"A wealth of knowledge": A survey of the employment experiences of older nurses and midwives in the NHS

Background: The United Kingdom's National Health Service workforce is ageing, and the specific needs of this sector of its workforce need to be addressed. Nursing, and midwifery shortage is a worldwide issue, and with increasing demands for care the retention of older nurses and midwives is crucial. Objectives: To report on the employment experiences of nurses and midwives with it particular focus on issues relating to age, ethnicity, ill-health and disability. Design: The postal survey was developed following a literature review and analysis of National Health Service and Government policy documents. Settings: This was a UK-wide Survey of nurses and midwives working in National Health Service Trusts and Primary Care Trusts. Participants/methods: A postal Survey of nurses and midwives was undertaken between May and December 2005. National Health Service Trusts and Primary Care Trusts (n = 44) identified as having policies relevant to the Study were contacted regarding the procedure for seeking research governance approval. Thirteen National Health Service Trusts and Primary Care Trusts participated, with 2610 surveys distributed; 510 Surveys were returned (20% response rate). Results: Nurses and midwives aged 50 years and over had undertaken fewer Continuing Professional Development activities than nurses and midwives Under 50. Whilst not related to age, the study also found that 20% of the survey sample reported experiencing some form of discrimination. Nurses and midwives did not differ on either quality of life or psychological health using standard instruments. Having a disability did not lead to greater psychological morbidity but did have a negative effect on quality of life. Having a work-related illness had a negative impact on both quality of life and psychological morbidity. hi relation to ethnicity, black nurses and midwives reported lower psychological morbidity than other ethnic groups; that is, they enjoyed a higher level of mental well-being. Conclusion: The nursing and midwifery workforce is ageing worldwide with a significant proportion now approaching, or having already reached, potential retirement age. With the recent introduction of the age legislation the working lives of older nurses and midwives in the National Health Service have never been more relevant. Whilst access to Continuing Professional Development is pertinent to the retention of nurses and midwives of all ages, in this study, older nurses reported less access that younger nurses. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Setting firmer constraints on the evolution of the most massive, central galaxies from their local abundances and ages

There is still much debate surrounding how the most massive, central galaxies in the local universe have assembled their stellar mass, especially the relative roles of in-situ growth versus later accretion via mergers. In this paper, we set firmer constraints on the evolutionary pathways of the most massive central galaxies by making use of empirical estimates on their abundances and stellar ages. The most recent abundance matching and direct measurements strongly favour that a substantial fraction of massive galaxies with Mstar>3x10^11 Msun reside at the centre of clusters with mass Mhalo>3x10^13 Msun. Spectral analysis supports ages >10 Gyrs, corresponding to a formation redshift z_form >2. We combine these two pieces of observationally-based evidence with the mass accretion history of their host dark matter haloes. We find that in these massive haloes, the stellar mass locked up in the central galaxy is comparable to, if not greater than, the total baryonic mass at z_form. These findings indicate that either only a relatively minor fraction of their present-day stellar mass was formed in-situ at z_form, or that these massive, central galaxies form in the extreme scenario where almost all of the baryons in the progenitor halo are converted into stars. Interestingly, the latter scenario would not allow for any substantial size growth since the galaxy's formation epoch either via mergers or expansion. We show our results hold irrespective of systematic uncertainties in stellar mass, abundances, galaxy merger rates, stellar initial mass function, star formation rate and dark matter accretion histories.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, MNRAS, accepte

The Ethics of Troubled Images

This special issue of Cultural Studies Review brings together an interdisciplinary range of scholarship to investigate the ethical implications of troubled images

Measurement of the derivative 'ZW' for an oscillating aerofoil

This report presents the results of experimental measurements of the damping derivative coefficient zw for constant chord rigid wings of various aspect ratios having sweepback angles of zero and 450. The results for the rectangular wings Flow substantial agreement with the unsteady aerofoil theory developed by TI.P. Jones $2) The dependence of Zvi upon frequency parameter is as given by theory and is much less than for two dimensional flow, but the numerical results are approximately 10 per cent below the theoretical. This is attributed to the large trailing edge angle 22° of the N.A.C.A. 0020 section used for the model aerofoils. The effect of sweepback is to decrease the numerical value of z , but this effect is much less pronounced, for low than for high aspect ratios. For aspect ratios 5 and 3 the numerical value is greater than would be given by a factor of proportionality equal to the cosine of the angle of sweepback. The measurements were corrected for tunnel interference by a method based on the theoretical work of 7.P.Jones.(1

The Quay brothers: choreographed chiaroscuro, enigmatic and sublime

Twins Stephen and Timothy Quay are among the most accomplished animation filmmakers to emerge from under the umbrella of Britain's Channel 4, which funds independents. The Street of Crocodiles, made in 1986, is their best-known animation film and has a puppet as its central character. Besides puppet films, the Quays' work includes animated shorts, biographical documentaries, and TV station breaks. They also design sets for theater and opera productions on various European stages and can count pop videos among their commissions. The combination of striking decors and unique puppets used in their films, their attention to the ?liberation of the mistake,? and their casual and lingering close-ups produce an ingenious alchemy of animated cinema.

The experiences and perspectives of overseas trained speech and language therapists working in the United Kingdom

There is a growing body of research which has investigated the experience of the migrant health worker. However, only one of these studies has included speech and language therapists thus far, and then only with extremely small numbers. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of migrant speech and language therapists living in the UK. Twenty-three overseas qualified speech and language therapists living in the UK completed an online survey consisting of 36 questions (31 closed question, 5 open-ended questions). The majority of participants came from Australia or the USA and moved to the UK early in their careers. Participants reported a range of benefits from working in another country and more specifically working in the UK. The findings were consistent with other research on migrant health workers regarding known pull factors of travel, finance, and career. This study suggests additional advantages to working in the UK were realised once participants had started working in the UK, such as the UK job lifestyle. Finally, the migrant speech and language therapists were similar in profile to other migrant health workers in terms of age and country of origin previously reported in the literature

A Novel Chronic Disease Policy Model

We develop a simulation tool to support policy-decisions about healthcare for chronic diseases in defined populations. Incident disease-cases are generated in-silico from an age-sex characterised general population using standard epidemiological approaches. A novel disease-treatment model then simulates continuous life courses for each patient using discrete event simulation. Ideally, the discrete event simulation model would be inferred from complete longitudinal healthcare data via a likelihood or Bayesian approach. Such data is seldom available for relevant populations, therefore an innovative approach to evidence synthesis is required. We propose a novel entropy-based approach to fit survival densities. This method provides a fully flexible way to incorporate the available information, which can be derived from arbitrary sources. Discrete event simulation then takes place on the fitted model using a competing hazards framework. The output is then used to help evaluate the potential impacts of policy options for a given population.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 11 table

Body mass index has risen more steeply in tall than in short 3-year olds: serial cross-sectional surveys 1988-2003

Objective: To monitor the changing relationship between body mass index ( BMI) and height in young children.Design: Annual cross-sectional surveys using health-visitor-collected routine data 1988 - 2003.Setting: Wirral, England.Participants: Fifty thousand four hundred and fifty-five children ( 49% female) each measured once at the age of 3 years.Main outcome measures: Weight, height and derived BMI ( weight/height(2)) adjusted for age and sex ( British 1990 revised reference) using standard deviation scores.Results: From 1988 to 2003, mean BMI increased by 0.7 kg/m(2), whereas mean height fell by 0.5 cm. Over the same period, the weight - height correlation rose from 0.59 to 0.71 ( P < 0.0001) owing to BMI increasing faster in the taller than the shorter children. Among the shortest 10% of children, mean BMI rose by 0.12 ( 95% confidence interval: - 0.05 - 0.28) kg/m(2) as against 1.38 ( 1.19 - 1.56) kg/m(2) among the tallest 10%, a 12-fold difference. Adjustment for age, sex, seasonality, birth-weight and deprivation did not alter the findings.Conclusions: Among 3-year-old children in Wirral, where BMI has been rising for 16 years, the largest increase in BMI has occurred in the tallest children, whereas in the shortest BMI has hardly changed. Tall stature has, therefore, become important for child obesity. It suggests a drive to increasing adiposity in young children that involves both growth and appetite, with fast growing and hungrier children now more exposed to the 'obesogenic' environment

Quantifying the contribution of free-living nematodes to nitrogen mineralization

Soil fauna are estimated to contribute to approximately 30 % of nitrogen mineralization (Verhoef ∧ Brussaard, 1990). Soil nematodes are important contributors to this process through their key trophic positions as microbial grazers. Quantification of this contribution has mostly relied on theoretical food web analyses (Hunt et al., 1987) or laboratory incubations with simplified and artificially constructed ecosystems (Ferris et al., 1998). Incubations are often performed on homogenized soil, though soil biota is known to be responsive to physical disturbance. Furthermore, sterilization typically relies on methods disruptive of soil structure (e.g. autoclaving, freezing). The aim of this experiment was to quantify the contribution of nematodes to nitrogen mineralization during incubation. Intact cores with a representative pore structure and entire nematode populations instead of single species were used. Gamma irradiation was selected as a sterilization method to remove only soil fauna, leaving the microflora and soil structure largely intact (McNamara et al., 2003)