User competency is still a major factor affecting analytical performance of glucose meters in patient service.

Objectives: This study investigated the analytical performance of glucose meters while in use for 1.5 years in a hospital setting. The effect of user competency, strip stability and strip lot number variation on the performance of blood glucose meters was investigated.

Spiritual assessment: developing an assessment tool.

Patients' 'spirituality' is widely considered to be a factor that nurses need to consider in their assessments. But Jeanette Power suggests ways in which assessments can be undertaken, and questions whether one assessment tool can prove adequate in measuring the significance of spirituality in the lives of individuals, all of whom may interpret its meaning differently?