Search

A well-educated and trained workforce is undoubtedly crucial to the development of quality care for people with learning disabilities. Notwithstanding this, and unsure as to the need to continue to commission educational programmes for one part of this workforce--pre-registration learning disability nursing--South Central Strategic Health Authority commissioned the Valued People Project to undertake a detailed strategic review of educational commissioning, along with a review of the specialist learning disability health workforce more generally. This project has recently been completed, and provides a unique evidence-based expert evaluation of the future strategic direction of education commissioning and leadership for workforce issues in specialist learning disability services, as well as the wider NHS workforce. This is the first in a series of articles that reports on one aspect of the project: the focus group work undertaken with parents and relatives of people with learning disabilities, and people with learning disabilities themselves, as to the need and type of health workforce needed to support them in the future. The article concludes by identifying the key messages of importance from parents and people with learning disabilities concerning the future specialist and wider NHS workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic value of community nursing is not well understood, meaning it can be a challenge to make the case for investment in the service. The breadth of the service is so vast that it can be difficult to define all the activity and measure the outcomes achieved, which is essential to assess value. A roundtable, hosted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association, considered the challenge of measuring economic value in community nursing, to identify where further work is needed. Community nursing has a key role to play in the development of integrated care systems, as it demonstrates the integration of services at a patient level. Assessment of value needs to recognise the part that the service should play in an integrated care system. However, investment and cultural change is needed within community nursing to ensure activity data is recorded accurately to enable value to be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student midwives have to complete a demanding programme to become a midwife, and therefore it is questioned whether they need resilience to be successful. The study's aims were to explore whether resilience developed in one cohort of 25 undergraduate student midwives and what the concept of resilience meant to them. This study adopted a longitudinal case study approach in one Higher Education Institution in England during the first 18 months of their programme. The study used Wagnild and Young's (1993) (updated 2015) True Resilience Scale©, administered on three occasions. Additionally, four focus groups were conducted twice and six participants were involved in one-to-one interviews to explore issues raised in the focus group. SPSS Pairwise comparisons revealed that there were significant differences in True Resilience Scale© scores between the first and the second completion (p=0.034), and time one and time three (p=0.002); there were no significant differences between time two and time three (p=1.0). In this cohort of student midwives, the scale showed that the majority had developed their resilience during the study and this was supported in what the students reported. A conceptual model, which defines resilience for student midwives, is presented to strengthen how resilience can be supported and developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To the detriment of patient safety, the important clinical competency of aseptic technique has been notoriously variable in practice, and described ambiguously in the literature, internationally. From a UK perspective, attempts have been made to improve patient safety by reducing variability and improving education and practice through standardisation. The Welsh Government mandated Aseptic Non Touch Technique (ANTT®) as a specific national standard in 2015. All healthcare organisations in England are required by the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to have a single standard aseptic technique, demonstrable by the clinical governance indicators of education, training, competency assessment and compliance audit. In Scotland, an education-based initiative was launched by NHS Education for Scotland in 2012. To review the impact of these and other initiatives on the current status of aseptic technique, all NHS trusts in England and NHS health boards in Scotland were assessed under the Freedom of Information procedure. Findings: 93% of NHS trusts in England use a single standard for aseptic technique. In 88% of these trusts the single standard was stipulated as being ANTT. In Scotland, 62% of NHS acute and community care hospitals within health boards use a single standard. In 56% of these, the single standard was ANTT. When including those that use ANTT in combination with other techniques ANTT usage is 73%. Conclusion: These data demonstrate significant progress in standardising aseptic technique education, assessment and governance, and confirms ANTT as the de facto aseptic technique used in NHS trusts in England and health boards in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: people with alcohol-related liver disease require complex treatment plans that often include the need for medication for the rest of their lives. Between 30% and 50% of all patients do not take their treatment as prescribed, leading to a significantly increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Aim: to consider the factors which influence beliefs held by patients with alcohol-related liver disease about their medication to provide an evidence base to support interventions to reduce medication non-adherence. Method: an observational cross-sectional patient survey. Results: statistically significant associations were found between positive attitudes towards medication and the illness representation dimensions of ‘illness identity’ and ‘illness comprehension’. Conclusions: medication adherence in patients with alcohol-related liver disease is likely to be improved by an intervention that strives to improve the patient's understanding of their illness condition and their perception of their illness symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prescribing for diabetes has increased in recent years. Here, George Winter discusses the potential role of a low-carbohydrate diet in type 2 diabetes control [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]