Chemosensory Loss during a Traumatic Brain Injury Suggests a Central Pathway for the Rehabilitation of Anosmia.

Currently, no method has been developed for rehabilitating olfaction in anosmic patients following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Here a method for rehabilitation is described which is based on a recent finding that the human posterior pyriform cortex (PPC) generates predictive odor "search images" in advance of an encounter with an olfactory stimulus. The search image enhances perceptual sensitivity and allows the odor it represents to be identified without input occurring from the olfactory receptors or bulbs.

Improving influenza vaccination uptake among frontline healthcare workers.

Vaccination of healthcare workers against seasonal influenza is recommended to protect staff, their families and patients. This study reports the findings of a survey conducted to explore how to improve uptake of influenza vaccination among staff at a specialist NHS hospital Trust. Responses to the survey were received from 376 members of staff (a 38.

Student nurse non-attendance in relation to academic performance and progression.

Background: High levels of non-attendance are reported in nurse education programmes even though literal interpretation of UK national guidelines implies mandatory student attendance is a requirement for all elements of pre-registration undergraduate programmes.

Objectives: To examine relationships between undergraduate student nurse non-attendance, academic performance and progression.

Design: A quantitative study using audit approaches was undertaken.

Taste-Elicited Activity in Facial Muscle Regions in 5-8-Week-Old Infants.

The state of development of the sense of taste in humans during the first few months of life is only partially understood. Since taste plays a critical role in the feeding and nutrition of infants a better understanding of taste development during early life is required. Currently, information about the sense of taste in pre-verbal infants is obtained by analysis of videotaped facial expressions using the Baby FACS coding system.

Consumer Satisfaction with Telerehabilitation Service Provision of Alternative Computer Access and Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Telerehabilitation (TR) services for assistive technology evaluation and training have the potential to reduce travel demands for consumers and assistive technology professionals while allowing evaluation in more familiar, salient environments for the consumer. Sixty-five consumers received TR services for augmentative and alternative communication or alternative computer access, and consumer satisfaction was compared with twenty-eight consumers who received exclusively in-person services. TR recipients rated their TR services at a median of 6 on a 6-point Likert scale TR satisfaction questionnaire, although individual responses did indicate room for improvement in the technology.

Don't go with the 'FLO' - a student mobile texting service to enhance nursing student retention.

Background: The review undertaken revealed that there is an abundance of literature concerning retention and the high levels of attrition among undergraduate students and of relevance here, nurse education. The study undertaken evaluated the use of mobile phone automated texts designed to provide information, support and reassurance to help alleviate the stress and anxieties that some undergraduate nursing students experience during the early phase of their studies and which can lead to some students leaving their programme.

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate how use of automated mobile phone texts, using a system known as FLO, could usefully supplement pastoral support, as an intervention to reduce attrition among undergraduate nursing students.

Finessing incivility: The professional socialisation experiences of student nurses' first clinical placement, a grounded theory.

Background: Clinical practice is where student nurses are socialised into a professional role and acquire the distinct behaviour, attitudes and values of the nursing profession. Getting it right at the outset can maximise the development of a professional identity and the transmission of robust value systems.

Objectives: To explore the impact of the first clinical placement on the professional socialisation of adult undergraduate student nurses in the United Kingdom.

Reduced taste function and taste papillae density in children with chronic kidney disease.

Background: Taste loss may contribute to the loss of appetite in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and other serious medical conditions that result in malnutrition. Traditional methods for measurement of taste loss commonly use aqueous tastant solutions that can induce nausea, vomiting, or even pain in the mouth. An alternative is to measure fungiform papillae density on the anterior tongue since this correlates with taste sensitivity.

Issues concerning recruitment, retention and attrition of student nurses in the 1950/60s: a comparative study.

Aim: To investigate student nurse recruitment and attrition in the 1950' and 1960s and undertake comparisons to modern day concerns. The study was set in one hospital in the U.K.

A context analysis of student training records dating from the 1950/1960s: what were desirable and undesirable student nurse characteristics?

Aim: The aim of this study is to identify what were desirable and undesirable student nurse characteristics in the 1950/1960s and relate them to those who had successfully completed the programme and gained State Registration and those who had not. A further aim was to undertake comparisons with modern day values of what are viewed as desirable traits in nurses.

Background: In the 1950/1960s student nurses were hospital employees.

Changes in fungiform papillae density during development in humans.

The anterior region of the human tongue ceases to grow by 8-10 years of age and the posterior region at 15-16 years. This study was conducted with 30 adults and 85 children (7-12 year olds) to determine whether the cessation of growth in the anterior tongue coincides with the stabilization of the number and distribution of fungiform papillae (FP) on this region of the tongue. This is important for understanding when the human sense of taste becomes adult in function.

Perceptions of the benefits and challenges of the role of advanced practice nurses in nurse-led out-of-hours care in Hong Kong: a questionnaire study.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify the factors that nurses perceive may facilitate or hinder the development of advanced practice nurse roles in Hong Kong.

Background: Advanced practice nurses are increasingly prominent in nurse-led out-of-hours care in Hong Kong in response to changes to junior doctors' hours of work.

Setting: Three five-day workshops for Hong Kong-based advanced practice nurses were offered in partnership with UK clinicians.

A comparison of sniff bottle staircase and olfactometer-based threshold tests.

Olfactometers have been gaining popularity as research tools, but they have yet to replace established testing procedures in a variety of laboratory and clinical settings, including absolute threshold tests. In this research, we designed and operated a simple olfactometer with which to assess threshold. To do this, we used a method-of-adjustment test that was compared to the three-alternative forced choice ascending sniff bottle staircase method, which is currently a standard threshold test procedure.

Using mixed methods David Plowright £24.99 224pp 9781848601086 1848601085 [Formula: see text].

INITIAL PERUSAL of the content of this publication did not reveal anything new. However, this book is well presented and has plenty of tables which help simplify what is often a dense subject.

Evaluation of smoking on olfactory thresholds of phenyl ethyl alcohol and n-butanol.

The effect of smoking on the sense of smell remains inconclusive. Previous research suggests that this is due to idiosyncratic acuity dependent on the odorants used in testing. Specifically, it appears that smokers have reduced olfactory acuity to odorants found within cigarettes compared with odorants not within cigarettes.

Why do students fail to disclose health problems?

Background: At the university where this study took place, pre-qualifying healthcare students had previously been enrolled on programmes and were found to have pre-existing and ongoing health problems, which caused difficulties for some students during clinical placements.

Aim: To develop a web-based information zone dealing with students' concerns about fitness-to-practise issues.

Method: A three-stage study involving an online student survey, in-depth student interviews and development of a university web-based information zone was carried out.

A study identifying the difficulties healthcare students have in their role as a healthcare student when they are also an informal carer.

There is a growing body of literature concerning the needs of informal carers, however, there is little relating to the needs of carers who are also university students. There are a number of publications concerning the difficulties university studies may cause and in particular the stress that some healthcare students endures when they undertake clinical placements. Being an informal carer has the potential to aggravate any difficulties students may have in the normal course of their studies.

Resilience to care: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature concerning the experiences of student nurses in adult hospital settings in the UK.

Aim: The aim of the study was to gain new insights into the experiences and accounts of adult pre-registration student nurse clinical allocations in hospital settings in the UK.

Design: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature was undertaken.

Data Sources: Pertinent papers published from 1990 to 2010 were identified through searches of Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Proquest, Medline (PubMed), and the British Nursing Index.

A Marriage of Convenience? A qualitative study of colleague supervision of Master's level dissertations.

The focus of this study is colleague supervision of Master's level dissertations. A qualitative study was undertaken and in-depth interviews with research supervisors (n=7) and students (n=7) who had experienced colleague supervision of masters' level dissertations in the previous four years were undertaken. Independent 'outsider' researchers were deployed to undertake the interviews.

Obesity interventions for people with a learning disability: an integrative literature review.

Aim: This paper is a review of the effectiveness of non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical interventions designed to promote weight loss in people with a learning disability and how qualitative evidence on people's experiences and motivations can help understanding of the quantitative research outcomes.

Background: The health risks of obesity underline the importance of effective evidence-based weight loss interventions for people with learning disabilities as they are at increased risk of being overweight.

Data Sources: Papers published from 1998 to 2009 were identified through searches of the Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Proquest, Medline (PubMed), PSYCHINFO databases, and the Cochrane Library.

Chemosensory function and food preferences of children with cystic fibrosis.

A major problem for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is the maintenance of adequate nutrition to maintain normal growth. The hypotheses that poor nutrition could be due to smell and/or taste dysfunction has been pursued in several studies with contradictory results. None, however, investigated whether inadequate nutrition is due to CF patients having different liking for foods compared to healthy children and whether liking can be linked to specific changes in smell or taste function.

An evaluation of an online numeracy assessment tool.

Aim: To evaluate users' perceptions of an online numeracy assessment tool in terms of improving their numeracy and confidence in mathematical calculation.

Method: A quantitative and qualitative survey evaluation was performed. An online questionnaire was sent to 695 users of the tool.

Qualitative evaluation of a young carers' initiative.

This focus of this article is a qualitative, evaluative study of three Crossroads young carers projects. Focus group discussions took place with 24 young people aged 11-16 years. Data were analysed using a thematic content analysis approach.