From staff nurse to nurse consultant

Continuing professional development, keeping updated, attending a course, writing an assignment, being mentored by a specialist practitioner are all straightforward, logical and, if we are honest with...

Respecting clinical skills

‘Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell and know that by practice alone you can become expert.’ .

A matter of confidentiality

Risk factors for the development of oedema and lymphoedema

The appearance of oedema is a symptom of an underlying medical condition. The cause is therefore associated with the patient's medical diagnosis or, in the case of cancer-related lymphoedema,...

Initiatives and evaluations: the life of a lymphoedema researcher

This body of work started with a service evaluation of the entire Wales-wide network. The results of this study showed that the service had brought considerable cost savings and efficiencies across...

Intermediate life support for the adult

Up to 80% of patients suffering cardiac arrest display evidence of deterioration in the hours before arrest; once a cardiac arrest occurs, even in the hospital environment, fewer than 20% of patients...

Working within a spiritual framework

Although spirituality and religion are closely linked, they are not the same. Spirituality can be viewed and understood as:.

Carrying out a holistic assessment of a patient with constipation

There is no pathological cause for primary constipation (Royal College of Nursing (RCN), 2012; Dougherty and Lister, 2015). Factors that lead to the development of primary constipation are extrinsic...

Limitations of track and trigger systems and the National Early Warning Score. Part 3: cultural and behavioural factors

As in any robust discussion, it is important to appraise the available evidence. A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) (2005), A Safer Place for Patients, indicated that there are 34 000...

Control of a multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii outbreak

Key dates in the outbreak are shown in Figure 1. The outbreak lasted 9 months from April 2015 to January 2016 and was declared closed on 12 January 2016. However, a further two cases were identified...

Are mentors failing to fail underperforming student nurses? An integrative literature review

‘Broad clusters of general attributes which are considered essential for effective performance.’ .

Government plans to reduce death by suicide in England

With 4500 suicides each year in England, this equates approximately to one person dying every 2 hours as a result of suicide. When someone is so emotionally troubled as to take their own life, the...