Physical and psychological needs of patients dying from colo-rectal cancer.

Sixty-one patients suffering from terminal colo-rectal cancer were interviewed in depth by trained research nurses. The nurses used a semistructured interview, a concerns checklist and the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule to determine patients' key physical complaints, their main concerns and whether or not an affective disorder was present. The interviewers' estimates of these aspects were then compared with the assessments of 48 carers and 58 general practitioners (GPs).

Developing and evaluating clinical supervision in the United Kingdom.

This paper provides an overview of the definitions and meaning given to clinical supervision in the United Kingdom. In addition, reference and examples from evaluation research undertaken by the University of Manchester are given which offers insight into the content, focus and purpose of clinical supervision in a variety of clinical specialities. Comment is offered on the value of research and the limitations and possibilities for research methods in evaluating clinical supervision.

Combining the strength-duration curve of the external anal sphincter with manometry for the assessment of faecal incontinence.

Background: The strength-duration curve of a muscle is thought to be a measure of its innervation. This study was designed to evaluate the ability of the strength-duration curve of the external anal sphincter to discriminate between controls and patients with faecal incontinence.

Methods: Forty-three women with faecal incontinence due to sphincter weakness were studied together with 45 age-matched women with no disorders of defaecation.

Clinical supervision: insider reports of a private world.

An exploratory study, funded by the Department of Health, London and the Scottish Home and Health Department, Edinburgh, was conducted over an 18-month period to provide an informed view on possible assessment tools that could be used to assess the impact of clinical supervision (CS) in nursing and to report on the CS activities in 23 selected sites in England and Scotland. The study not only examined the utility of several standardized research instruments, to be reported separately, but also explored the experience of a small sub-sample of nurses (n = 34) engaged in CS, as supervisors and supervisees. Interviews were undertaken to help better understand some of the issues involved around the domains of structure, process and outcome.

Expression of genes that contribute to proliferative and metastatic ability in breast cancer resected during various menstrual phases.

Background: Retrospective studies show significant improvements in survival among women who had breast cancer resected during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle compared with the follicular phase. We hypothesised that tumour tissue would show cyclical changes in expression of genes whose products might contribute to metastatic potential.

Methods: We studied 32 premenopausal women with operable breast cancer.