Dr Vanessa Bowden

© 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health Objectives The 2014¿15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa highlighted the challenges many hospitals face when preparing for the potential emergence of highly contagious diseases. This study examined the experiences of frontline health care professionals in an Australian hospital during the outbreak, with a focus on participant views on information, training and preparedness, to inform future outbreak preparedness planning. Study design Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 healthcare professionals involved in Ebola preparedness planning, at a hospital in Australia. Methods The data were systematically coded to discover key themes in participants' accounts of Ebola preparedness. Results Three key themes identified were: 1) the impact of high volumes of¿often inconsistent¿information, which shaped participants' trust in authority; 2) barriers to engagement in training, including the perceived relative risk Ebola presented; and finally, 3) practical and environmental impediments to preparedness. Conclusions These clinicians' accounts of Ebola preparedness reveal a range of important factors which may influence the relative success of outbreak preparedness and provide guidance for future responses. In particular, they illustrate the critical importance of clear communication and guidelines for staff engagement with, and implementation of training. An important outcome of this study was how individual assessments of risk and trust are produced via, and overlap with, the dynamics of communication, training and environmental logistics. Consideration of the dynamic ways in which these issues intersect is crucial for fostering an environment that is suitable for managing an infectious threat such as Ebola.

© The Author(s) 2016. Social science scholarship on cancer has been almost exclusively focused on Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, despite a significant epidemiological transition taking place in many non OECD contexts, with cancer emerging as a prominent, and strongly feared, illness experience. With cancer gaining an increasingly high profile in India, there is an urgent need to explore how experiences of cancer may be socially and culturally embedded, and in turn, how localized practices may shape the therapeutic encounter. Here, drawing on interviews with 40 people living with cancer in Hyderabad, India, we focus on some specific components of their therapeutic journeys, including diagnostic and prognostic disclosure, collective versus individual decision making, the dynamics of medical authority, and the reception of cancer within their social milieu. These participants' accounts provide insight into a range of cultural sensibilities around illness and care, and reinforce the importance of understanding the cultural inflections of communication, decisions, and illness experiences.

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Aim: Medical consultations focused on managing the transition to palliative care are interpersonally challenging and require high levels of communicative competence. In the context of non-English speaking patients, communication challenges are further complicated due to the requirement of interpreting; a process with the potential to add intense layers of complexity in the clinical encounter, such as misunderstanding, misrepresentation and power imbalances. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of professional interpreters in supporting the transition of culturally and linguistically diverse patients to specialist palliative care. Methods: Qualitative, semistructured interviews with 20 professional interpreters working in oncology and palliative care settings in two metropolitan hospitals in Queensland, Australia. Results: Four key themes emerged from the thematic analysis: the challenges of translating the meaning of ¿palliative care¿; managing interpreting in the presence of family care-givers; communicating and expressing sensitivity while remaining professional and interpreters¿ own emotional burden of difficult clinic encounters between doctor and patient negotiations. Conclusion: The results suggest that interpreters face a range of often concealed interpersonal and interprofessional challenges and recognition of such dynamics will help provide necessary support for these key stakeholders in the transition to palliative care. Enriched understanding of interpreters¿ experiences has clinical implications on improving how health professionals interact and work with interpreters in this sensitive setting.