alexis Wright. In the former, Spicer uses the myth criticism of Northrop Frye to analyze how Palmer drew on his own experience of living on Green Island and on the 1934 cyclone that struck North Queensland, in short stories and his novel Cyclone, published in 1947. According to Spicer, Palmer reshaped these events into an apocalyptic narrative: "He wrote not only of tragedy but also of resilience and continuity of community during hard times. He wrote of a search to restore balance in time of disruption, of a search for meaning" (83). And Spicer discusses Wright's Carpentaria in terms of traditions of Indigenous storytelling. He claims that the novel, which begins and ends with cyclones, "embodies cyclic patterns of narrative and meaning" (136). The cyclones, he says, "have purpose, like all the natural elements of this country, and this purpose is to not only punish and destroy but also to transform. The cyclones destroy the old, but they reveal the new" (154). Spicer's discussion of Patrick White's The Eye of the Storm, however, seems less focused and more rambling. While I would not take issue with his thesis about Elizabeth Hunter's epiphany in the novel, he seems to go far afield in his effort to explain that epiphany. As a result, the cyclone itself fades into the background. It provides the still eye in which Hunter found herself on Brumby Island, but that is about the extent of its importance. As I noted earlier, parts of the book seem repetitive, with repeated citations of the same passages. There are also some disconcerting errors, none of them interfering with...

B. Wongar's Literary Work and Life from an Ethnological and Anthropological Perspective

This paper looks at the (auto)biography and literary work of an Australian writer of Serbian descent, B. Wongar/Sreten Božić, viewed from the perspective of ethnology and anthropology. His work is well known to local scholars of literary and cultural studies: for them, Wongar's complex and polysemous oeuvre has long since become a vibrant topic of interpretation and dialogue. An attempt is made here to show how and why this prolific, award-winning and world-renowned author has become a controversial phenomenon in Australian literature. Such a concise retrospective is needed so that readers outside the humanities can gain at least partial insight. The main aim is to highlight those topics in Wongar's fiction and documentary writing that are important from the standpoint of sociocultural anthropology and anthropology of literature: the characteristics of the migrant position and experiences of the dissident writer as a social actor, and the ethnographic-folkloric motivation of the writer's oeuvre.

The role of Australian local governments in creating a healthy food environment: an analysis of policy documents from six Sydney local governments

ObjectiveThis paper examines policies from six local governments (LGs) relevant to promoting a healthy food supply and consumer food environment. MethodsWe analysed the six LGs’ food and nutrition policies against a framework based on Australian literature and international policy frameworks. Policy content was collected by searching LG websites and analysed with reference to recommended policy actions in the framework. ResultsAll LGs took action on reducing food waste, providing food/meal services for disadvantaged groups, and providing information/education on food and nutrition. A sub‐set also supported urban/local food production and markets selling fresh, healthy food. Our search did not identify any indication of a comprehensive policy framework to guide action on food and nutrition, nor did we find policies restricting opening of unhealthy food outlets, encouraging the opening of healthy food outlets, or reducing unhealthy food marketing. ConclusionsLocal governments in Australia are implementing policies to support improved nutrition. However, there are further opportunities for action, including discouraging unhealthy food outlets and restricting unhealthy food marketing. Implications for public healthThe legal remit of LGs includes responsibilities relevant to food and nutrition. Further research is needed regarding how their powers could be better leveraged to improve diet‐related health.

On the Reception of the Myth of Prometheus in Austrian Literature of 19th-20th Centuries

This article focuses its attention on the motive of resistance characteristic of Austrian literature of the 19th - 20th centuries, which is considered from the point of view of the historical and literary relationship with the myth of Prometheus. The history of the issue is reviewed. A selective analysis of the versions of the Promethean myth in the Austrian historical and literary context of the 19th-20th centuries, which is part of the pan-European literary and philosophical heritage, is given. The stylistic and genre originality of Austrian interpretations of the myth of Prometheus is proved on the basis of a study of a number of works. The artistic reception of the image of Prometheus in the poem by Z. Lipiner "Liberated Prometheus", little studied in Russian literary criticism is considered in the article. Attention is paid to the version of the Promethean myth in the literature of Austrian Art Nouveau (on the example of F. Kafka's little prose). The issue of conflicting trends in the development of Austrian literature of the 20th century, affecting the interaction of the motive of resistance with the Promethean myth, is investigated by the example of M. Gruber's essay. The correlation of the Austrian versions of the motive of resistance with the myth of Prometheus is proved. The results of the study confirm the significance of the Promethean myth in the Austrian reception of the 19th-20th centuries, which has more pronounced features of drama and theatricality in relation to the European context.

King Rudolf I in Austrian Literature around 1820: Historical Reversion and Legitimization of Rule

AbstractRudolf von Habsburg was a recurring motif in Austrian literature after the assumption of an Austrian imperial title by Emperor Francis II/I in 1804. These depictions were nourished by an enthusiasm for the Middle Ages circulating at the beginning of the nineteenth century and focused on the House of Habsburg and the establishment of Habsburg rule in Central Europe in the thirteenth century. As the ancestor of the ruling dynasty, Rudolf von Habsburg was idealized as the symbolic figure of identification for a collective state patriotism, a depiction that emphasized the historic mission of the dynasty and the legitimacy of its rule in the recently established empire. To this end, several complementary strategies—including divine providence, feudal approaches, classical genealogies, German-Austrian patriotism, and historical as well as contemporary references—were employed in texts to construct the Habsburg dynasty's claim to power in Central Europe. The past described in the texts, however, had little in common with historical reality but was rather an artificial design to justify Habsburg hegemony in the region.

A Review on the Potential of Forest Biomass for Bioenergy in Australia

The use of forest biomass for bioenergy in Australia represents only 1% of total energy production but is being recognized for having the potential to deliver low-cost and low-emission, renewable energy solutions. This review addresses the potential of forest biomass for bioenergy production in Australia relative to the amount of biomass energy measures available for production, harvest and transport, conversion, distribution and emission. Thirty-Five Australian studies on forest biomass for bioenergy are reviewed and categorized under five hierarchical terms delimiting the level of assessment on the biomass potential. Most of these studies assess the amount of biomass at a production level using measures such as the allometric volume equation and form factor assumptions linked to forest inventory data or applied in-field weighing of samples to predict the theoretical potential of forest biomass across an area or region. However, when estimating the potential of forest biomass for bioenergy production, it is essential to consider the entire supply chain that includes many limitations and reductions on the recovery of the forest biomass from production in the field to distribution to the network. This review reiterated definitions for theoretical, available, technological, economic and environmental biomass potential and identified missing links between them in the Australian literature. There is a need for further research on the forest biomass potential to explore lower cost and lowest net emission solutions as a replacement to fossil resources for energy production in Australia but methods the could provide promising solutions are available and can be applied to address this gap.

Forecasting daily counts of patient presentations in Australian emergency departments using statistical models with time-varying predictors.

This research aimed to (i) assess the effects of time-varying predictors (day of the week, month, year, holiday, temperature) on daily ED presentations and (ii) compare the accuracy of five methods for forecasting ED presentations, including four statistical methods and a machine learning approach. Predictors of ED presentations were assessed using generalised additive models (GAMs), generalised linear models, multiple linear regression models, seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models and random forest. The accuracy of short-term (14 days), mid-term (30 days) and long-term (365 days) forecasts were compared using two measures of forecasting error. The data are the numbers of presentations to public hospital EDs in South-East Queensland, Australia, from 2009 to 2015. ED presentations are largely affected by year of presentation, and to a lesser extent by month, day of the week and holidays. Maximum daily temperature is also a significant predictor of ED presentations. Of the four statistical models considered, the GAM had the greatest forecasting accuracy, and produced consistent and coherent forecasts, likely due to its flexibility in modelling complex time-varying effects. The random forest machine learning approach had the lowest forecasting accuracy, likely due to overfitting the data. Calendar and temperature variables, not previously considered in the Australian literature, were found to significantly impact ED presentations. This study also demonstrates the potential of GAMs as a dual explanatory and forecasting method for the modelling, and more accurate prediction, of ED presentations.

Pig-hunting dogs are an at-risk population for canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) infection in eastern Australia

BackgroundCanine heartworm disease, caused by Dirofilaria immitis, has global veterinary importance. In Australia, the prevalence of canine heartworm infection decreased markedly following the introduction of over-the-counter macrocyclic lactones. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of canine heartworm infection in at-risk populations of dogs in eastern Australia and analyse published prevalence data from Australia.MethodsIn total, 566 dogs from eastern Australia were tested for the presence of D. immitis antigen. Four cohorts were studied: pig-hunting dogs from Queensland (Cohort 1, n = 104), dogs from remote New South Wales (NSW) (Cohort 2, n = 332), urban pets from rural NSW (Cohort 3, n = 45) and ex-racing Greyhounds from Sydney, NSW (Cohort 4, n = 85). Serum samples were screened for D. immitis antigen using a reference laboratory microwell-based assay (DiroChek®) or a point-of-care immunochromatography test kit (Anigen Rapid®). Risk factors associated with the odds of D. immitis antigen seropositivity were identified using binary logistic regression models. Seropositive blood samples were tested for the presence and quantity of D. immitis DNA using a species specific real-time (q)PCR assay. A metanalysis of the Australian canine heartworm literature was conducted.ResultsThe prevalence of dirofilariasis in pig-hunting dogs from Queensland (Cohort 1) was 12.5% (95% CI: 6.5–18.9%), with a subpopulation of dogs from Central Queensland having a prevalence of 21% (95% CI: 12.3–33.4%). Age was significantly associated with D. immitis antigen seropositivity (increased risk with increased age). The odds of being > 5 years versus ≤ 5 years was 3.7-times (95% CI: 1.1–12.5) greater in antigen positive versus antigen negative dogs. No D. immitis antigen positive dogs were detected in dogs from NSW (Cohorts 2–4). The Australian canine heartworm disease literature includes 98 peer-reviewed publications (1901–2019) with 30 studies reporting on D. immitis prevalence in dogs. Throughout the publication peak period (1980s), the primary antemortem diagnostic test was detection of microfilariae.ConclusionsCanine heartworm infection in dogs used for pig hunting is a previously unexplored topic in Australia. Pig-hunting dogs are infected with canine heartworm in Queensland, Australia, placing pet dogs and cats at increased risk of infection.

Gender differences in the Australian undergraduate STEM student experience: a systematic review

ABSTRACT In Australia, the number of female graduates in some science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is as low as 15%. Previous reviews exploring the issues affecting female undergraduate STEM students are primarily based in North America and there is yet to be an Australian focused review. This review identifies the factors contributing to the gendered experience of Australian undergraduate STEM students. A systematic review was conducted in November – December 2018 using ERIC, PsycInfo, ProQuest and Scopus databases. From this review, 36 papers that focus on gender differences and university STEM students in Australia were identified. The Australian research suggests the most prominent issue for female STEM students is their lower self-efficacy. Gendered preferences for learning, gendered motivations to pursue STEM degrees, the masculine culture of these fields and gender differences in science identity were also themes identified through the review. This review indicates some gaps in the Australian literature, namely that identity, and other emotional factors, are understudied in the Australian context and an avenue for future research. The findings suggest that science educators should be aware of the gendered experiences of their students to ensure female persistence in university STEM degrees.

Rethinking of the Legacy of the Second World War in Austrian Literature of the End of the 20th Century

Rethinking of the Legacy of the Second World War in Austrian Literature of the End of the 20th Century

Performance Evaluation of Stormwater Management Systems and Its Impact on Development Costing

The contribution of this paper is a comparison of the installation cost of a conventional drainage system consisting of a network of pits and pipes, with that of a hybrid drainage system comprising a network of pits and pipes, supported by allotment scale infiltration measures in a modern greenfield residential development. The case study site is located in Pipers Crest, near Strathalbyn, South Australia. This as-built site consists of 56 allotments, 42 pits (hence 42 sub-catchments), one detention basin and over 1000 m of drainage pipes. In this study, conventional and hybrid (combination of conventional and Water Sensitive Urban Design, WSUD systems) drainage systems were designed to convey minor storm events of 10% annual exceedance probability (AEP), and checked for major storm events of 5% AEP, using the DRAINS model and/or source control principles. The installation costs of the conventional and hybrid drainage systems were estimated and compared based upon cost estimates derived from Australian literature. The results of the study indicate that satisfactory drainage was possible using the conventional or hybrid system when the two systems were designed to have outflow not exceeding the pre-developed flow. The hybrid drainage system requires smaller pipe sizes compared to the conventional system. Also, the size of the detention basin and maximum outflow rate of the hybrid system were smaller than those for the conventionally drained site. The installation cost of the hybrid drainage system was 18% less than that of the conventional drainage system when the objective was to accommodate 10% and 5% AEP storms.

Laughing at or laughing with? – Ted Dyson’s humorous treatment of Australian Goldfields Chinese

Humour directed at immigrants can be ambiguous in intention and tends to reduce tension and suspicion rather than to inflame racism. Joking and humour directed at foreigners has been widely collected and studied. As Christie Davies has argued, nationalism or bigotry are not the ruling characteristics; rather, the temper of the humour largely depends on context and delivery and cannot be gauged simply from the written text. “Sketches of life on the Australian goldfields” by Ted Dyson (1865-1931) include humorous stories about Chinese diggers that contrast with other writers’ anti-Chinese racist postings in the Australian periodical, ‘The Bulletin’. The well-referenced survey by Ouyang Yu of the treatment of Chinese in Australian literature focussed on ethnocentrism and anti-Chinese sentiment, but Dyson’s stories do not belong in this category of works. Dyson aimed to ameliorate antipathy and to arouse empathy with ‘the other’. His humorous descriptions of Chinese worked to establish some respect and kindred feeling with Chinese people and their culture, forming a kind of middle ground in race relations.

Exploring the incidence of culturally responsive communication in Australian healthcare: the first rapid review on this concept

BackgroundIncreasing diversity in Australia requires healthcare practitioners to consider the cultural, linguistic, religious, sexual and racial/ethnic characteristics of service users as integral components of healthcare delivery. This highlights the need for culturally appropriate communication and care. Indeed the Australian Government in various policies mandates culturally responsive communication. Therefore this paper aims to provide a brief overview of Australian healthcare literature exploring the components; prevalence and effects of this style of communication in healthcare.MethodsA rapid review was conducted using the knowledge to action evidence summary approach. Articles included in the review were those reporting on the components, prevalence and outcomes of culturally responsive communication in Australian healthcare, published in English between 2008 and 2018. Articles were reviewed using reliable critical appraisal procedures.ResultsTwenty- six articles were included in the final review (23 qualitative studies; 2 systematic reviews; 1 mixed methods study). The literature indicates knowledge of the positive effects of culturally responsive communication in healthcare. It also highlights the disparity between the perceptions of healthcare practitioners and services users over the existence and components of culturally responsive communication in healthcare. The review identified a limited use of this style of communication, but rather a focus on barriers to culturally appropriate care, lacking an awareness of the importance of culturally responsive communication in this care.ConclusionWhile literature suggests the importance and positive effects of culturally responsive communication, evidence suggests inconsistent implementation of this style of communication within Australian healthcare settings. This has implications for the outcomes of healthcare for the diverse population in Australia.