How do hospice nurses prepare to give end-of-life care? A grounded theory study of nurses in one UK hospice

Background: Literature for preparing hospice nurses to deliver end-of-life care is sparse. Aim: To investigate how nurses in one UK hospice prepared to deliver end-of-life care in their role. Methods: A classic grounded theory approach was used to investigate the experiences of 22 registered nurses in one UK hospice, to discover how they prepared for their role. A total of 17 individual interviews and one focus group were conducted. Constant comparison of data and member checking were performed to establish validity. Findings: Findings were synthesised into five categories: the 'shared ideal', feeling good at the job, making a difference, experience/exposure to hospice work and the importance of role models.The shared ideal formed the core category, which explained how hospice nurses feel a sense of 'fit' with their work. Conclusion: The feeling of a nurse feeling well-suited to the work and that there the work was a good 'fit' for them was identified as a core element to nurses' feelings of preparedness to provide end-of-life care

The position of reporting guidelines in qualitative nursing research

Editorial

Transparency in the reporting of nursing research

Editorial

Ethical conduct of nursing research

Editoria

Still dreaming: service users' employment, education & training goals

Background: Enabling service users to find and keep real jobs is a significant strand of UK mental health policy. An evidence-based approach to employment support is well documented, but is not widely implemented in the UK. Aim: To inform the development of vocational services in South Essex by ascertaining service users' employment, education and training goals. Method: Face-to-face interviews with a randomly selected sample of service users on enhanced CPA carried out by a team of service user researchers using an adapted version of a questionnaire developed for a previous similar survey. A postal survey of a further randomly selected sample of service users on enhanced CPA using a brief version of the questionnaire was also carried out. Results: Interviews were carried out with 82 service users. A further 159 returned a postal questionnaire. 42.7% had no regular day time activity. Only 15% were in paid work. 60.6% were definitely interested in finding work. Seventy-seven percent of respondents to the interviews who were interested in work were not currently receiving support to achieve this. The main help wanted was support in work, help with mental health problems and benefits advice. The main barriers identified were employers' attitudes and threat to benefits. Service user researchers reported benefits from undertaking the work. Conclusions: High numbers of mental health service users are interested in pursuing employment, education or training goals but currently lack the support they need to do so. Implementation of an evidence-based approach to employment support has the potential to enable service users to achieve their goals. Service users are well able to undertake research with considerable benefits for themselves and other stakeholders

Reducing Legionella Colonization of Water Systems with Monochloramine

Monochloramine reduced colonization in building hot water systems

Outside the gate: sub-urban legal practices in early medieval England

Many aspects of English early medieval (Anglo-Saxon) legal landscapes can be discerned in archaeological and toponymic evidence, ranging from the locations of legislative councils and judicial assemblies to sites of capital punishment. Among the corpus of such sites a striking group can be detected at the periphery of urban spaces. Gates into a number of towns appear to have functioned as legislative meeting-places, and even gave their names to some legally constituted communities, while suburban locations also feature prominently as sites of gallows and public punishment. In this paper historical, archaeological and toponymic evidence is used to examine this phenomenon of suburban legal practices and to pose questions about the wider dimensions of the early medieval legal landscape