Supporting experienced hospital nurses to move into community matron roles

Report of a study to examine the key knowledge and support required by nurses, experienced in the management of patients with long term conditions, to work in primary care contexts in undertaking community matron roles. Commissioned by the Department of Health (England) 200

Upper limits on K-band polarization in three high-redshift radio galaxies: LBDS 53W091, 3C 441 and MRC 0156-252

We present the results of K-band imaging polarimetry of three radio galaxies, including the very red and apparently old z=1.55 galaxy 53W091. We find weak evidence for polarization in components of 3C 441 and in the south-east companion of 53W091, but no evidence of significant polarization in 53W091 itself. We also find strong evidence that MRC 0156-252 is unpolarised. We present upper limits for the K-band polarization of all three sources. For 53W091, the lack of significant K-band polarization provides further confidence that its red R-K colour can be attributed to a mature stellar population, consistent with the detailed analyses of its ultraviolet spectral-energy distribution which indicate a minimum age of 2-3.5 Gyr.Comment: 7 pages, 3 postscript figures. In press at MNRA

An Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQOL) in Older Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 in Slovenia

AbstractObjectiveThis article reports a study to measure diabetes-dependent quality of life (QOL) in older Slovenian patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2).MethodsA cross-sectional study of older (age ≥ 65 years) patients with DMT2 at outpatient diabetic centers was conducted in all regions in Slovenia. The Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life questionnaire was carried out between January and May 2012. Statistical analysis was performed by using IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 18.0.ResultsAfter exclusion of noneligible respondents, a total of 285 respondents were included in the analysis, which represented a 57% response rate. Lower QOL was significantly connected to a heart attack episode (odds ratio 2.42; 95% confidence interval 1.06–5.20) and to the perception of not having diabetes under control (odds ratio 0.36; 95% confidence interval 0.18–0.69). Eleven (3.9%) patients reported no impact of DMT2 on their QOL at all, while in the remaining respondents, particular reference was put to the effects on freedom to eat, dependency on others, and family life. There was no significant difference between the older people living in urban and rural areas.ConclusionsThe findings of the present study highlight the impact of DMT2 on QOL. DMT2 imposes a personal burden on individuals. Information on the QOL of older patients with diabetes is important to Slovenian policymakers and family physicians to identify and implement appropriate interventions for achieving better management of diabetes and ultimately improving the QOL of patients with diabetes

Socio-cultural dimensions of marine spatial planning

Bringing together the complex social and cultural dimensions of marine spatial planning (MSP), this chapter examines how these two terms are applied (or not) in the context of MSP. Global marine and coastal planning continues to recognise that human activities must be considered in order to account for the dynamic interconnectivity between society and the sea. Many research fields explore the importance of the sea to identity, sense of place, health or community cohesion. However, these draw on a range of different assumptions to mainstream marine science and struggle to be incorporated into traditional policy processes, environmental assessments and large-scale planning processes. In this chapter, we interrogate the concept of ‘socio-cultural’, examining how this is being defined and applied across the MSP landscape

Patient safety in cross-border care

Patient safety is a right and it raises particular issues in the context of cross-border care. Patients should be able to have trust and confidence in the healthcare structure as a wholethey must be protected from the harm caused by poorly functioning health systems, medical errors and adverse events. This paper addresses the state of cross-border healthcare in the European Union, the state of patient safety, the question of quality assurance and the role of accreditation as a risk based approach

Introducing Routine Measurement of Healthcare Worker's Well-being as a Leading Indicator for Proactive Safety Management Systems Based on Resilience Engineering

AbstractAlthough the need to improve patient safety is widely recognized, there is general agreement that ambitious targets for improvement have not been met. Resilience Engineering focuses on complex adaptive systems and provides a holistic view of interacting elements that adjust, adapt and reinforce one another in response to emerging forces. This provides a framework to understand both why organizations succeed or fail and, therefore, how to improve their reliability. One component that is often identified as a key factor in safety and reliability by complex adaptive systems and RE are the individuals within the system and their relationship to organizational performance. The goal of this paper is to identify and transfer knowledge regarding healthcare worker's well-being from health sciences to the development of proactive safety management systems, with a specific emphasis on the RE framework as offering the most potential for this. To achieve this, the paper will: First provide a review of relevant determinants associated with a healthcare worker's well-being that suggest both risk and contribution to the success of system performance. Next, the benefits of utilizing indicators for proactively monitoring system performance in healthcare will be reviewed. This will have a particular focus on the benefits and challenges to the routine monitoring of the healthcare worker's well-being as a specific indicator for system performance and patient safety. Finally, further research necessary to address a number of critical key factors to investigate the utility, validity, and usability of the design and implementation of healthcare worker well-being indicators into healthcare safety management systems are identified