Volunteering and overseas placements in the NHS : a survey of current activity

Objective The study aimed to establish current levels of overseas volunteering and placement activity across all staff grades within the NHS in the North West of England. Design Cross-sectional survey. Instrument Descriptive statistics. Setting Four main regional hospitals in the North West of England, and additional NHS staff training events. Participants Convenience sample of NHS staff (n=911) Results 911 NHS staff took part in the survey. The medical and dental staff group returned the highest number of responses (32.1%). 42% of staff reported some form of overseas volunteering or placement experience. Most staff took an international placement as students (33.6% males; 40.6% females). Medium term placements were undertaken by 46.7% of males, and 52.5% of females. Settlement stays (i.e. over 1 year) were reported by 7.6% males, and 8.3% females). The majority of respondents engaged in international placement were from the age groups incorporating ‘below 25’ to ‘41-50’ (74%). Multiple placement experiences were uncommon: 2.5% of respondents reported three periods of overseas activity, and 1.5% reported four. All those with multiple placement experience came from the staff groups incorporating midwife / nurse / health visitor, and medical and dental. Conclusions This survey captured a snapshot of current levels of volunteering and overseas placement activity across NHS staff grades in the North West. Due to relatively homogenous organisational structures, findings are likely to broadly represent the position across the organisation as a whole. Although some degree of overseas placement activity is undertaken by a relatively high proportion of NHS staff, such activity is currently heavily skewed towards higher clinical staff grades. Significant numbers of allied health professionals and equivalent non-clinical cadres also report overseas experience, and we anticipate that numbers will continue to rise if current policy initiatives gain momentum

Healthcare, frugal innovation, and professional voluntarism : a cost-benefit analysis

This book investigates what international placements of healthcare employees in low resource settings add to the UK workforce and the efficacy of its national health system. The authors present empirical data collected from a volunteer deployment project in Uganda focused on reducing maternal and new-born mortality and discuss the learning and experiential outcomes for UK health care professionals acting as long term volunteers in low resource settings. They also develop a model for structured placement that offers optimal learning and experiential outcomes and minimizes risk, while shedding new light on the role that international placements play as part of continuing professional development both in the UK and in other sending countries

Use of mechanical airway clearance devices in the home by people with neuromuscular disorders: effects on health service use and lifestyle benefits

Background; People with neuromuscular disorders (NMD) exhibit weak coughs and are susceptible to recurrent chest infections and acute respiratory complications, the most frequent reasons for their unplanned hospital admissions. Mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MI-E) devices are a non-invasive method of increasing peak cough flow, improving cough efficacy, the clearance of secretion and overcoming atelectasis. There is limited published evidence on the impact of home use MI-E devices on health service utilisation. The aims of the study were: to assess the self-reported health and lifestyle benefits experienced as a result of home use of MI-E devices; and evaluate the effects of in-home use of MI-E devices on Emergency Department (ED) presentations, hospital admissions and inpatient length of stay (LOS). Methods: Individuals with NMD who were accessing a home MI-E device provided through Muscular Dystrophy Western Australia were invited to participate in a quantitative survey to obtain information on their experiences and self-assessed changes in respiratory health. An ad-hoc record linkage was performed to extract hospital, ED and mortality data from the Western Australian Department of Health (DOHWA). The main outcome measures were ED presentations, hospital separations and LOS, before and after commencement of home use of an MI-E device.Results: Thirty seven individuals with NMD using a MI-E device at home consented to participate in this study. The majority (73%) of participants reported using the MI-E device daily or weekly at home without medical assistance and 32% had used the machine to resolve a choking episode. The survey highlighted benefits to respiratory function maintenance and the ability to manage increased health care needs at home. Not using a home MI-E device was associated with an increased risk of ED presentations (RR = 1.76, 95% CI 1.1-2.84). The number of hospital separations and LOS reduced after the use of MI-E device, but not significantly. No deaths were observed in participants using the MI-E device at home. Conclusions: Home use of a MI-E device by people living with NMD may have a potential impact on reducing their health service utilisation and risk of death. Future research with greater subject numbers and longer follow-up periods is recommended to enhance this field of study

Experiences of pregnant mothers using a social media based antenatal support service during the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK : findings from a user survey

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has seen unprecedented restrictions on face-to-face healthcare encounters. This has led to an increase in the use of online healthcare resources by service users. Pregnant women have always been a group particularly motivated to seek out information online. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of mothers who were using an existing National Health Service social media based antenatal support service during the early stages of the UK COVID-19 lockdown. Design: A short online survey with four closed questions (scale response) and one open-ended free-text question was given to pregnant women who were using the online service 3 weeks after the start of the UK lockdown. Descriptive statistics are used to present the closed question data. Thematic analysis was applied to the free-text responses. Results: 320 women were sent the survey. 156 completed it (49% response rate). Participants provided information relating to frequency of use, information access, relative level of antenatal care and ease of contact. 105 (66%) participants completed the open-ended free-text question. Key themes to emerge related to: (1) information provision and verification; (2) managing and reducing feelings of isolation; (3) service specific issues, including crisis adaptations; and (4) impact on routine care. Conclusions: The study suggests that that pregnant mothers found a social media based approach well positioned to provide antenatal care and support during the COVID-19 pandemic

Midwife-moderated social media groups as a validated information source for women during pregnancy

Background Widespread use of the internet has fundamentally altered the way people access health information and communicate with health providers. Pregnant women are a group who are particularly highly motivated to seek out information online. However, where mothers actually obtain their information, who they trust to supply it, and whether or not it actually fulfils their needs is often unclear. This paper examines the experiences of women accessing advice and information on pregnancy and childbirth through a dedicated social-media platform, mediated by qualified midwives. The study formed part of a larger research project that focussed on professionally moderated online learning in maternity care, and the role of online communities. This paper reports on aspects of midwife mediated information provision in the context of these online communities. Methods Two secret (i.e. private / invitation only) Facebook groups were created. Both groups were moderated by 2 qualified midwives. One group had 17 mothers and the other 14 mothers. Both groups ran for 35 weeks. Data and analysis The data included the written and spoken words of group participants and midwife-moderators in i) face-to-face (n=4) and online (n=4) post-intervention focus groups; ii) one-to-one interviews with group participants and midwife moderators (n=24); iii) the complete corpus of text-based interaction across both groups; iv) a sub-set of private message sessions (n=24) between individual participants and midwife-moderators. Thematic analysis was applied to the combined dataset. Findings Participants found engagement with midwives and other pregnant women via a social media group convenient and accessible. The groups provided a safe space for the sharing and validation of maternity relevant information. Members trusted their midwife-moderators to ensure information was reliable. For many members, the group became the primary source of pregnancy related information. Conclusion Midwife-mediated social media groups offer a highly effective way of providing individualised information provision and social support for pregnant woman. Access to a group can also significantly impact on perceptions of relational continuity

Facemums 2018: final report

Continuity of care and easy access to reliable information during pregnancy is essential to the health and wellbeing of pregnant women. In recent years widespread use of the internet has fundamentally changed the way people obtain health information and communicate with health providers. Pregnant women have been found to be a group who are particularly motivated to look for information and support online. In 2015 a pilot study was conducted to explore the feasibility of using professionally moderated social media groups to provide additional antenatal support for pregnant mothers. The intervention called Facemums proved to be extremely popular with users and in addition to improving access to reliable information and support it was found that involvement in a group greatly enhanced relational continuity o one of the key aims underpinning NHS antenatal care. Following the success of the original pilot study in April 2019 a full-scale intervention was rolled out across 7 NHS Trusts and 8 Maternity Hospitals in 3 Sustainable Transformation Partnerships (ST1s) (Wave 1). A further 5 NHS Trusts became involved in November 2019 (Wave 2). These two waves supported over 500 pregnant women (AFacemums’) and have involved training over 60 NHS midwifes to act as group moderators (AFacewives’). The Facemums programme has been hugely successful meeting the information and support needs of pregnant women and newly delivered mothers improving continuity of care providing professional access to midwives and facilitating peer support in a safe and manageable way

Quantifying vertical mixing in estuaries

© 2008 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License. The definitive version was published in Environmental Fluid Mechanics 8 (2008): 495-509, doi:10.1007/s10652-008-9107-2.Estuarine turbulence is notable in that both the dissipation rate and the buoyancy frequency extend to much higher values than in other natural environments. The high dissipation rates lead to a distinct inertial subrange in the velocity and scalar spectra, which can be exploited for quantifying the turbulence quantities. However, high buoyancy frequencies lead to small Ozmidov scales, which require high sampling rates and small spatial aperture to resolve the turbulent fluxes. A set of observations in a highly stratified estuary demonstrate the effectiveness of a vessel-mounted turbulence array for resolving turbulent processes, and for relating the turbulence to the forcing by the Reynolds-averaged flow. The observations focus on the ebb, when most of the buoyancy flux occurs. Three stages of mixing are observed: (1) intermittent and localized but intense shear instability during the early ebb; (2) continuous and relatively homogeneous shear-induced mixing during the mid-ebb, and weakly stratified, boundary-layer mixing during the late ebb. The mixing efficiency as quantified by the flux Richardson number Rf was frequently observed to be higher than the canonical value of 0.15 from Osborn (J Phys Oceanogr 10:83–89, 1980). The high efficiency may be linked to the temporal–spatial evolution of shear instabilities.The funding for this research was obtained from ONR Grant N00014-06-1-0292 and NSF Grant OCE-0729547

How to make and enhance your videos for the Internet

• This book will help you to make and upload better videos to the Internet, even if you use a Smartphone or inexpensive digital camera to shoot them. • Whether your videos are simple vlogs and interviews, or more complicated productions such as demonstration or gaming videos, there are basic techniques you need to know if you want your videos to look and sound as professional as possible. • The mainly free software packages majored on are Hit Film 4 Express for video editing, Audacity for audio editing and Bandicam for capturing gaming videos. Other packages are also considered. • Simple lighting, audio recording techniques and the use of Smartphone apps for digital recording are also explained