Regional anaesthesia research priorities: a Regional Anaesthesia UK (RA-UK) priority setting partnership involving patients, carers and healthcare professionals.

Introduction: Regional anaesthesia provides important clinical benefits to patients but is underutilised. A barrier to widespread adoption may be the focus of regional anaesthesia research on novel techniques rather than evaluating and optimising existing approaches. Research priorities in regional anaesthesia identified by anaesthetists have been published, but the views of patients, carers and other healthcare professionals have not been considered previously.

Role of Hypothermia in Adult Cardiac Surgery Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Objective: To review studies that assessed systemic hypothermia as an organ protection strategy in adults undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Setting And Participants: Randomized controlled trials, irrespective of blinding, language, publication status, and date of publication, were identified by searching the Cochrane Central register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and Embase until November 2020.

Intermittent self catheterisation with hydrophilic, gel reservoir, and non-coated catheters: a systematic review and cost effectiveness analysis.

Objective: To determine the most effective and cost effective type of catheter for patients performing intermittent self catheterisation in the community.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Results were incorporated into a probabilistic Markov model to compare lifetime costs and quality adjusted life years (QALYs).

A systematic review of structured compared with non-structured breastfeeding programmes to support the initiation and duration of exclusive and any breastfeeding in acute and primary health care settings.

Policies and guidelines have recommended that structured programmes to support breastfeeding should be introduced. The objective of this review was to consider the evidence of outcomes of structured compared with non-structured breastfeeding programmes in acute maternity care settings to support initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Quantitative and qualitative studies were considered.

Webwise.

Health Research Web is an online interactive platform for the Council on Health Research for Development. This is an international non-governmental organisation supporting national health research and health research management in low and middle-income countries.

Vigilance must be a priority: maternal genital tract sepsis.

Although very rare in the UK, sepsis was the leading cause of direct maternal deaths during 2006-2008, with an increase in community acquired Group A streptococcal infection (CMACE 2011). Most deaths occurred in the postnatal period and were often preceded by a sore throat or other upper respiratory infection, with a clear seasonal pattern. An associated factor was women of BME origin (black or minority ethnic origin).

Screening emergency admissions for MRSA.

Dinah Gould's learning zone article on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (January 5) is timely. Categories of patients for routine screening must now include relevant emergency admissions (MRSA screening: operational guidance 3 - Department of Health 2010).

A systematic review of structured versus non-structured breastfeeding programmes to support the initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding in acute and primary healthcare settings.

Executive Summary: Background: Breastfeeding has many important health benefits for the woman and her baby. Despite evidence of benefit from a large number of well conducted studies, breastfeeding uptake and the duration of exclusive breastfeeding remain low in many countries. In order to improve breastfeeding rates, policy and guidelines at global, individual country level and in local healthcare settings have recommended that structured programmes to support breastfeeding should be introduced.

A comprehensive systematic review of the use of simulation in the continuing education and training of qualified medical, nursing and midwifery staff.

Background: Simulation can be defined as a person, device or set of conditions made to resemble a real life situation. It is used in many high-risk industries particularly when reality is dangerous, critical events are rare and errors are costly in human and/or financial terms. The use of simulation in the UK is now considered an essential component of education programmes designed for healthcare practitioners.

Good practice in management of patients with urethral catheters.

Urinary tract infections are a well-known hazard associated with the use of indwelling urethral catheters in older people in hospital. These infections can have serious consequences for older people, including an increased risk of death in hospital. This consequence can be minimised by ensuring that all nurses and other healthcare workers consistently incorporate evidence-based guideline recommendations into their routine practice.

Managing and leading the infection prevention initiative.

Aim: To review the national response to health care-associated infection and that of nurses in particular.

Background: Health care-associated infections have emerged as a significant threat to quality care and preventing it is now a national priority.

Evaluation: This paper considers the key government initiatives to address health care-associated infection.

New guidelines for prevention of HCAIs in acute care.

This article, the first in a seven-part series, explains the process undertaken in revising the epic national evidence-based guidelines for preventing healthcare-associated infections (Pratt et al, 2001). In the following weeks each section of the guidelines, with evidence supporting the recommendations and suggested audit criteria, will be published in a new Infection Control section on nursingtimes.net.

Beating the bug.

OVER THE PAST two decades, healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) have emerged as a significant threat to high quality health care. The technological advances made in the treatment of many diseases and disorders are undermined by the transmission of infections within healthcare settings, especially the emergence of antimicrobial resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and enterococci that are now endemic in some healthcare.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections: primary care guidelines.

In primary and community health care settings, long-term (> 28 days) urinary catheterisation (LTC) is most commonly used in managing older people and those with neurological conditions. Studies suggest that in the UK LTC is used in 0.5 per cent of people aged 75 or over (Kohler-Ockmore and Feneley, 1996) and in four per cent of people receiving domiciliary care (Getliffe and Mulhall, 1991).

Preventing health care-associated infections during enteral feeding.

IN the late 1980s, enteral feeding became common practice in hospitals for patients who were unable to feed themselves. It was therefore inevitable that those requiring long-term artificial feeding--that is, for more than 30 days--would continue this practice at home.

Health care-associated infections in primary and community care.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recently published guidelines for preventing health care-associated infections (HAIs) in primary and community care (NICE, 2003). These were commissioned by the Department of Health and NICE to complement previously published guidelines for preventing HAIs in hospitals (Pratt et al, 2001). The new guidelines aim to facilitate a seamless approach to using the best evidence for infection prevention practices as patients transfer between primary and secondary health care services.

Informing the future: 2. Developing the role of community IPCNs.

This paper is the second in a two-part series summarising the main findings and conclusions of a review of the roles and responsibilities of infection prevention and control nurses commissioned by the Department of Health. It describes the core work of IPCNs, discusses the strengths and constraints of the current role and makes suggestions for future development.