Epicardial pacing wires after cardiac surgery: an Irish cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the insertion, use, duration and complications of epicardial pacing wires following cardiac surgery in a cohort of patients in Ireland. The overall aim of the...

How to undertake a literature search: enhancing your search

Before thinking about other resources, do beware of bias in your results. Three areas of possible bias are database bias, time-lag bias and publication bias. Database bias means relying too much on...

Healthcare regulators' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

On 16 March 2020, the CQC declared that it was going to suspend routine hospital inspections and commence a new and different phase of its regulatory activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic....

COVID-19 safety in maternity care: lessons for the whole NHS

More than a fifth of birthing centres and more than a third of homebirth services have been closed due to midwifery shortages (Summers, 2020), and there are concerns about how quickly ambulances can...

Looking beyond the coronavirus: lessons and principles

Some fundamental public health lessons have been lost on generations born in the second half of the 20th century and in the early part of this one. These include neglecting to wash hands, washing them...

From staff nurse to nurse consultant: Survival Guide part 11: Surviving self-doubt

Open visiting in the NHS

Peripheral intravenous cannulation: reducing pain and local complications

Although peripheral IV cannulation has been part of the scope of professional practice for registered nurses and appropriately trained support workers, such as healthcare assistants and assistant...

Medical adhesive-related skin injuries associated with vascular access: minimising risk with Appeel Sterile

An 80-year-old woman had septic arthritis (Figure 2). She had a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and type II diabetes. She was an inpatient receiving intravenous antibiotics and...

Universal adhesive vascular access securement with Grip-Lok devices

The Grip-Lok range of catheter securement devices are available in a range of sizes and configurations so can be used universally. The devices secure IV catheters reliably, which minimises...

Improving patient safety

Central venous catheter infection in Canadian home parenteral nutrition patients: a 5-year multicenter retrospective study

This observational study was based on a 5-year retrospective chart review of adult patients participating in the Canadian HPN Registry between 2005 and 2009 from 3 HPN programs in 3 provinces...