Using FaceReader to explore the potential for harnessing emotional reactions to motivate hand hygiene.

Background: Handwashing is a key strategy for reducing the spread of infection but hand hygiene practises are often poor. Pre-testing messages prior to a campaign is expensive and time consuming.

Objective: This study investigates (1) emotional reactions to handwashing messages based on four different theoretical constructs (Knowledge of Risk, Comfort, Disgust and Social Norms), (2) how images may influence emotional reactions and (3) the influence of emotion, images and theoretical construct on handwashing motivation.

Fostering nursing innovation to prevent and control antimicrobial resistance using approaches from the arts and humanities.

Background: Efforts to address the complex global problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) highlight the need for imagination and innovation. However, nursing has not yet leveraged its potential to innovate to prevent AMR advancing.

Aims: This paper focuses on the initial phase of an ongoing research and development study that seeks to foster nursing imagination and innovation by enhancing the meaningfulness of AMR for practising nurses and by facilitating their creative ideas.

Effectiveness and Efficiency of Persuasive Space Graphics (PSG) in Motivating UK Primary School Children's Hand Hygiene.

Good hand hygiene is necessary to control and prevent infections, but many children do not adequately wash their hands. While there are classroom communications targeted at children, the toilet space, the location of many hand hygiene activities, is neglected. This paper describes an initial evaluation of "123" persuasive space graphics (images and messages integrated within an architectural environment that encourage specific actions).

Evaluating children's handwashing in schools: an integrative review of indicative measures and measurement tools.

Children are a key target of handwashing interventions as washing hands reduces the spread of disease and reliance on antibiotics. While there is guidance for evaluating handwashing with adults in other settings, this is lacking for children in schools. An integrative review of 65 studies where handwashing was measured in schools was conducted to establish which indicative measures (what is measured to evaluate the processes and/or impacts of, handwashing) and measurement tools (data collection instruments) have been applied to evaluate handwashing in schools, and under what circumstances.

Communicating Handwashing to Children, as Told by Children.

Posters encouraging handwashing would seem to offer a low-cost solution addressing barriers to handwashing in schools. However, what barriers can be successfully addressed and, how effective posters targeted at children may be is not known. In this study, using a co-design methodology, seventy-nine children (aged 6 to 11) from three English schools evaluated and generated handwashing messages in two workshops.

The impact of spousal bereavement on hospitalisations: Evidence from the Scottish Longitudinal Study.

This paper estimates the impact of spousal bereavement on hospital inpatient use for the surviving bereaved by following the experience of 94,272 married Scottish individuals from 1991 until 2009 using a difference-in-difference model. We also consider the sample selection issues related to differences in survival between the bereaved and non-bereaved using a simple Cox Proportional-Hazard model. Before conducting these estimations, propensity score approaches are used to re-weight the non-bereaved to generate a more random-like comparison sample for the bereaved.

Effectiveness of interventions for preventing occupational irritant hand dermatitis: a quantitative systematic review protocol.

The objective of this quantitative systematic review is to identify, appraise and synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness of moisturizers, barrier creams, protective gloves, skin protection education and complex interventions (a combination of two or more of the interventions listed) in preventing occupational irritant hand dermatitis (OIHD) in wet workers. These interventions will be compared to an alternative intervention or to usual care (workers regular skin care regime). The specific review question is: "What is the effectiveness of moisturizers, barrier creams, protective gloves, skin protection education and complex interventions in preventing OIHD in wet workers?"

An analysis of policy to practice initiatives in Scotland: what are the key lessons learned?

Aim: The study sought to identify and explain common issues and lessons arising from four national health policy initiatives related to nursing, midwifery and allied health professions (NMAHPs) in Scotland between 2005 and 2010.

Background: The Scottish government has been seeking effective practice developments in NMAHPs through enacting policy initiatives to improve patient care. Despite many of these initiatives being individually evaluated, no integrative systematic study has been undertaken to synthesise better understandings.

Decision precision or holistic heuristic?: Insights on on-site selection of student nurses and midwives.

Concerns about quality of care delivery in the UK have led to more scrutiny of criteria and methods for the selection of student nurses. However few substantive research studies of on-site selection processes exist. This study elicited and interpreted perspectives on interviewing processes and related decision making involved in on-site selection of student nurses and midwives.

Development of a family nursing model for prevention of cancer and other noncommunicable diseases through an appreciative inquiry.

Background: Cancer and non-communicable diseases are a major issue not only for the developed but also developing countries. Public health and primary care nursing offer great potential for primary and secondary prevention of these diseases through community and family-based approaches. Within Thailand there are related established educational curricula but less is known about how graduate practitioners enact ideas in practice and how these can influence policy at local levels.

The economic cost of bereavement in Scotland.

Aspects of the socioeconomic costs of bereavement in Scotland were estimated using 3 sets of data. Spousal bereavement was associated with increased mortality and longer hospital stays, with additional annual cost of around £20 million. Cost of bereavement coded consultations in primary care was estimated at around £2.

A national study of selection processes for student nurses and midwives.

Background: This paper presents the main findings from a project that aimed to evaluate selection processes for the recruitment of student nurses and midwives.

Objectives: The main objectives were to: Design The evaluation was designed principally to achieve explanation, with multiple case study methodology adopted as the main approach. Within this ambit mixed methods of data collection involving questionnaires and interviews were used.

Bereavement and bereavement care in health and social care: provision and practice in Scotland.

The interview study described here aimed to explore current views of and practice in bereavement care and identify priorities for service development in Scotland. Fifty-nine participants who worked with the bereaved in some way, or whose interest was in bereavement or bereavement care, were interviewed. They represented National Health Service organizations, chaplaincy departments, educational institutions, academic departments, voluntary groups, and other related bodies, such as funeral directors.

An evaluation of the process and initial impact of disseminating a nursing e-thesis.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study conducted to evaluate product, process and outcome aspects of the dissemination of a nursing PhD thesis via an open-access electronic institutional repository.

Background: Despite the growth of university institutional repositories which make theses easily accessible via the world wide web, nursing has been very slow to evaluate related processes and outcomes.

Method: Drawing on Stake's evaluation research methods, a case study design was adopted.

A novel framework for reflecting on the functioning of research ethics review panels.

In the past decade structures and processes for the ethical review of UK health care research have undergone rapid change. Although this has focused users' attention on the functioning of review committees, it remains rare to read a substantive view from the inside. This article presents details of processes and findings resulting from a novel structured reflective exercise undertaken by a newly formed research ethics review panel in a university school of nursing and midwifery.

Typologies in nursing: a review of the literature.

The generation and use of typologies is a familiar, but taken for granted, aspect of nursing discourse. In a previous article in Nurse Researcher, Colin Macduff analysed the construction, development and testing of a typology. In this paper, he presents a brief review of the use of typologies within nursing literature.

An analysis of a typology of family health nursing practice.

In this article, Colin Macduff analyses the construction and testing of a typology of family health nursing practice. Following a summary of relevant methods and findings from two linked empirical research studies, more detailed analysis of the conceptual foundations, nature and purpose of the typology is presented. This process serves to exemplify and address some of the issues highlighted in the associated article that reviews the use of typologies within nursing.

The progress of family health nursing in remote and rural Scotland.

Since 2001 the World Health Organization Europe's family health nurse (FHN) role has been developing in remote and rural areas of Scotland. In 2003, an independent evaluation identified a need for facilitation of the FHN role and family-health orientated approaches with local primary health care teams. The Scottish Executive Health Department appointed three part-time, regionally-based family health practice development facilitators (FHPDFs) in December 2003 to work over an 18-month period.

A follow-up study of professionals' perspectives on the development of family health nursing in Scotland: a questionnaire survey.

Background: In 1998 the World Health Organisation Europe introduced the Family Health Nurse concept. The envisaged role of this community-based nurse was seen as multi-faceted and included helping individuals, families and communities to cope with illness and improve their health. During 2000-2002 Scotland led enactment of the concept through education and practice, and the first research study evaluating its operation and impact in remote and rural areas was published in 2003.