Developing Evidence for Football (Soccer) Reminiscence Interventions Within Long-term Care: A Co-operative Approach Applied in Scotland and Spain.

Loneliness is a common experience within long-term care and, to promote well-being and quality of life among people with dementia, it is important to draw upon a repertoire of strategies that provide social stimulation, companionship, and enjoyment. This paper describes and reflects on a program of co-operative social participatory research that sought to introduce football-focused (ie, soccer-based) reminiscence based in 4 community settings within Spain and Scotland. Findings are reported and inform an original conceptual model that supports the introduction of sustainable approaches to the development of football-focused reminiscence with and for people with dementia.

The therapeutic use of doll therapy in dementia.

Over the next 15 years, the number of people with dementia in the UK will increase significantly. There are clear limitations associated with the sole use of pharmacological interventions to address the cognitive decline and related problems that people with dementia and their carers will experience. As a result, health professionals, including nurses, need to consider the development and use of nonpharmacological therapies to help resolve the distress and decline in social function that people with dementia can experience.

Expectations and voluntary attrition in nursing students.

This paper presents a series of findings generated during a larger study which aimed to develop a theoretical understanding of the reasons why nursing students voluntarily leave pre-registration nursing programmes. In this study, significant incongruence was found to exist between student expectations of pre-registration nursing programmes and the reality of these programmes following entry. The resulting dissonance was identified as an important factor in student decisions to voluntarily withdraw.

Graduate-only pre-registration mental health nursing programmes.

This article examines the perceived benefits of graduate-only pre-registration programmes in mental health nursing, and the potential social aspiration and attrition problems that may result. A number of strategies are identified to assist student integration into higher education and minimise any increase in attrition rates.

The emotional impact of nursing student attrition rates.

Nursing student attrition continues to attract political, organizational and social interest for a number of reasons including: persistent nursing shortages, the age profile of the current nursing population and the economic cost of attrition. While attrition in nursing students is not a new phenomenon, it is surprising that this issue has attracted such little research attention obtained from students who persist, rather than the experiences of students who have withdrawn from pre-registration nursing courses. The emotional impact on students who decide to voluntarily leave has attracted limited theoretical analysis, so a single case study design was selected to help explain the causes of voluntary attrition in nursing students within a School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Natural progression of an unresected supratentorial ependymoma.

Ependymomas are rare gliomas that have been associated with a poor outcome despite aggressive therapy including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. We present a case report of a 16-year-old male with an untreated supratentorial ependymoma that lay dormant for 15 years without significant morbidity. Supratentorial ependymomas are thought to have a better outcome than infratentorial ependymomas, primarily because of the increased likelihood of achieving a gross total resection in the supratentorial space.