Results of the 2010/2011 Hospice Patient Survey General Report

The 2010/11 survey is the fourth in a series of surveys on patient satisfaction with inpatient and daycare services. Carried out by Help the Hospices and the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent, with previous surveys being completed in 2004/05, 2006/07 and 2008/09. All hospices across the UK were invited to take part in the 2010/11 Patient Survey and 39 hospices participated between September 2010 and May 2011

Results of the 2004/2005 Hospice Patient Survey: General Report

The National Minimum Standards for Independent Healthcare, published in 2002 by the Care Standards Commission (now the Healthcare Commission) states that hospices are required to conduct an annual patient survey. In response to this, a Patient Survey group (with representation from independent hospices, Marie Curie Cancer Care and with input from the Care Standards Commission) was set up by Help the Hospices. Its goal was to develop a questionnaire suitable for use in all adult hospices

Connecting Bullying and School Drop Out

*

Fostering Emotionally Intelligent Bullying Prevention through Youth Engagement

School staff play an important role in preventing bullying, but they can’t do it alone. Schools must meet the social-emotional needs of students for bullying to decrease and these efforts are more successful when youth are involved. This session will explore engaging youth by promoting youth voice, changing social norms, and using class meetings to teach social-emotional learning skills

Evaluation of WRF-Sfire Performance with Field Observations from the FireFlux experiment

This study uses in-situ measurements collected during the FireFlux field experiment to evaluate and improve the performance of coupled atmosphere-fire model WRF-Sfire. The simulation by WRF-Sfire of the experimental burn shows that WRF-Sfire is capable of providing realistic head fire rate-of-spread and the vertical temperature structure of the fire plume, and, up to 10 m above ground level, fire-induced surface flow and vertical velocities within the plume. The model captured the changes in wind speed and direction before, during, and after fire front passage, along with arrival times of wind speed, temperature, and updraft maximae, at the two instrumented flux towers used in FireFlux. The model overestimated vertical velocities and underestimated horizontal wind speeds measured at tower heights above the 10 m, and it is hypothesized that the limited model resolution over estimated the fire front depth, leading to too high a heat release and, subsequently, too strong an updraft. However, on the whole, WRF-Sfire fire plume behavior is consistent with the interpretation of FireFlux observations. The study suggests optimal experimental pre-planning, design, and execution of future field campaigns that are needed for further coupled atmosphere-fire model development and evaluation

On the bond distance in methane

The equilibrium bond distance in methane was optimized using coupled-pair functional and contracted CI wave functions, and a Gaussian basis that includes g-type functions on carbon and d-type functions on hydrogen. The resulting bond distance, when corrected for core-valence correlation effects, agrees with the experimental value of 2.052 a(0) to within the experimental uncertainty of 0.002 a(0). The main source of error in the best previous studies, which showed discrepancies with experiment of 0.007 a(0) is shown to be basis set incompleteness. In particular, it is important that the basis set be close to saturation, at least for the lower angular quantum numbers

Using technology to support the social and emotional well-being of nurses: A scoping review protocol

Aims. (1) To review the published literature on the use of technology to provide social or emotional support to nurses, (2) to evaluate and identify gaps in the research, (3) to assess whether a systematic review would be valuable, (4) to make recommendations for future developments. Design. The protocol for the scoping review has been developed in accordance with recommendations from several methodological frameworks, as no standardised protocol currently exists for this purpose. Methods. Our protocol incorporates information about the aims and objectives of the scoping review, inclusion criteria, search strategy, data extraction, quality appraisal, data synthesis and plans for dissemination. Funding for this project was approved by Burdett Trust for Nursing in December 2016. Discussion. Technology to support patient emotional and social wellbeing has seen a rapid growth in recent years and is offered in a variety of formats. However, similar support for nursing staff remains under-researched with no literature review undertaken on this topic to date. This is despite nurses working in emotionally demanding environments which can be socially isolating. The scoping review will map current evidence on the use of technology to support nursing staff and explore the range, extent and nature of this activity. It will also provide a basis for deciding if a full systematic review would be desirable. Impact: It is important that the psychological well-being of nurses is seriously addressed as more nurses are now leaving than joining the profession. This is an international concern. High staff turnover has an interpersonal cost and is associated with reduced quality of patient care. Financial implications are also important to consider as healthcare providers employ costly agency staff to address the workforce deficit. Online technology may offer a sustainable and accessible means of providing support for nurses who find it difficult to communicate in person due to time pressures at work