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ObjectiveTo test feasibility of a systematic approach to routine screening and response for intimate partner violence among women presenting to three New South Wales EDs.MethodsThis prospective feasibility study was conducted over 6 months in two rural and one major tertiary metropolitan ED in New South Wales. Women aged 16–45 years triaged category 3–5 (treat within 30 min/1 h/2 h), who could be approached privately, were screened for intimate partner violence using the validated HITS (Hurts, Insults, Threatens and Screams or Swears) tool. The follow‐up protocol for patients who disclosed abuse, specified a social work/psychology (psychosocial) response within 1 h. Outcomes of interest were screening rates of eligible presentations, disclosures of abuse, psycho‐social referral and responses. Interviews conducted with ED medical directors and nurse unit managers at each site explored barriers and facilitators.ResultsA total of 1047 women (11.4% of eligible presentations) completed screening at their first or subsequent presentation. Of 868 women screened on first presentation, 18% (n = 154) disclosed intimate partner violence, with no significant differences by age group, country of birth, triage category or time/day of arrival. Key barriers to screening were high patient volume, absence of electronic prompts and lack of privacy. Of those who screened positive 49% (n = 75) received an immediate, on‐site psycho‐social response.ConclusionThe present study demonstrates that it is both possible and relevant, given the 18% disclosure rate, to screen women in relation intimate partner violence in EDs and provide a psycho‐social response within 1 h. More needs to be done to address barriers to screening to provide opportunities for early intervention.

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The major problem of furrow irrigation systems is their low efficiency resulting from weakness in design and irrigation management. Flow rate, furrow length and cutoff time are the most important furrow irrigation design parameters that affect efficiency and irrigation management. Therefore, in this paper, it is attempted to provide optimal values of these parameters by optimizing them in a simulation-optimization framework. This is a combination of FURDEV (a module of SURDEV) and AMALGAM as a multi-objective optimization algorithm developed in MATLAB. Here, maximizing the application and the water requirement (storage) efficiencies and minimizing the percolation and tail water ratios simultaneously were considered as the objectives. This framework was used for five open-ended furrow irrigations with corn yield and loam soil texture. The results showed that the increase of 0 to 40.5% in the flow rate, from 23.2 to 66.9% during the furrow and 18.9% up to 11.9% at the cutoff time, caused the application efficiency to increase by between 13.8 and 44.9%. Also, the water requirement efficiency increased by 14.2-76.8%, and the tail water ratio decreased significantly. It is shown that this framework plays an effective role in improving irrigation efficiency.

Aim To describe and synthesize evidence for champions of domestic violence practice improvement in health care and highlight implications for leadership and nurse management. Background Globally, health care leaders have been tasked with improving service responses to domestic violence. Evidencing the role of champions, and how managers may harness champions in improving responses to domestic violence, is an important factor in successfully leading change in this field. Evaluation A scoping review was conducted using four electronic databases (Proquest, PubMed, Medline and PsycINFO). Key issues Eleven studies were included. Champion characteristics, roles, and factors influencing their impact were distilled. Barriers to the success of champions were identified as were four aspects of the champion role: mentor and expert advice; communication and engagement; strategic advocacy, coordination and project leadership; personal and emotional support. Conclusions The review highlighted that champions involved in domestic violence project implementation have unique aspect to their role, along with characteristics reported in the broader champion literature. As an emerging field, there is evidence that domestic violence champions play an important role in mentoring and supporting health care workers to effectively change their practice. Implications for nursing management Nurse managers and leaders need to understand the champion construct and the roles that champions enact to generate domestic violence and abuse system and practice change. Further research is required to provide guidance.