Leaving it at the gate: A phenomenological exploration of resilience in mental health nursing staff in a high-secure personality disorder unit.

Aims And Design: This study reports a qualitative phenomenological investigation of resilience in nursing staff working in a high-secure personality disorder service.

Method: Interviews were carried out with six nursing staff, and these captured the richness and complexity of the lived experience of nursing staff.

Results: Four superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: Management of emotions: participants showed an awareness that their job is about giving care to patients who may present with very challenging behaviours.

Developing a dementia friendly approach to consent in dementia research.

Objectives: This paper explores the process of gaining consent from the perspectives of people living with dementia, their relatives/carers, and service providers. This is developed based on new primary qualitative research and addresses a gap in critical reflection on the practice and ethical process of research consent.

Methods: A qualitative approach was used to conduct this research through the implementation of four focus groups run with people living with dementia ( = 12), two focus groups with family members ( = 6), two focus groups with service staff ( = 5).

The Balanced Participation Model: Sharing opportunities for giving people with early-stage dementia a voice in research.

Much has been written about the stigmatisation and discrimination ascribed to people with dementia in society and in research. This marginalisation has led to a silencing of their voices and their experiences both on a national and international scale, and an often limited understanding about how people with dementia experience daily life. In this study, a participatory research project was conducted in collaboration with people with early-stage dementia who attended an adult school in Denmark.

Promoting prompt help-seeking for symptoms - assessing the impact of a gynaecological cancer leaflet on presentations to primary care: a record-based randomised control trial.

Background: Information leaflets have been shown to significantly improve awareness of the symptoms of gynaecological cancers and to reduce perceived barriers to seeking medical help. This record-based, parallel, randomised control trial study aimed to assess whether receipt of a leaflet would change the behaviour of women experiencing symptoms indicative of gynaecological cancers by prompting them to visit their general practitioner (GP).

Methods: 15,538 women aged 40 years or over registered with five general practices in Northamptonshire, UK were randomised to two groups using the SystmOne randomise facility.

"Am I a student or a Healthcare Assistant?" A qualitative evaluation of a programme of prenursing care experience.

Aim: To examine the experiences of prenursing healthcare assistants (HCA) during a 6-month programme of prenursing care experience.

Background: Care experience prior to commencing programmes of nurse education is broadly considered to be advantageous. However, it is not clear how formal care experience prior to nurse education has an impact on the values and behaviours of the aspirant nurse.

'Going into the unknown': experiences of male patients in secure settings during environmental transition.

Little is known about the experiences of male patients in secure mental health and intellectual disability units during environmental transition. We interviewed patients before (n = 9) and after (n = 8) a side-to-side security transition from medium-secure wards in an older building to new wards in a purpose-built building. We inquired about transitional experiences in general and about this transition specifically.

Partners in projects: preparing for public involvement in health and social care research.

In recent years, several UK and, international funders of health and social care related research have adopted the policy of requiring explicit evidence of the 'public' voice in all aspects of project design. For many academic researchers engaged within research, evaluations or audit projects, this formal requirement to actively engage members of the public will present them with both benefits and challenges to securing knowledgeable, skilled, and confident lay representation onto project teams. This could potentially lead to the exploitation of those individuals who are available, appropriately informed, and adequately prepared for such activities.

Enabling patients with respiratory symptoms to access chest X-rays on demand: the experience of the walk-in service in Corby, UK.

Background: UK clinical guidance for lung cancer (NICE 141) includes pathways for chest X-rays (CXRs). Many patients fulfilling the criteria do not receive one, either because they do not consult their doctor or because their doctor does not refer them. The town of Corby, UK, has particularly high incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer and was chosen as a pilot site for a new, patient-requested X-ray service.

Exploring attitudes and behaviour towards teenage pregnancy.

This article illustrates a methodological approach, which actively engaged 14 to 19 year olds in the research process. This two phase study explored the attitudes and behaviours of young people towards teenage pregnancy in Northamptonshire, UK. The first phase involved training young mothers to lead six focus groups with three specifically targeted 'at-risk' groups; other teenage mothers, young offenders and looked after children (from 14 to 19 years of age).