Living with a congenital heart condition can require a daunting and uncertain patient journey during which the support of a specialist nursing service is vital. A descriptive, cross-sectional evaluation completed over two years, utilised a postal questionnaire to investigate patient’s satisfaction with aspects of service. Qualitative responses to open questions on satisfaction with emotional su...

BACKGROUND There is concern about inappropriate use of psychotropic medication in nursing homes in the UK. Older people with advanced dementia, who might need such medication, are supposed to be admitted to specialist 'Elderly Mentally Infirm' homes. OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of dementia and psychotropic medication use in UK non-Elderly Mentally Infirm homes. DESIGN a) Probabili...

The project "Evidence-based Nursing Education - Preparatory Stage", funded by the Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg within the programme Impulsfinanzierung Forschung (Funding to Stimulate Research), aims to collect information on current research concerned with nursing education and to process existing data. The results of empirical research which has already been carried out were systematically...

Surgical neonates need specialist medical and nursing care if their outcomes are to be improved. It needs a team of pediatric surgeons, neonatologists, pediatric anesthetists, and trained nurses. However, a key question in the management of these neonates is the place where they should be managed. A recent survey of neonatal surgical units in the UK in 2008 [1] revealed that surgical neonates w...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether risk-adjusted mortality in very low birthweight or preterm infants is associated with levels of nursing provision. DESIGN Prospective study of risk-adjusted mortality in infants admitted to a random sample of neonatal units. SETTING Fifty four UK neonatal intensive care units stratified by: patient volume; consultant availability; nurse:cot ratios. PATIENTS A g...

Previous research has shown that palliative home care use is influenced by variables such as age, socioeconomic status, presence of an informal carer, diagnosis, and care dependency. However, there is little information on its association with other health service use. This study compared 121 cancer patients referred to Hospital at Home (HAH) for palliative care with a sample of 206 cancer pati...

This article describes the current state of cancer nursing and the various challenges that hinder the provision of effective nursing care to cancer patients in Nigeria. The major issue identified was the lack of specialized oncology nursing education which should actually form a basis for nurses to practice in the oncology setting. Other issues include poor facilities for oncology nursing care,...

BACKGROUND Nurse staffing interventions have been introduced across countries in recent years in response to changing patient requirements, developments in patient care, and shortages of qualified nursing staff. These include changes in skill mix, grade mix or qualification mix, staffing levels, nursing shifts or nurses' work patterns. Nurse staffing has been closely linked to patient outcomes,...