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Background: As a complementary teaching pedagogy, high‐fidelity simulation remains as an effective form of simulation modality. Empirical evidence has additionally shown high‐fidelity simulation (HFS) to be an effective contributor to students' learning outcomes. Purpose: This paper critically appraised existing scientific articles that covered the influence of utilizing HFS on the effects of nursing students' anxiety and self‐confidence during undergraduate nursing education. Methods: This was a systematic review of scientific articles conducted from 2007 to 2017 on the topic of the influence of using HFS on students' self‐confidence and anxiety. The literature of six electronic databases (Proquest, SCOPUS, MEDLINE, PubMed Central, CINAHL, and PsychINFO) was reviewed. Results: Following the literature search, 35 articles were selected. This review provides updated evidence on the efficacy of HFS in reducing anxiety and enhancing self‐confidence among nursing students when performing nursing duties or managing patients. Moreover, this review highlights the need for more research that examines the impact of HFS on students' anxiety. Conclusion: As this form of simulation is found to be effective in the enhancement of nursing student self‐confidence and the reduction of their anxiety when caring for patients and/or employing nursing skills, the inclusion of simulation‐based activities in all clinical nursing courses is vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overall satisfaction levels with social care are usually high but lower levels have been reported among black and minority ethnic ( BME) service users in England. Reasons for this are poorly understood. This qualitative study therefore explored satisfaction with services among informal carer participants from five different ethnic groups. Fifty-seven carers (black Caribbean, black African, Asian Indian, Asian Pakistani and white British) were recruited from voluntary sector organisations and a local hospital in England, and took part in semi-structured interviews using cognitive interviewing and the critical incident technique. Interviews took place from summer 2013 to spring 2014. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed that participants often struggled to identify specific 'incidents', especially satisfactory ones. When describing satisfactory services, participants talked mostly about specific individuals and relationships. Unsatisfactory experiences centred on services overall. When rating services using cognitive interviewing, explicit comparisons with expectations or experiences with other services were common. Highest satisfaction ratings tended to be justified by positive personal characteristics among practitioners, trust and relationships. Lower level ratings were mostly explained by inconsistency in services, insufficient or poor care. Lowest level ratings were rare. Overall, few differences between ethnic groups were identified, although white British participants rated services higher overall giving more top ratings. White British participants also frequently took a more overall view of services, highlighting some concerns but still giving top ratings, while South Asian carers in particular focused on negative aspects of services. Together these methods provide insight into what participants mean by satisfactory and unsatisfactory services. Cognitive interviewing was more challenging for some BME participants, possibly a reflection of the meaningfulness of the concept of service satisfaction to them. Future research should include comparisons between BME and white participants' understanding of the most positive parts of satisfaction scales and should focus on dissatisfied participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts the process of undertaking a randomised controlled trial which was designed to examine the effectiveness of an intervention for socially isolated older people aged 75 years and over. It describes the reasons for early cessation of the study and raises the implications of this outcome for policy, practice and research. The intervention under investigation was designed to alleviate loneliness and foster companionship. It involves participants being linked with a small group of others through a teleconferencing system with each group being facilitated by trained volunteers. There was a requirement to recruit and train a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 60 volunteers over 1 year to facilitate 20 friendship groups to meet the number of older people required to be recruited to the study. Problems with recruiting and retaining the volunteer workforce by the voluntary sector organisation, who were commissioned to do so, led to the study closing even though older people were recruited in sufficient numbers. The paper draws upon analysis of various data sources from the study to identify the potential reasons. The discussion raises considerations regarding the extent of infrastructure required to deliver community services to vulnerable user groups at scale, identifies some of the issues that need to be addressed if such volunteer-initiated services are to be successful and informs future research programmes in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited knowledge on the relationship between the living conditions of community-dwelling older people and their quality of life (QOL) considered in all its specific domains. The purpose of this study was to determine (1) which dimensions of QOL were independently associated with living alone and (2) the independent correlates of these dimensions of QOL amongst older outpatients. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 239 community-dwelling outpatients aged 65+ (mean age 81.5 years) consecutively referred to a geriatric medicine clinic in Italy between June and November 2009 (response rate 93%). Subjects underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment including QOL, which was evaluated by using the Older People's QOL questionnaire. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, living alone was associated with the lowest score-based tertile of two specific dimensions of QOL out of seven, namely 'social relationships and participation' [odds ratio (OR) 2.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08-6.91] and 'home and neighbourhood' (OR 4.96, 95% CI 1.75-14.07), independently of the main demographic, social, functional and clinical characteristics of the subjects. Amongst the 107 subjects living alone, independent correlates of these dimensions of QOL were depression, having no caregiver and having never been married. Depression, having no caregiver and having never been married could provide a valuable means of identifying older people living alone who are at greater risk of a poor QOL and who would most benefit from effective social and medical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]