Be careful about what you wish for in NHS patient safety reform

‘Patients struggle to navigate the complaints system and it may take some time to find the correct organisation to complain to.’ .

Residual liberty and the detained mental health patient

In AM v South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and The Secretary of State for Health [2013], Justice Charles held that the Mental Capacity Act 2005 could be used to treat a physical condition...

The needs of newly qualified nurses

Challenges ahead

Happy New Year! This is an election year: I wonder what it will bring? The world of tissue viability faces many challenges and questions. Finances will remain a big challenge, whatever the outcome of...

Current practices using cellular, acelluar and matrix-like products (CAMPs)

The term skin substitutes can be misleading in that these products do not fully replace the integumentum when applied, but most do replicate some properties of normal skin and are thus an important...

A narrative review of patients' lived experience of having a pressure injury

A person's lived experience of pressure injuries is a complex phenomenon that refers to an individual's personal and subjective experience (Prosek and Gibson, 2021). According to NHS England (2023),...

Assessment of diabetic foot ulcers: back to basics

The risk of developing a DFU is influenced by both individual patient characteristics and specific foot-related factors (Table 2). A foot categorised as ‘at risk’ necessitates increased levels of...

Wound care in hard-to-reach populations: rough sleepers

‘People sleeping, about to bed down (sitting on/in or standing next to their bedding) or actually bedded down in the open air (such as on the streets, in tents, doorways, parks, bus shelters or...

Smoking: a call to action

The UK government has set an ambitious goal to make England smoke-free by 2030. This goal is to reduce the smoking rate to below 5% (Hopkinson, 2020). Scotland set a similar target for 2034 (Lewis,...

ASPIRE: a beacon of innovation

‘I made it my ambition to be accepted onto the programme and fortunately my manager supported me wholeheartedly. The tutors on the course are lovely and the combination of their backing and the work...

Women's experiences of assessment for urinary incontinence: a qualitative study

Upon analysis, three themes were identified that described the women's experience of the UI assessment: a lot of shame and worry related to UI and the assessment; the importance of experiencing a safe...

What influences the inclusion of skin tone diversity when teaching skin assessment? Findings from a survey

This study aimed to explore the experiences of people involved in teaching skin assessment to pre- and post-registrants in both clinical and higher education settings to identify the barriers and...

‘Selling their souls?’ Nurses' understanding of addiction and recovery in acute hospital settings

The findings presented are the participants' understanding of the concepts of addiction and recovery in relation to substance use. Of the 11 participants interviewed in this study, 9 were female and 2...

The nervous system and associated disorders

The nervous system is a complex network of specialised cells called neurons, which transmit electrical and chemical signals throughout the body to communicate with and control other cells. It is...

Practice tutors' readiness to support nursing students who require reasonable adjustments for clinical placement

The main aim of this study was to elicit practice tutors' views on their readiness to support OU nursing students who require reasonable adjustments while on clinical placement. This research also...