Should patients still be copied into their letters? A rapid review.

Objective: To systematically identify, synthesise and evaluate the strength of the international evidence on copy letter practice.

Methods: A systematic search identified original research studies on copy letters. Searches were limited by date and language as permitted in rapid review methods guidance.

A qualitative investigation of hospital visitors' experiences using the analytic lens of liminality: Informing nursing practice and policy.

This research aimed to inform nursing practice and policy by identifying satisfying and problematic experiences of hospital visitors during the hospitalisation episode of a significant other. An extensive contextual review revealed that healthcare systems in advanced economies face multiple pressures and that in England, the government leaves the determination of hospital visiting rules to individual trusts. The analytic lens of liminality provides rich interpretations of visitors' accounts and demonstrates the importance to visitors of structure (hospital rules and systems) and communitas (social bonding among liminal personae).

Hospital visitors' experiences at the nurses' station.

Aim To investigate participants' experiences of visiting hospitalised friends and family members in adult acute medical or surgical wards in NHS hospitals in England, to improve knowledge of hospital visiting practices and to inform future policy-making and professional practice. Method A review of the contextual influences and the literature identified that hospital visitors might experience many of the characteristics of liminality, which is a state of being between two social structures or ways of being. In 2013, a total of 17 semi-structured, recorded and transcribed interviews were conducted with participants who had been hospital visitors in the period 2011-2013.