Peter McIlveen

This study examined the perspectives of post-retirement age individuals with respect to their career adaptability, generativity, and interest in mentoring. Two research questions guided the inquiry: How are career adaptability, generativity, and interest in mentoring expressed by post-retirement age citizens? What factors influence interest in mentoring? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 participants (13 women, 17 men) aged 65 to 89 years, representing diverse career backgrounds including technical trades, education, agriculture, public service, community work, and business. Reflexive Thematic Analysis generated six themes: Adaptability, Social Relevance, Workforce Benefit, Prosocial Behaviours, Meaningful Work, and Negative Self. Themes and codes were conceptually organised as a circumplex model with career adaptability at its core. The research demonstrates that retirement is not inevitable disengagement, stagnation, and despair. Instead, generativity and integrity may emerge through career adaptability. Future research could further examine the qualities of generative post-retirement age mentors and their mentoring engagement.

Career identity is a critical developmental outcome for university students transitioning from education to employment. This study examines the relations among dispositional employability, career adaptability, job search self-efficacy, and the career identity of Australian undergraduate health science students. Participants were 1,236 first-year non-vocational health science students who completed a survey embedded within a curriculum-based career development module. Multinomial logistic regression tested if dispositional employability, career adaptability, and job search self-efficacy were significantly associated with four career identity statuses: diffused, moratorium, foreclosed, and achieved. Results demonstrated that career motivation and optimism were strongly associated with career identity. Distinct patterns emerged between trait and state optimism. Job search self-efficacy also showed meaningful associations with career identity. Career agency was particularly important for students experiencing career identity uncertainty, supporting adaptation and exploration. We advance career identity research by highlighting the importance of psychosocial resources and informing targeted career development interventions within university curricula.

Aim: To evaluate the relationship between the Bröset Violence Checklist and additional risk factors identified in prior research by our team to determine which combination best predicted an emergency response to a violent incident in an emergency department. Design: A prospective observational study was used to collect data about a single cohort of adult patients admitted in August 2024. Method: Nurses who use the Bröset Violence Checklist as part of routine observations scored eight additional violence indicators and recorded security incidents. Results: Data from 5634 observations, 1762 patients, and 68 emergency incidents was analysed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics to evaluate the relationship between factors and incidents. Seven factors correlated significantly with violence ( p < 0.05). Three factors (verbal threats, physical threats, and attacking objects) were excluded as they represent manifestations of violence rather than predictive indicators. Receiver Operating Characteristics analysis of the combination of the remaining four factors (history of violence, drug and/or alcohol influence, agitation/restlessness, and imposed restrictions) revealed an Area Under the Curve of 0.98. Conclusion: The findings were integrated to develop a revised instrument—the Aggression and Violence Evaluation of Risk Tool. This new tool demonstrates equivalent predictive capability to the Bröset Violence Checklist, yet it is simpler and easier to use. Impact: Context‐specific violence assessment schemes are needed to strengthen risk mitigation strategies. The Aggression and Violence Evaluation of Risk Tool incorporates unique situational risks developed specifically for emergency departments. It has the potential to effectively ameliorate violence risk and enhance worker and patient safety. Reporting Method: STROBE has been followed. Implications: The findings produced an instrument that can be translated to emergency departments to reduce the prevalence of violence. Patient or Public Contribution: Limited patient and public involvement comprising observations of adult patients in an emergency department in Melbourne, Australia.

This conceptual paper explores the psychological dimensions of agricultural work. Agriculture is a cornerstone of human civilisation and a critical domain for achieving global sustainability. Multiple sectors in agriculture's diverse value chain face challenges related to climate change, labour shortages, supply chains and transport, production and storage, and technological transformation. Psychology, particularly vocational psychology and career development, offers valuable theoretical and empirical insights and interventions for individuals’ career development and the industry's workforce development. The paper includes examples from a program of research and development pertaining to aspects of agriculture including on-farm labouring work, mechanical and machinery work, technology adoption, and career education. We propose an agenda for advancing psychological theory, research, and practice for better understanding and enhancing career development in and for agriculture.

This study is an investigation into non-cognitive factors associated with rural and remote teaching practice. Whilst there is a substantial workforce of committed teaching professionals thriving in both their work and personal lives beyond the classroom, preparing and retaining teachers in rural and remote contexts remains a persistent challenge. We report the findings of a study of twenty current rural and remote early in-service teachers which explored their experiences of residing and working in rural and remote settings. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts generated eight substantive themes related to the participants’ work and lives: career decision-making, dispositional traits, university learning experiences, the importance of relationships, confidence in classroom practices, appraisals about rural and remote teaching, connection to place, and thriving. The findings of this study contribute additional evidence of the non-cognitive attributes in relation to Social Cognitive Career Theory required by early in-service teachers to thrive in these distinct and different contexts and reveals implications for pre-service teacher programs to ensure adequate preparation for rural and remote teaching practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on all sectors of education globally, but the full extent of that impact is yet to be understood. To build our understanding of the effects of the pandemic and its associated lockdowns on educators, this study set out to examine educators perceived self-efficacy, work engagement and mental health during the period when classes were transitioned to an online, away-from-school or off-campus mode of delivery. Data were collected through an online survey, distributed via social media and a snowball approach. The study found that the levels of self-efficacy, work engagement and mental health during on-line and remote work differed between educational sectors and between genders. The paper concludes by considering implications for educational institutions in times of crisis.

Purpose: Our goal was to empirically evaluate what topics can be discerned in employability scholarship. We sought to illustrate the diverse specialised expert knowledge across the full multidisciplinary breadth of employability literature, not only in the two predominant fields of graduate employability and career development.Design/methodology/approach: Structural topic modelling, an unsupervised statistical method that helps discern latent topics in a corpus of texts, analysed the abstracts of 7,591 journal articles on employability. Exploratory analysis showed that the 11-topic model offered the highest number of distinct and meaningful topics.Findings: The 11 topics within the field of employability reflect research in a range of scholarly disciplines. We summarise the content of each topic and visualise the topic profiles of top journal articles, journals and authors.Research limitations/implications: Recent calls for greater integration between graduate employability and career development scholarships are warranted. But this study demonstrates that employability is studied in a much broader range of disciplines than just those two. Therefore, we argue that future scholarship should foster the advancement and application of research insights across the full breadth of disciplines, education and training systems and socio-cultural contexts. By doing so, the often-noted fragmentation and fuzziness in the employability literature will begin to be addressed.Originality/value: Existing reviews of employability research have been grounded in a particular scholarly discipline. In contrast, we adopt an inductive approach, surveying the literature through the widest possible lens, free from disciplinary biases and assumptions.

Aim: This study explores emergency nurses’ lived experiences of cognitive mental workload (CMW) within high‐pressure, resource‐limited environments, where excessive mental demands may compromise both clinician well‐being and care delivery. Method: An exploratory qualitative research design was used with registered nurses ( n = 10) working in Australian rural emergency departments. Online semistructured interviews were conducted in 2023. The collected data were analysed using reflective thematic analysis. Results: The data analysis revealed four primary contributors of high CMW among nurses during care delivery, namely, external demands, excessive cognitive processing, emotional demands and individual characteristics. Despite challenges in describing the phenomenon, participants clearly associated their high CMW to adverse patient outcomes like patient harm and near misses as well as negative impacts on their own welfare, such as burnout, compassion fatigue and intention to leave profession. Conclusion: This study offers new perspectives on emergency nurses’ CMW experiences, foregrounding their lived experience in high pressure, emotionally charged and dynamic clinical settings. By giving voices to the often overlooked phenomenon in nursing, it has revealed the critical impact of the health professional’s CMW on their well‐being, patient safety and care quality. Implications for the Profession and Patient Care: In depth knowledge about the phenomenon can inform tailored measurement tools and targeted strategies for nurses, to reduce errors and enhance care delivery. Impact: Policymakers can integrate the insights to strengthen healthcare infrastructure and policies that reduce error‐related patient harm and support nurse well‐being for reducing resource and financial expenditure.