Educating tomorrow's clinical researchers: a review of research preparation in undergraduate education.

Background: One large health region in England was experiencing difficulties in recruiting to clinical research posts which required registered nurse or allied health professional skills.

Objectives: Pre-registration preparation may influence practitioners' career choices and the study reviewed the research content in pre-registration nurse/AHP degree level programmes in the region to i) describe key features of the modules, and ii) determine the extent to which clinical research featured.

Design And Settings: There are eight universities in the region.

A survey of issues of ethnicity and culture in nursing homes in an English region: nurse managers' perspectives.

Aims: This survey explored issues of ethnicity and culture in nursing homes in one English region.

Background: The older black and minority ethnic population in the UK is increasing, and this is the first detailed study of numbers of black and minority ethnic residents in nursing homes and of managers' perceptions of their abilities to respond to residents' needs.

Design: Mixed methods.

An evaluation of the impact of the Gold Standards Framework on collaboration in end-of-life care in nursing homes. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation.

Background: In the United Kingdom approaching 20% of people aged 85 years and over live in care homes and most will die there. Improving end-of-life care is a government health priority and homes may work with primary care staff and specialist palliative practitioners to provide comprehensive end-of-life care. Consequently effective collaboration between care home and health service practitioners is vital to ensure high quality end-of-life care.

Leading end-of-life care: an action learning set approach in nursing homes.

If the end-of-life care needs of people living in nursing homes are to be met, effective leadership is necessary. This in turn requires that appropriate training and support are provided for nursing home managers. To meet this need, an action learning set (ALS) involving nursing home managers was developed, and as a result of the continuous process of learning and reflection that characterizes ALS work the managers brought about a number of improvements in end-of-life care.

An evaluation of the implementation of a programme to improve end-of-life care in nursing homes.

The Gold Standards Framework in Care Homes programme aims to improve the quality of end-of-life care for residents. The impact of introducing phase 2 of the programme to homes in England was evaluated. A pre-post survey design was adopted, focusing on indicators identified as markers of good end-of-life care.

Delivering 'Gold Standards' in end-of-life care in care homes: a question of teamwork?

Aim: This paper reports findings from a study which investigated the introduction of the Gold Standards Framework for improving end-of-life care into care homes in England.

Background: The Gold Standards Framework was developed in primary care to improve the care provided for people at the end-of-life. Following its successful introduction to this setting it was adapted and implemented in care homes.

Use of information feedback and attentional focus of feedback in treating the person with a hemiplegic arm.

Background And Purpose: Feedback about motor performance can induce either an internal focus of attention (about body movement) or an external focus of attention (about the effects on the environment) in the learner. The main aim of this pilot study was to examine the attentional focus of feedback given by physiotherapists during treatment of the hemiplegic arm. A second aim was to examine the frequency of feedback about motor performance during treatment.

A phase II exploratory cluster randomized controlled trial of a group mobility training and staff education intervention to promote urinary continence in UK care homes.

Objectives: To assess feasibility, acceptability and potential efficacy of group exercise and staff education intervention to promote continence in older people residing in care homes. To establish measures and information to inform a larger trial.

Design: Phase II pilot exploratory cluster randomized controlled trial.

Use of self-chosen therapies by depressed people in primary care.

Aims: This paper focuses on attitudes towards and use of self-chosen treatment among people prescribed antidepressants and discusses the implications for practitioners involved in medicines management.

Background: In the wide-ranging debate around the extension of non-medical prescribing in the UK the relationship between complementary and alternative therapies and prescribed medication has received little attention. Research indicates that self-treatment, including use of complementary and alternative therapies is burgeoning, yet there is uncertainty about the degree to which practitioners should be knowledgeable about therapies or be capable of advising clients on their use.

Attributing recovery from depression. Perceptions of people cared for in primary care.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of the study was to understand how people treated for depression in primary care perceived the care they received. The focus was specifically on ascertaining their perceptions of what had helped during their treatment, their understanding of the factors to which they attributed their recovery, and their reflections on their experience of depression.

Background: Although knowledge of the factors that promote recovery from depression is growing, personal accounts of attributions of recovery are largely absent from the literature.

Exploring the facets of continence care: a continence survey of care homes for older people in Birmingham.

Aims: This study aimed to explore continence prevalence, knowledge and care in Birmingham care homes, UK.

Background: There is an increasing need to respond to rising numbers of care home residents suffering from incontinence in the UK. A lack of staff knowledge, training and treatment options can make this problematic.

Aggression and violence towards staff working with older patients.

Aim: To investigate the incidence of violence and aggression towards staff working in elderly care wards and to consider the factors that influence the risk of experiencing such an incident.

Method: Questionnaires were administered to 287 nursing and therapy staff within a community health NHS trust in the West Midlands. A response rate of 34% (96) was achieved.

Concordance with antidepressant medication in primary care.

Aim: To identify how depression is managed in primary care settings and examine patients' perspectives on their care and the impact medication had on their recovery. This article specifically addresses patients' accounts of the influences on medication concordance.

Method: A total of 60 patients from four primary care centres who had a recent episode of depression were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and a framework analysis to identify recurring themes.

Taking the initiative: nurse intrapreneurs in the NHS.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP HAS traditionally been associated with individuals operating in the private sector. However, there is increasing evidence to suggest that entrepreneurs have a role in public sector organisations, especially as governments encourage these to become more market oriented ( Ennew et al 1998 ).

Room for improvement? Reporting response rates and recruitment in nursing research in the past decade.

Aims: This paper reports an analysis of recruitment and response rates in published nursing research in three peer reviewed nursing journals in 2002. We wished to establish if the deficits in reporting nursing research identified a decade earlier had been addressed.

Background: This analysis was informed by our personal experiences of research which produced widely differing response rates.

Aspects of the relationship between doctors and depressed patients that enhance satisfaction with primary care.

Depression will be the second most common threat to health by the end of the next decade. The incidence of depression in primary care is already high. This has serious implications for the types of services available, the range of personnel who deliver them and the extent to which patients are helped by the treatments provided.

Aggressive and violent incidents: perceptions of training and support among staff caring for older people and people with head injury.

Background: Reported rates of workplace violence are increasing and studies of violence and aggression to health service staff in the United Kingdom have largely focused upon mental health and accident and emergency units. The study of violence and aggression in other specialties has been neglected. This paper reports the findings from a survey of staff perceptions of training and support in an elderly care and head injury unit.

The pharmacist's role in the medicinal management of depression.

Aim: To elicit pharmacists' perceptions of medication management for people who have been prescribed medication for depression.

Method: A questionnaire survey of 103 mainly community pharmacists was used.

Results: People frequently approached pharmacists for information about a range of issues concerning antidepressant medication.

Primary mental health care: whose role is it anyway?

Nursing, in common with all healthcare disciplines, has had to respond to major developments in the wider context of health care. Shifts in government policy, changing preferences for the location of health care, over-stretched resources and new developments in medical technologies have all had a considerable impact on the modes of healthcare delivery, including nursing care. In times of rapid change, new healthcare roles emerge, others are reconstructed and some decline, as happened when fever nursing became obsolete owing to improvements in health care and living conditions during the first half of the twentieth century (Currie 1997).

Caring for people with depression.

Background: Mental health care has recently become a government priority, and depression is a very common mental health problem. Many people feel that the mode of treatment used is less important than the effective delivery of care and intensity of follow up. The authors of this study devised a questionnaire to elicit the views of a small sample of mental health professionals and service users on the quality of current services.

Mental health nurses' perceptions of nurse prescribing.

Aims: This study aimed to ascertain mental health nurses' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of nurse prescribing and to identify the educational needs of mental health nurse prescribers.

Design: A questionnaire was designed and administered to a convenience sample in the UK of 73 mental health nurses in clinical practice, 14 working in in-patient settings and 59 in the community. Questions included both closed and open-ended items.

General practitioners' perceptions of community psychiatric nurses in primary care.

The management of and responsibility for the care of people with mental health problems in the community is increasingly being assumed by general practitioners (GPs) and primary care personnel. As primary care groups (PCGs) evolve, so must their expertise in managing people with a wide range of mental health problems. It is expected that all mental health professionals will participate in this development, although it is likely that community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) will be the largest professional group involved, with a significant part to play in the shaping, management and delivery of mental health services.