Values and behaviours: using the Ten Essential Shared Capabilities to support policy reform in mental health practice

This paper will review aspects of current policy in mental health with specific reference to policy that has a values focus. In this context, values refers to the standards and expectations we hold and which we use to guide aspects of practice performance. Service users state that core values that support, respect choice, collaboration, and customer service are critical foundation stones of a trusting therapeutic relationship. Attending to these foundations for practice has merit in ensuring the quality of care delivery in mental health. This paper will analyse what this means for the mental health workforce in their engagement with service users and delivery of policy priorities. Finally, the paper will explore resources, such as the Ten Essential Shared Capabilities (see Appendix 1), which support engagement and ongoing promotion of person-centred mental health care

Interprofessional learning in practice: The student experience

Interprofessional learning and the development of teamworking skills are recognised as essential for patient care and are also a government priority for undergraduate education. Sixteen occupational therapy students worked on an interprofessional training ward as part of their practice placement and three of them participated in an evaluation using the nominal group technique. Despite this small number, the evaluation identifies the value of this learning experience in giving the students an opportunity to appreciate the importance of interpersonal skills; to learn about other team members’ roles; and to experience the challenges of working on a busy rehabilitation ward for older people

Paying clinicians to join clinical trials : a review of guidelines and interview study of trialists

Background: The motivations of clinicians to participate in clinical trials have been little studied. This project explored the potential role of payment for participation in publicly funded clinical trials in the UK. The aims were to review relevant guidelines and to collate and analyse views of clinical trialists on the role of payments and other factors that motivated clinicians to join clinical trials. Methods: Review of guidelines governing payments to clinicians for recruitment to trials. Semistructured interviews with a range of NHS clinical trial leaders, analysed using qualititative methods. Results: While UK guidelines had little to say specifically on payments linked to recruitment, all payments have become highly regulated and increasingly transparent. Interview participants believed that expenses arising from research should be covered. Payments in excess of expenses were seen as likely to increase participation but with the risk of reducing quality. Motivations such as interest in the topic, the scope for patients to benefit and intellectual curiosity were considered more important. Barriers to involvement included bureaucracy and lack of time. Discussion: Limited scope exists for paying clinicians over-and-above the cost of their time to be involved in research. Most trialists favour full payment of all expenses related to research. Conclusion: Payment of clinicians beyond expenses is perceived to be a less important motivating factor than researching important, salient questions, and facilitating research by reducing bureaucracy and delay

Social inclusion and valued roles : a supportive framework

The aim of this paper is to examine the concepts of social exclusion, social inclusion and their relevance to health, well-being and valued social roles. The article presents a framework, based on Social Role Valorization (SRV), which was developed initially to support and sustain socially valued roles for those who are, or are at risk of, being devalued within our society. The framework incorporates these principles and can be used by health professionals across a range of practice, as a legitimate starting point from which to support the acquisition of socially valued roles which are integral to inclusio

Ethnic Minorities and their Health Needs: Crisis of Perception and Behaviours

There is considerable evidence to suggest that racial and ethnic disparities exist in the provision of emergency and wider healthcare. The importance of collecting patient ethnic data has received attention in literature across the world and eliminating ethnic and racial health equalities is one of the primary aims of healthcare providers internationally. The poor health status of certain racial and ethnic groups has been well documented. The improvement of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare is at the forefront of many public health agendas. This article addresses important policy, practice, and cultural issues confronted by the pre-hospital emergency care setup. This aspect of care plays a unique role in the healthcare safety net in providing a service to a very diverse population, including members of ethnic and racial minorities. Competent decision making by the emergency care practitioners requires patient-specific information and the health provider's prior medical knowledge and clinical training. The article reviews the current ethnicity trends in the UK along with international evidence linking ethnicity and health inequalities. The study argues that serious difficulties will arise between the health provider and the patient if they come from different backgrounds and therefore experience difficulties in cross-cultural communication. This adversely impacts on the quality of diagnostic and clinical decision making for minority patients. The article offers few strategies to address health inequalities in emergency care and concludes by arguing that much more needs to be done to ensure that we are hearing the voices of more diverse groups, groups who are often excluded from engagement through barriers such as language or mobility difficulties

Worse Than Spam: Issues In Sampling Software Developers

Background: Reaching out to professional software developers is a crucial part of empirical software engineering research. One important method to investigate the state of practice is survey research. As drawing a random sample of professional software developers for a survey is rarely possible, researchers rely on various sampling strategies. Objective: In this paper, we report on our experience with different sampling strategies we employed, highlight ethical issues, and motivate the need to maintain a collection of key demographics about software developers to ease the assessment of the external validity of studies. Method: Our report is based on data from two studies we conducted in the past. Results: Contacting developers over public media proved to be the most effective and efficient sampling strategy. However, we not only describe the perspective of researchers who are interested in reaching goals like a large number of participants or a high response rate, but we also shed light onto ethical implications of different sampling strategies. We present one specific ethical guideline and point to debates in other research communities to start a discussion in the software engineering research community about which sampling strategies should be considered ethical.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 2016 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2016), ACM, 201

Educating the future workforce: building the evidence about interprofessional learning

This paper addresses the theme of interprofessional education for health and social care professionals as it effects on the development of the work force. The drivers for change in the UK, typified by the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Victoria Climbié inquiries and the response to this in the form of Department of Health policy, are discussed. The need for rapid development of the evidence base around this subject is evident form literature reviews of the impact of interprofessional education. Directions for future research and investment in this area are proposed including the need for a stronger theoretical base and for longitudinal studies over extended periods of time in order to examine short, medium and long term outcomes in relation to health care practice

Antimicrobial resistance: a biopsychosocial problem requiring innovative interdisciplinary and imaginative interventions

To date, antimicrobials have been understood through largely biomedical perspectives. There has been a tendency to focus upon the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals within individual bodies. However, the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance demands we reconsider how we think about antimicrobials and their effects. Rather than understanding them primarily within bodies, it is increasingly important to consider their effects between bodies, between species and across environments. We need to reduce the drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at a global level, focusing on the connections between prescribing in one country and resistance mechanisms in another. We need to engage with the ways antimicrobials within the food chain will impact upon human healthcare. Moreover, we need to realise what happens within the ward will impact upon the environment (through waste water). In the future, imaginative interventions will be required that must make the most of biomedicine but draw equally across a wider range of disciplines (e.g. engineering, ecologists) and include an ever-increasing set of professionals (e.g. nurses, veterinarians and farmers). Such collective action demands a shift to working in new interdisciplinary, inter-professional ways. Mutual respect and understanding is required to enable each perspective to be combined to yield synergistic effects

Health of community nurses: a case for workplace wellness schemes

Community nursing is associated with stress and burnout, which can impact heavily on the individual and the NHS both economically and on the quality of patient care. Recent Government publications have called for an increase in workplace health schemes, with the public sector ‘leading by example’. As the largest employer in Europe, the NHS is well placed to develop workplace wellness schemes to address the health needs of staff and to indirectly influence primary prevention among patients. Lessons from an innovative employee wellness programme in an NHS hospital setting demonstrates that such schemes may positively alter individual health and attitudes towards the employer. There is scope for development of such schemes to improve health and well-being in community nurses