vitamin and mineral supplements: do we really need them?

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements: Do We Really Need Them?

In the United States, 40 - 50% of the men and women 50 years of age or older regularly use multivitamin/mineral (MVM) supplements, making the annual sales of these supplements over $11 billion. However, the question remains whether using MVM supplements is beneficial to health. This article reviews the results of randomized studies of MVM supplements and individual vitamins/mineral supplements ...

Nursing handovers: do we really need them?

AIM This study attempts to address the content of nursing handover when compared with formal documentation sources. BACKGROUND The nursing handover has attracted criticism in the literature in relation to its continuing role in modern nursing. Criticisms include those related to time expenditure, content, accuracy and the derogatory terms in which patients are sometimes being discussed. MET...

Vitamin D and lipids: do we really need more studies?

The interest in vitamin D has exploded during the last decade, illustrated by the number of new vitamin D–related articles registered in PubMed, which is between 50 and 100 every week. This is also reflected in the lay press, with numerous articles promoting the beneficial effects of the D-lightful sunshine hormone vitamin D. If read uncritically, vitamin D appears to be good for almost any con...

Do We Really Need Consultants?

Doctor's assistants--do we need them?

OBJECTIVE To investigate the potential for the doctor's assistant role within an accident and emergency (A&E) department in relation to consultant workload. METHODS A time and motion evaluation of the activities of four A&E consultants before and after a doctor's assistant was established as a team member within our department. A review of the literature was undertaken to allow comparisons wi...

Clear Juice Heaters Do We Need Them?

Current practice is to install clear juice heaters ahead of first effect evaporators to ensure that the juice entering the evaporator is above its boiling temperature, allowing flashing to occur on entry. The alternative, of allowing the juice heating to take place in the evaporator, is sometimes rejected on the basis that heating transfer performance of an evaporator is very poor when operatin...