Understanding the communication skills that support nurses to provide person-centred care.

Communication is a process of sharing information and developing relationships through interaction. It is essential for nursing care, providing a basis for nurses to establish therapeutic relationships and trust with patients and their families. It is often assumed that nurses can intuitively communicate well; as a result, traditionally there has been a lack of formal training in this area.

Rationale for a Multi-Factorial Approach for the Reversal of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease and MCI: A Review.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial, progressive, neurodegenerative disease typically characterized by memory loss, personality changes, and a decline in overall cognitive function. Usually manifesting in individuals over the age of 60, this is the most prevalent type of dementia and remains the fifth leading cause of death among Americans aged 65 and older. While the development of effective treatment and prevention for AD is a major healthcare goal, unfortunately, therapeutic approaches to date have yet to find a treatment plan that produces long-term cognitive improvement.

ReCODE: A Personalized, Targeted, Multi-Factorial Therapeutic Program for Reversal of Cognitive Decline.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the major cause of age-associated cognitive decline, and in the absence of effective therapeutics is progressive and ultimately fatal, creating a dire need for successful prevention and treatment strategies. We recently reported results of a successful proof-of-concept trial, using a personalized, precision medicine protocol, but whether such an approach is readily scalable is unknown.

Objective: In the case of AD, there is not a single therapeutic that exerts anything beyond a marginal, unsustained, symptomatic effect.

Neuroprotective Herbs for the Management of Alzheimer's Disease.

Background-Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial, progressive, neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by memory loss, personality changes, and a decline in cognitive function. While the exact cause of AD is still unclear, recent studies point to lifestyle, diet, environmental, and genetic factors as contributors to disease progression. The pharmaceutical approaches developed to date do not alter disease progression.

Holistic pain assessment in older people and older people living with dementia.

Pain occurs in a wide range of diseases and long-term conditions associated with ageing and can affect every aspect of an individual's life, reducing their ability to recover, their independence and their quality of life. The assessment of pain is an important aspect of nurses' role and requires them to obtain detailed information on how the older person experiences pain and how pain is affecting their life. However, there are many challenges to effective pain assessment in older people, including challenges concerning communication and cognition.

Use of pain scales and observational pain assessment tools in hospital settings.

Pain is a personal, individual and subjective experience. The complex and dynamic nature of pain makes its assessment and management challenging for healthcare professionals. Various pain scales are available that can assist in identifying the patient's experience of pain; however, these tend to reduce this experience to a measure of pain intensity.

Initial testing of a behavioural pain assessment tool within trauma units.

Pain is common in trauma patients who may be older and also may have cognitive impairment leading to reduced communication about their pain. A number of observational pain assessment tools are available and have been found to have limited clinical usefulness. The Bolton Pain Assessment Tool (BPAT) was developed following a trial of three established tools and includes a section to involve family and/or close carers in the pain assessment process.

'Getting to Know Me': The second phase roll-out of a staff training programme for supporting people with dementia in general hospitals.

Objectives The aims were to evaluate a second phase roll-out of a dementia care training programme for general hospital staff and to further develop two outcome scales: the Confidence in Dementia scale for measuring confidence in working with people with dementia and the Knowledge in Dementia scale for measuring knowledge in dementia. Method Following a 'training the trainers' phase, the study involved the delivery of the 'Getting to Know Me' training programme to a large number of staff (n = 517) across three National Health Service (NHS) Trusts situated in North-West England. The impact of the programme was evaluated using a pre-post design which explored: (i) changes in confidence in dementia, (ii) changes in knowledge in dementia, and (iii) changes in beliefs about behaviours that challenge.

An examination of the prevalence of acute pain for hospitalised adult patients: a systematic review.

Aims And Objective: Aims of the review were to establish the prevalence of acute pain for adults in hospital, to identify the amount of severe or unacceptable pain reported and to examine the prevalence of acute pain within medical units.

Background: Acute Pain Services have been established in the United Kingdom (UK) to improve pain management within surgical settings. Acute pain is a common symptom across all hospital settings.

The assessment and management of pain in an orthopaedic out-patient setting: A case study.

The management of pain is an important aspect of an orthopaedic nurse's role. The aim of this paper is to use an individual case study to demonstrate the role of an out-patient orthopaedic nurse in the identification, assessment and management of pain. This paper describes how pain was identified and managed for a patient in the orthopaedic outpatient department, highlighting that pain and its management are not isolated to the in-patient setting.

The complexity of pain assessment in older people.

Pain is common in older people and its assessment is an important part of the nurse's role. Asking people about their pain is considered the most accurate and reliable assessment because of the subjective nature of pain. A number of simple and easy-to-administer self-rating scales are available to measure pain intensity.

'Getting to Know Me': the development and evaluation of a training programme for enhancing skills in the care of people with dementia in general hospital settings.

Objective: The aims of the study were to report on the development and evaluation of a staff training intervention in dementia care designed for use in the general hospital setting: the 'Getting to Know Me' training programme. The study also aimed to undertake initial psychometric analysis on two new outcome scales designed to measure knowledge and confidence in dementia care.

Methods: The study comprised two phases.

Observing pain management practice on a medical unit following changes arising from an action research study.

Aim: To describe pain assessment practice within a medical unit, to identify factors that may affect the assessment of pain and evaluate changes in practice.

Background: Pain is a problem for patients in all areas of a hospital, but its assessment and management on medical units had not been investigated. An initial assessment of practice found that pain was not consistently assessed and managed on the unit.

Using nitrous oxide and oxygen to control pain in primary care.

Improving pain control is an area where nurses have the clinical expertise to make a significant difference to the quality of patient care. The inhaled analgesic 50% nitrous oxide and 50% oxygen is ideal for use when undertaking short, potentially painful procedures as it is a safe and effective method of pain relief. Many patients in the community require procedures that can be extremely painful.

Multi-disciplinary interpretations of pain in older patients on medical units.

The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of the health care team caring for older patients on acute medical wards. Pain is probably the most distressing symptom experienced by hospital patients. Pain management has traditionally been seen as part of the anaesthetist's role, within the UK, establishment of acute pain teams was a response to the report 'pain after surgery' which cemented the link between pain and surgery.