Core principles to reduce current variations that exist in grading of midwifery practice in the United Kingdom.

Aim To reduce variations in grading of midwifery practice and enhance reliability of assessment. Background The first phase of a national project showed there to be widely ranging interpretation and application of professional educational standards in relation to grading of practice in midwifery. This raised concerns about reliability and equity of professional assessment. The second phase therefore sought to achieve consensus on a set of core principles. Methods A participatory action research process in two stages, using a Mini-Delphi approach. Educational leads from all 55 institutions delivering midwifery programmes nationally were invited to participate. Stage one: Questionnaire comprising 12 statements drawn from the findings of the initial phase of the project. Stage two: Face-to-face discussion. Findings Statements were categorised based on questionnaire responses: 1) Consensus, 2) Staged consensus, 2) Minor modifications, 4) Controversial. Consensus was achieved on 11 core principles through group discussion; only one was omitted from the final set. Recommendations All midwifery programmes nationally to incorporate the agreed core principles. Findings should be disseminated to the regulatory body to help inform changes to midwifery and nursing educational standards. The core principles may also contribute to curriculum development in midwifery and other professions internationally

Spiritual leadership and spiritual care in neonatology

AIM: This article aims to explore spiritual care in the neonatal care environment in addition to highlighting the importance of spiritual leadership of a health team in that context. BACKGROUND: Neonatal care is an ethically demanding and stressful area of practice. Babies and families require spiritual needs to be recognized in the context of holistic care. Literature around spiritual leadership is explored to nurture workplace spirituality. EVALUATION: Analysis of a range of sources provides a theoretical reflection on spiritual leadership and spiritual care in neonatal care settings. KEY ISSUES: The literature identifies that the carers should consider carefully on how care given may affect the infant and family. Themes relating to the baby's and family's spiritual needs and those of the staff in this area are identified. Spiritual leadership by the manager will provide support to the staff and help spiritual need to be met in this area of practice. CONCLUSION: Spiritual needs should be acknowledged within neonatal care whether these are of babies, families or the team itself. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Managers have responsibility to ensure that spiritual care is carried out for babies and their families and to care for the team as spiritual leaders

The etemic model of Gypsy Roma Traveller community vulnerability: is it time to rethink our understanding of vulnerability?

AIM: To present a new etemic model of vulnerability. BACKGROUND: Despite vulnerability being identified as a core consequence of health and health experiences there has been little research exploring the meaning of vulnerability as a concept. Yet being vulnerable is known to have dire physical/mental health consequences. It is therefore a fundamental issue for nurses to address. To date, the meaning of the term vulnerability has been influenced by the work of Spiers (2000, 2005). Spiers identified two aspects of vulnerability; the etic (external judgment of another persons' vulnerability and the emic (internal lived experience of vulnerability). This approach has led to a plethora of research which has explored the etic (external judgment) of vulnerability and rendered the internal lived (or emic) experience invisible. Consequences of this, for marginalised communities such as Gypsy Roma Travellers include a lack of culturally sensitive services compounding health inequalities. DESIGN: Position paper. METHOD: Drawing upon a qualitative phenomenological research study exploring the lived experience of vulnerability from a Gypsy Roma Travelling community (published previously), this paper presents a new model of vulnerability. This etemic model of vulnerability values both external and internal dimensions of vulnerability and argues for a fusion of these two opposing perspectives. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: If nurses and other health and social care professionals wish to develop practice that is successful in engaging with Gypsy Roma Travellers then there is a need to both understand and respect their community. This can be achieved through an etemic approach to understanding their vulnerability achieved by eliciting lived experience alongside the appreciation of epidemiological studies. Doing so would enable the development and delivery of culturally sensitive services facilitating health access to this community. Only then, will their poor health status be successfully addressed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Life is sexually transmitted: Live with it

This article explores issues of sexual health relevant to client care that is, could, or should be offered by nurses in general practice. Sexual health is often the most important element of a person’s holistic health and well-being to be overlooked during consultations. Sadly, some professional carers consider it is not their job, is too embarrassing, morally ‘problematic’ or outside their area of expertise. Sexual health is part of life: not to address it means that health professionals fail to fully address all aspects of their clients’ holistic health and well-being. The result is selective or reduced—not holistic—care. This article will point to ways for practice nurses to remedy this situation

Reporting of ethical considerations in clinical trials in Chinese nursing journals

Background: It is acknowledged that publishers now require all primary research papers to demonstrate that they have obtained ethical approval for their research. Objectives: To assess the rate of reporting of ethical approval in clinical trials in core nursing journals in mainland China. Research design: A retrospective observational study. Participants: All clinical trials published in all of the 12 core nursing periodicals from 2016 edition China Science and Technology Journal Citation Report (core version) between 2013 and 2016 were retrieved by hand to explicate rate of reporting ethical approval and informed consent. Ethical considerations: The study did not require approval from the research ethics committee as it did not involve human subjects or records. Results: In total, 40,278 papers were published in 12 nursing periodicals between 2013 and 2016. Out of these, 9488 (23.6%) focused on clinical trials. Informed consent obtained from patients or the legally authorized representative was reported in 51.8% of clinical trials. Notably, only 27.4% of clinical trials reported that they had obtained written consent. Furthermore, 25.9% of clinical trials described ethical approval; however, the rate of reporting informed consent and ethical approval in these 12 nursing journals in China during 4 years from 2013 to 2016 improved markedly, with 38.1%, 44.0%, 59.0% and 66.6%, respectively (p<0.001), and 17.6%, 21.9%, 28.6% and 35.8%, respectively (p<0.001). In addition, both reporting informed consent and reporting written informed consent had a positive significant correlation with the reporting ethical approval (p<0.05 or p<0.01). Conclusion: Chinese scientific nursing journals have improved the rate of reporting informed consent and ethical approval in clinical trials during the last 4 years. However, it should be noted that nearly half of clinical trials still did not report either ethical approval or whether informed consent was obtained. Efforts from editors, researchers, sponsors and authors are needed to ensure the transparency of ethical scrutiny and adherence to ethical guidelines in publishing clinical trials in Chinese nursing journals

Learning to lead: a scoping review of undergraduate nurse education

Aim- To explore undergraduate student’s preparation for leadership roles upon registration. Background - Effective leadership is vital when promoting positive workplace cultures and high-quality care provision. However, newly registered nurses are not always well-prepared for leadership roles. Evaluation - A scoping review of primary research published in English between 2009-2019 was undertaken. Data were analysed using an adapted version of Arksey and O’Malleys’ ( 2005) framework. Nine papers met the review eligibility criteria.Key issues– Findings revealed three themes: leadership education content; positioning of leadership education within the nursing programme; teaching and learning delivery. Conclusions– The review highlighted some agreement about the knowledge, skills and behaviours to be addressed in leadership education. What varied more was the pedagogical methods used to deliver this, the extent of its integration throughout the programme and the nature of collaborative academic-practice working to ensure good quality clinical supervision.Implications for Nursing Management– (1) students must be exposed to positive leadership practices during clinical placements to facilitate theory-practice integration. (2) Bullying negatively impacts on students’ self-efficacy whereas positive role modelling from registered nurses supports development of leadership competence. (3) Leadership theory and competence should be introduced early and revisited throughout the programme