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The author shares insights on the retention of nurses with the National Health Service (NHS) England and the call for employers to provide nursing staff with an increase in pay to help build the workforce and avoid problems in recruitment.

The article highlights the success and challenges facing nurses under the National Health Service in Great Britain including the award received by periodical editor/nurse Debbie Brown and the impact of junior doctors' strike.

The article discusses the significance of the decision of the Department of Health and Social Care to increase by six percent the wages of nurses employed by general practice surgeries under the National Health Service in November 2023 in England.

The author reflects on the need to support whistleblowers to encourage them and help prevent future crimes and tragedies in the United Kingdom (UK) like the killing of children by nurse Lucy Letby.

The author reflects on the plight of nurses in the United Kingdom (UK) and their efforts to negotiate better pay and working conditions like taking up industrial action.

BackgroundAccurate quantification of pain in a clinical setting is vital. The use of an electronic pain scale enables data to be collected, analyzed, and utilized much faster compared with traditional paper-based scales. The advancement of smart technology in pediatric and adult pain evaluation may offer opportunities to introduce easy-to-use and reliable pain assessment methods within different clinical settings. If promptly introduced within different pediatric and adult pain clinic services, validated and easily accessible mobile health pain apps may lead to early pain detection, promoting improvement in patient’s quality of life and leading to potentially less time off from school or work. ObjectiveThis cross-sectional observational study aimed to investigate the interchangeability of an electronic visual analog scale (eVAS) app with a traditional paper visual analog scale (pVAS) among Australian children, adolescents, and adults for pain evaluation. MethodsHealthy participants (age range 10-75 years) were recruited from a sporting club and a secondary school in Melbourne (Australia). The data collection process involved application of pressure (8.5 kg/cm2) from a Wagner Force Dial FDK 20 to the midpoint of the thumb. The pressure was applied twice with a 5-minute interval. At each pressure application, participants were asked to randomly record their pain perception using the “eVAS” accessible via the “Interactive Clinics” app and the traditional pVAS. Statistical analysis was conducted to determine intermethod and intramethod reliabilities. ResultsOverall, 109 healthy participants were recruited. Adults (mean age 42.43 years, SD 14.50 years) had excellent reliability, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.94 (95% CI 0.91-0.96). Children and adolescents (mean age 13.91 years, SD 2.89 years) had moderate-to-good intermethod and intramethod reliabilities, with an ICC of 0.80 (95% CI 0.70-0.87) and average ICC of 0.80 (95% CI 0.69-0.87), respectively. ConclusionsThe eVAS app appears to be interchangeable compared with the traditional pVAS among children, adolescents, and adults. This pain evaluation method may offer new opportunities to introduce user-friendly and validated pain assessment apps for patients, clinicians, and allied health professionals.

The article discusses the report which focuses on the effects of the Care Bill in Great Britain. It reveals that spending on social care services for elderly has dropped by 769 million British pounds since 2010. Topics discussed include concerns on funding cuts, its impact on orders placed for specialist equipment such as wheelchairs and that older people deemed in "moderate" need are more likely to be affected by the cuts than those in "critical" and "substantial" need.