Scandals in health-care: Their impact on health policy and nursing

Through an analysis of several high-profile scandals in health care in the UK, this article discusses the nature of scandal and its impact on policy reform. The nursing profession is compared to social work and medicine, which have also undergone considerable examination and change as a result of scandals. The author draws on reports from public inquiries from 1945-2013 to form the basis of the discussion about policy responses following scandals in health care. In each case, the nature of the scandal, the public and government discourses generated by events, and the policy response to those failings are explored. These scandals are compared to the recent scandal at Mid Staffordshire Hospital. Conclusions are drawn about the impact of these events on the future of the profession and on health policy directions. Recent events have raised public anxieties about caring practices in nursing. Health policy reform driven by scandal may obscure the effect of under resourcing in health services and poses a very real threat to the continued support for state run services. Understanding the socially constructed nature of scandal, enables the nurse to develop a greater critical awareness of policy contexts in order that they can influence health service reform

Population health profile of the NSW Outback Division of General Practice: supplement

© Commonwealth of Australia To view the data presented in the profiles in Excel spreadsheets or via Interactive Mapping, please see the PHIDU website at: www.publichealth.gov.au

REDO RSVP: Efficient Signalling for Multimedia in the Internet

Alarming reports of performance and scalability problems associated with per-flow reservations, have led many to lose belief in RSVP and the Integrated Services Architecture that relies on it. Because we are convinced of the need for some form of resource reservation, to support multimedia communications in the Internet, we have set about trying to improve RSVP. By careful study of the protocol, we have identified areas for improvement, and propose REDO RSVP, a reduced overhead version that includes a fast establishment mechanism (FEM). In this paper we describe the rationale for REDO RSVP and present a detailed analysis of its features and operations. We also analyse REDO RSVP by means of simulations, and show that it offers improvements to the performance of RSVP

Design and construction of an actively frequency-switchable RF coil for field-dependent Magnetisation Transfer Contrast MRI with fast field-cycling

Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPostprin

Population health profile of the Northern Melbourne Division of General Practice

© Commonwealth of Australia To view the data presented in the profiles in Excel spreadsheets or via Interactive Mapping, please see the PHIDU website at: www.publichealth.gov.au

INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF WARMING AND ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN DEPOSITION ON PLANT NET PRODUCTIVITY AND SPECIES COMPOSITION IN A TEMPERATE OLD FIELD

Both climate warming and atmospheric nitrogen deposition are predicted to alter plant productivity and species composition over the next century; however, the extent to which their effects may interact is unclear. I measured plant productivity and species composition in response to warming (winter-only or year-round) and nitrogen in a temperate old field. I used shoot allometric relationships and spectral data to estimate productivity non-destructively, and sampled root biomass destructively, throughout two growing seasons. In 2007 there were no treatment effects on plant growth. However, in 2008, both warming and nitrogen addition increased aboveground productivity, and these effects were additive, resulting in an approximate doubling in aboveground plant biomass. Warming increased belowground biomass but no nitrogen effect was evident. Conversely, nitrogen addition increased plot greenness but greenness did not respond to warming. My results do not support the hypothesis that warming-induced changes to soil freezing dynamics over winter reduce plant productivity

Marketing Montana Christmas Trees

Paper published as Bulletin 2 in the UM Bulletin Forestry Series.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/umforestrybulletin/1000/thumbnail.jp

Development and initial validation of the Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System score

Abstract Introduction Adverse outcomes following clinical deterioration in children admitted to hospital wards is frequently preventable. Identification of children for referral to critical care experts remains problematic. Our objective was to develop and validate a simple bedside score to quantify severity of illness in hospitalized children. Methods A case-control design was used to evaluate 11 candidate items and identify a pragmatic score for routine bedside use. Case-patients were urgently admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Control-patients had no 'code blue', ICU admission or care restrictions. Validation was performed using two prospectively collected datasets. Results Data from 60 case and 120 control-patients was obtained. Four out of eleven candidate-items were removed. The seven-item Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS) score ranges from 0–26. The mean maximum scores were 10.1 in case-patients and 3.4 in control-patients. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.91, compared with 0.84 for the retrospective nurse-rating of patient risk for near or actual cardiopulmonary arrest. At a score of 8 the sensitivity and specificity were 82% and 93%, respectively. The score increased over 24 hours preceding urgent paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission (P < 0.0001). In 436 urgent consultations, the Bedside PEWS score was higher in patients admitted to the ICU than patients who were not admitted (P < 0.0001). Conclusions We developed and performed the initial validation of the Bedside PEWS score. This 7-item score can quantify severity of illness in hospitalized children and identify critically ill children with at least one hours notice. Prospective validation in other populations is required before clinical application