Biological variation of CA 15-3, CA 125 and HE 4 on lithium heparinate plasma in apparently healthy Caucasian volunteers.

Objectives: Tumor markers are well-known for being important tools in the support of diagnosis, monitoring of treatment efficacy and follow-up of cancers. CA 125, CA 15-3 and HE 4 have demonstrated potential efficacy in other clinical indications. The main objective was to evaluate the biological variation of these glycoproteins using two different immunoassays in an apparently healthy Caucasian population.

Biological investigations of transfusion reactions: Contribution of symptom-based decisional algorithms.

Objectives: While transfusion is a common and safe therapeutic procedure in health care facilities, transfusion reactions can occur, whether acute or delayed, mild or life-threatening. In face of these reactions, the biological analysis laboratory plays a central role in their diagnosis. The objective of this article is to develop decisional algorithms for laboratory tests to be performed according to the clinical symptoms developed by the patient during or after transfusion.

The age of the opening of the Ice-Free Corridor and implications for the peopling of the Americas.

SignificanceThe Ice-Free Corridor (IFC) has long played a key role in hypotheses about the peopling of the Americas. Earlier assessments of its age suggested that the IFC was available for a Clovis-first migration, but subsequent developments now suggest a pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas that occurred before the opening of the IFC, thus supporting a Pacific coastal migration route instead. However, large uncertainties in existing ages from the IFC cannot preclude its availability as a route for the first migrations.

Challenges of biological monitoring in a hemophilia A patient without inhibitors on emicizumab undergoing major orthopedic surgery: a case report.

A man with severe hemophilia A (HA) without factor VIII (FVIII) inhibitors was admitted for total arthroplasty of his elbow. The patient was being treated with emicizumab, with his last administration given 8 days before surgery. Preoperatively, he received a bolus of 4000 international units (IU) of recombinant (r)FVIII.

Assessing the health benefits of advice services: using research evidence and logic model methods to explore complex pathways.

Poverty is positively associated with poor health; thus, some healthcare commissioners in the UK have pioneered the introduction of advice services in health service locations. Previous systematic reviews have found little direct evidence for a causal relationship between the provision of advice and physical health and limited evidence for mental health improvement. This paper reports a study using a broader range of types of research evidence to construct a conceptual (logic) model of the wider evidence underpinning potential (rather than only proven) causal pathways between the provision of advice services and improvements in health.

Systematic review and narrative synthesis of the effectiveness of contraceptive service interventions for young people, delivered in health care settings.

A systematic review and narrative synthesis to determine the effectiveness of contraception service interventions for young people delivered in health care premises was undertaken. We searched 12 key health and medical databases, reference lists of included papers and systematic reviews and cited reference searches on included articles. All retrieved literature was screened at title and abstract levels, and relevant articles were taken through to full paper appraisal.

Factors influencing advanced practice nurses' ability to promote evidence-based practice among frontline nurses.

Background: Advanced practice nurses (APNs) have an important role in promoting evidence-based practice (EBP) among frontline nurses (FLNs). Factors influencing FLNs' engagement with EBP are well documented but little is known about factors that affect APNs' ability to facilitate evidence in practice.

Aims: To identify factors that influence APNs' ability to promote EBP among FLNs.

Behavioural interventions for weight management in pregnancy: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative data.

Background: There is a rising prevalence of excessive weight gain in pregnancy and an increasing number of pregnant women who are overweight or obese at the start of the pregnancy. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with adverse maternal and neonatal consequences and increases the risk of long-term obesity. Pregnancy therefore may be a key time to prevent excessive weight gain and improve the health of women and their unborn child.

The role of advanced practice nurses in knowledge brokering as a means of promoting evidence-based practice among clinical nurses.

Aim: To identify approaches used by advanced practice nurses to promote evidence-based practice among clinical nurses.

Background: Barriers encountered at individual and organizational levels hinder clinical nurses in their ability to deliver evidence-based practice. Advanced practice nurses are well placed to promote evidence-based practice through interactions with clinical nurses.

Views of contraceptive service delivery to young people in the UK: a systematic review and thematic synthesis.

Background And Methodology: Despite widespread availability of contraceptives and increasing service provision in the UK, rates of teenage pregnancy remain a concern. It has been suggested that young people face particular obstacles in accessing services, leading to a need for specialist provision. This systematic review examined the literature reporting views of service providers and young people.

Views regarding the use of contraception amongst young people in the UK: a systematic review and thematic synthesis.

Objectives: The high rate of teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom continues to be a concern. Factors such as living in a deprived area, poor educational attainment, and living in state-provided care homes have been associated with a greater risk of young motherhood. This study aimed to examine the literature describing perceptions of young people, with a view to gaining a greater understanding of individual contraceptive use and risk factors for young motherhood.

The effectiveness of interventions to establish smoke-free homes in pregnancy and in the neonatal period: a systematic review.

This review considers the effectiveness of interventions to encourage the establishment of smoke-free homes during pregnancy and the neonatal period. A comprehensive search of the literature was undertaken to find relevant studies via electronic databases, citations and reference lists of included studies. The searches identified 17 papers that met the inclusion criteria.

Further challenges to medical dominance? The case of nurse and pharmacist supplementary prescribing.

Doctors have traditionally been viewed as the dominant healthcare profession, with the authority to prescribe medicines, but recent non-medical prescribing initiatives have been viewed as possible challenges to such dominance. Using the example of the introduction of supplementary prescribing in the UK, this study sought to explore whether such initiatives represent a challenge to medical authority. Ten case study sites in England involving primary and secondary care and a range of clinical areas were used to undertake a total of 77 observations of supplementary prescribing consultations and interviews with 28 patients, 11 doctors and nurse and pharmacist prescribers at each site.

Factors influencing the contribution of advanced practice nurses to promoting evidence-based practice among front-line nurses: findings from a cross-sectional survey.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study to identify factors influencing advanced practice nurses' contribution to promoting evidence-based practice among front-line nurses.

Background: Despite widespread recognition that care should be evidence-based, nurses experience challenges implementing evidence-based practice. As opinion leaders, advanced practice nurses can influence the practice of front-line nurses by promoting research use.

Systematic review and narrative synthesis of the effectiveness of contraceptive service interventions for young people, delivered in educational settings.

Study Objective: This review was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of contraception service interventions for young people that were delivered in educational settings.

Design: We conducted a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Setting: Interventions were included where they were delivered in educational institutions, including schools, colleges, and pupil referral units.

Factors relating to the uptake of interventions for smoking cessation among pregnant women: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis.

Introduction: The review had the aim of investigating factors enabling or discouraging the uptake of smoking cessation services by pregnant women smokers.

Methods: The literature was searched for papers relating to the delivery of services to pregnant or recently pregnant women who smoke. No restrictions were placed on study design.

Learning to prescribe - pharmacists' experiences of supplementary prescribing training in England.

Background: The introduction of non-medical prescribing for professions such as pharmacy and nursing in recent years offers additional responsibilities and opportunities but attendant training issues. In the UK and in contrast to some international models, becoming a non-medical prescriber involves the completion of an accredited training course offered by many higher education institutions, where the skills and knowledge necessary for prescribing are learnt.

Aims: to explore pharmacists' perceptions and experiences of learning to prescribe on supplementary prescribing (SP) courses, particularly in relation to inter-professional learning, course content and subsequent use of prescribing in practice.

A content analysis of mass media sources in relation to the MMR vaccine scare.

In light of the mass media coverage that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine received as a result of questions raised about its safety, a content analysis of mass media articles about the MMR vaccine was undertaken. The analysis examined 227 articles published in five different information sources in a 2 month period. The analysis looked at 94 content-based variables and the key attributes of these articles including word count and date of publication.

Stakeholders' views of UK nurse and pharmacist supplementary prescribing.

Objectives: Supplementary prescribing (SP) by pharmacists and nurses in the UK represents a unique approach to improving patients' access to medicines and better utilizing health care professionals' skills. Study aims were to explore the views of stakeholders involved in SP policy, training and practice, focusing upon issues such as SP benefits, facilitators, challenges, safety and costs, thereby informing future practice and policy.

Method: Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 purposively sampled UK stakeholders, including pharmacist and nurse supplementary prescribers, doctors, patient groups representatives, academics and policy developers.

Nonmedical prescribing in the United kingdom: developments and stakeholder interests.

This article reflects upon the introduction of nonmedical prescribing in the United Kingdom and describes the historical developments within the National Health Service over the last 2 decades, together with an assessment of the impact of this prescribing for various stakeholders, drawing upon relevant research. We argue that a number of issues are associated with the introduction and development of nonmedical prescribing, including benefits to patients, the promise of increased autonomy for professions such as nursing and pharmacy, explicit and implicit government objectives, and threats to medical dominance and autonomy.

Nurse and pharmacist supplementary prescribing in the UK--a thematic review of the literature.

Objectives: Supplementary prescribing (SP) represents a recent development in non-medical prescribing in the UK, involving a tripartite agreement between independent medical prescriber, dependent prescriber and patient, enabling the dependent prescriber to prescribe in accordance with a patient-specific clinical management plan (CMP). The aim in this paper is to review, thematically, the literature on nurse and pharmacist SP, to inform further research, policy and education.

Methods: A review of the nursing and pharmacy SP literature from 1997 to 2007 was undertaken using searches of electronic databases, grey literature and journal hand searches.