The Eastern Region Public Health Observatory.

The Eastern Region Public Health Observatory (ERPHO) became part of Public Health England on April 1 2013. Its website provides population health data, analysis and interpretation to support healthcare professionals in commissioning, prioritising and improving health outcomes.

Alleviating stress in the workplace: advice for nurses.

Stress is an inherent and arguably essential aspect of the nurse's role, with ongoing challenges associated with providing care for patients and their families. However, the level of stress currently being experienced in health care exceeds the capacity of many nurses, resulting in ill health and burnout. This stress can undermine the care and compassion nurses are able to give, a vital concern in health care which was highlighted by the Francis inquiry.

Brain Facts.

The Brain Facts website is a treasure trove of information about neuroscience and the brain. It covers a range of diseases and disorders, as well as the science of ageing, and is relevant to practitioners and students in all branches of nursing and midwifery.

National Numeracy.

The National Numeracy charity provides information and resources to ensure 'numeracy for everyone, for life'. Its website is a fantastic resource for those involved in recruitment or teaching numeracy.

The role of nurses in medicine administration errors.

This article explores the commonly held belief that nurses are to blame for the high rate of medication administration errors in health care. The article argues for a need to move away from a culture of blame and to consider changes to medicine and the increasing complexity of administration as potential reasons for error. Medicine administration should be viewed within the wider context of health care rather than as an isolated process in order to develop effective solutions to reduce medicine-related errors.

How do nurses solve drug calculation problems?

Unlabelled: This article reports on a pilot study that examined the cognitive processes and strategies used by senior nurses to solve written drug calculation problems.

Methodology: Verbal protocol methodology was used to gain and analyse data from eight senior nurses now working in the education setting. The data was analysed using verbal protocol analysis.

Student nurses' perceptions of how they learn drug calculation skills.

Unlabelled: AIMS AND OUTCOMES: This study explored the area of learning styles in relation to drug calculations. Student nurses' perceptions of how they learn drug calculation skills were investigated in order to inform future teaching and learning strategies.

Methodology: A semi-structured questionnaire was given to 67 student nurses to explore their perceptions of teaching and learning strategies implemented during a 2nd year nursing module.

Academic skills: using literature to support your discussion.

A good academic piece of work aims to locate itself within the available body of knowledge on the subject area. Knowledge can come from a range of different sources, each contributing to the body of knowledge on the subject. The final article in this three-part series discusses the importance of appraising and making sense of literature when considering the knowledge relating to a particular subject area.

Simple writing skills for students, part two: researching your subject.

This is the second in a three part series on skills for academic writing. This article gives a brief guide to the principles of using evidence to support ideas in academic writing, how to undertake simple literature searches and how to reference this evidence. The hierarchy and ranges of evidence available to support discussions in work are discussed, along with some guidance on using evidence from websites.

Do calculation errors by nurses cause medication errors in clinical practice? A literature review.

This review aims to examine the literature available to ascertain whether medication errors in clinical practice are the result of nurses' miscalculating drug dosages. The research studies highlighting poor calculation skills of nurses and student nurses have been tested using written drug calculation tests in formal classroom settings [Kapborg, I., 1994.

Resources to help solve drug calculation problems.

This article is the third in a series of articles discussing drug calculations and discusses the resources, in terms of knowledge and skills, that are required to support the use of methods for solving calculation problems (Wright, 2009). The main resources discussed are clinical practice, numeracy knowledge (including number patterns), proportions and factors, and clinical tools such as syringes. These resources can be used as part of formal teaching sessions, or can be developed and practised by individual nurses to improve knowledge and confidence in solving drug calculations.

Developing methods for solving drug dosage calculations.

This second part of a three-part series of articles examining drug calculation skills, focuses on the different methods that can be used to solve drug calculations. It builds on Part 1 (Supporting the development of calculating skills in nurses, 18(7): 399-402), and provides examples of different methods that can be used to plan and solve a range of common calculations, such as weight-based calculations and weight and volume calculations. The framework introduced in Part 1 is used to support the planning and solving of drug administration calculations.

Supporting the development of calculating skills in nurses.

This article discusses a well-known model in mathematical problem solving developed by Polya (1957) and suggests that this could be a beneficial framework to support the development of medication calculation skills. The model outlines four stages to problem solving: understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan and examining the solution. These four stages are discussed in relation to the teaching and assessing of medication skills, drawing on literature from nursing, mathematics education and cognitive psychology.

The assessment and development of drug calculation skills in nurse education--a critical debate.

The drug calculation skill of nurses continues to be a national concern. The continued concern has led to the introduction of mandatory drug calculation skills tests which students must pass in order to go on to the nursing register. However, there is little evidence to demonstrate that nurses are poor at solving drug calculation in practice.

Barriers to effective pain management in sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a long-term condition that would benefit from a long-term conditions approach to its care and management. SCD is growing in prevalence, affecting 10,000-12,000 people in the UK, with SCD sufferers having an increased life expectancy from in the past. The most problematic aspect of managing SCD is management of the pain from vaso-occlusive crises.

Drug calculations part 2: alternative strategies to the formula.

Drug calculations are an essential skill for nurses. The clinical skill of performing a drug calculation has come under recent scrutiny, resulting in the development of essential skills clusters in which pre-registration nurses must be competent before qualifying (Nursing and Midwifery Council 2007). The focus on drug calculation skills places renewed emphasis on how these skills are taught in higher education institutions and how they are learned by students theoretically and in clinical practice.

Drug calculations part 1: a critique of the formula used by nurses.

The role of mathematics is integral to nursing practice, and careful and accurate calculations are important to help prevent medication errors. This two-part article examines different methods for solving drug calculation problems. The first part critiques the commonly taught nursing drug calculation formula.

Can effective teaching and learning strategies help student nurses to retain drug calculation skills?

Student nurses need to develop and retain drug calculation skills in order accurately to calculate drug dosages in clinical practice. If student nurses are to qualify and be fit to practise accurate drug calculation skills, then educational strategies need to not only show that the skills of student nurses have improved but that these skills have been retained over a period of time. A quasi-experimental approach was used to test the effectiveness of a range of strategies in improving retention of drug calculation skills.

Community matrons improve health: patients' perspectives.

Community matrons are integral to the government's plans to reduce hospital bed-use by people with long-term conditions. Community matrons have been given the role of case managing the very high intensity users in an attempt to reduce emergency bed days through preventing admissions and early discharge and through working closely with their patients to develop personalized plans of care and to support and encourage patients to take more control of their condition. To date there has been little research from the patients' perspective into whether community matrons are achieving their aim.

An evaluation of a community matron service from the patients' perspective.

Community matrons are a relatively new government initiative aimed at case managing people with long-term conditions to reduce the number of emergency bed days used in hospitals. Although there have been extensive evaluations of similar case management projects, to date there has been little evaluation of the community matron's role and the perceptions patients have of this new service. One of the main Government agendas for care is to deliver a high quality service driven by the needs of the service users (DH, 2000).

A written assessment is an invalid test of numeracy skills.

Nurses need good clinical numeracy skills to aid them in their clinical practice. There is some concern, however, that the calculation skills learned during pre-registration nurse education have little practical application to nurses. This article discusses the Fitness for Practice initiatives from the Nursing and Midwifery Council which aim to ensure new registrants are numerate.