An evaluation on the effectiveness of Web 2.0 Startpages (Netvibes & Pageflakes) within NHS libraries.

Carol McCormick was Learning Resources Advisor in the library at James Cook University Hospital, South Teesside when she completed her BSc (Hons) Librarianship (Work Based Learning) degree at Northumbria University. She gained a 1st Class Honours and is now Learning Resources Librarian. Carol’s dissertation formed part of a wider action research project into the provision of current awareness services at James Cook University Hospital. This article reports on the evaluation which was conducted after a Web 2.0 Startpage, or portal, had been introduced to improve access to current awareness information for all staff within the Trust. It is the second article in the Dissertations into practice series to examine the use of web-based tools to improve access to information for NHS staff

Designing a New Model for Clinical Education: An Innovative Approach.

To keep pace with the ever-changing health care delivery system, it is important to transform the way future nurses are educated, both in classroom and in clinical settings, to care for people along the life and care continuum, not only in acute-care settings. The purpose of this article is to describe a new approach to educating baccalaureate nursing students using immersion practicums that expose students to population health, transitions of care, care coordination, and the multiple roles a nurse engages in along the continuum. The curriculum includes 5 immersions, each with a specific life and care continuum focus to develop anticipatory thinkers

Reconceptualising clinical handover: Information sharing for situation awareness

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Decision makers\u27 experience of participatory dynamic simulation modelling: Methods for public health policy

Background: Systems science methods such as dynamic simulation modelling are well suited to address questions about public health policy as they consider the complexity, context and dynamic nature of system-wide behaviours. Advances in technology have led to increased accessibility and interest in systems methods to address complex health policy issues. However, the involvement of policy decision makers in health-related simulation model development has been lacking. Where end-users have been included, there has been limited examination of their experience of the participatory modelling process and their views about the utility of the findings. This paper reports the experience of end-user decision makers, including senior public health policy makers and health service providers, who participated in three participatory simulation modelling for health policy case studies (alcohol related harm, childhood obesity prevention, diabetes in pregnancy), and their perceptions of the value and efficacy of this method in an applied health sector context. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with end-user participants from three participatory simulation modelling case studies in Australian real-world policy settings. Interviewees were employees of government agencies with jurisdiction over policy and program decisions and were purposively selected to include perspectives at different stages of model development. Results: The ‘co-production’ aspect of the participatory approach was highly valued. It was reported as an essential component of building understanding of the modelling process, and thus trust in the model and its outputs as a decision-support tool. The unique benefits of simulation modelling included its capacity to explore interactions of risk factors and combined interventions, and the impact of scaling up interventions. Participants also valued simulating new interventions prior to implementation in the real world, and the comprehensive mapping of evidence and its gaps to prioritise future research. The participatory aspect of simulation modelling was time and resource intensive and therefore most suited to high priority complex topics with contested options for intervening. Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of a participatory approach to dynamic simulation modelling to support its utility in applied health policy settings

New futures health trainers: an impact assessment

Although the health of the UK population has improved significantly over the last century, inequalities in health still exist, with some of Britain’s biggest killers being ‘preventable’ illnesses. The 2004 white paper ‘Choosing Health: Making Healthy Choices Easier’ aimed to introduce initiatives to reduce inequalities in health. One such initiative was ‘Health Trainers’ – a new role staffed by individuals drawn from and based in deprived areas. This role aimed to offer people in deprived communities practical advice about health improvement, and to facilitate access to health services This report aims to examine the impact of introducing the ‘New Futures Health Trainer’ role into criminal justice settings in terms of: a) Training for the Health Trainer Tutors/the development of the Health Trainer training course b) The impact of the training on the New Futures Health Trainers c) The organisational consequences of the role d) The impact of New Futures Health Trainers on clinical outcomes for prisoners/offenders on probation, and e) A brief examination of the relationship between ‘early adopter’ sites for Health Trainers in the community, and the prison/probation equivalen

Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) for Work-related Wellbeing and Job Performance: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Due to its potential to concurrently improve work-related wellbeing (WRW) and job performance, occupational stakeholders are becoming increasingly interested in the applications of meditation. The present study conducted the first randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of meditation on outcomes relating to both WRW and job performance. Office-based middle-hierarchy managers (n = 152) received an eight-week meditation intervention (Meditation Awareness Training; MAT) or an active control intervention. MAT participants demonstrated significant and sustainable improvements (with strong effect sizes) over control-group participants in levels of work-related stress, job satisfaction, psychological distress, and employer-rated job performance. There are a number of novel implications: (i) meditation can effectuate a perceptual shift in how employees experience their work and psychological environment and may thus constitute a cost-effective WRW intervention, (ii) meditation-based (i.e., present-moment-focussed) working styles may be more effective than goal-based (i.e., future-orientated) working styles, and (iii) meditation may reduce the separation made by employees between their own interests and those of the organizations they work for