Barriers and facilitators to screening and treating malnutrition in older adults living in the community: a mixed-methods synthesis.

Background: Malnutrition (specifically undernutrition) in older, community-dwelling adults reduces well-being and predisposes to disease. Implementation of screen-and-treat policies could help to systematically detect and treat at-risk and malnourished patients. We aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing malnutrition screen and treat policies in primary/community care, which barriers have been addressed and which facilitators have been successfully incorporated in existing interventions.

People with enteral tubes and their carers' views of living with a tube and managing associated problems: A qualitative interview study.

Background: Nutrition by enteral tube is a complex therapy requiring significant management to ensure safe, timely delivery of nutrients and avoidance of complications. In the home setting, people with enteral tubes and their carers are required to self-manage the therapy, including the need to cope with problems that arise. Whilst previous studies have conveyed experiences of people with enteral tubes, few have described views on enteral tube problems.

Perioperative nursing: maintaining momentum and staying safe.

Perioperative practice underpins one of the key activities of many healthcare services, but the work of perioperative nurses is little known. A better understanding of their work is important to enable articulation of their contribution to clinical practice. This study observed the practice of perioperative nurses and explored how they described their role.

Development and evaluation of a home enteral nutrition team.

The organisation of services to support the increasing number of people receiving enteral tube feeding (ETF) at home varies across regions. There is evidence that multi-disciplinary primary care teams focussed on home enteral nutrition (HEN) can provide cost-effective care. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a HEN Team in one UK city.

The effect of caffeinated versus decaffeinated drinks on overactive bladder: a double-blind, randomized, crossover study.

Purpose: The primary aims of this study were to test the methodology for use in a future randomized control trial and to investigate the effect of drinking caffeinated versus decaffeinated fluids on symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB) in women.

Design: A double-blind, randomized, crossover study was conducted.

Methods: Fourteen community-dwelling women newly diagnosed with OAB and a history of caffeine consumption were randomly allocated to group A (14-day caffeinated drink period followed by 14-day decaffeinated drink period) or group B (14-day decaffeinated drink period followed by 14-day caffeinated drink period).

A systematic review of the use of volunteers to improve mealtime care of adult patients or residents in institutional settings.

Aims And Objectives: The objective of this review was to locate and assess the evidence obtained from articles reporting empirical research that volunteers improve mealtime care of adults in institutional settings.

Background: Malnutrition in adult patients or residents in institutional care settings is common. Poor standards of mealtime care have been suggested to contribute to the development of malnutrition.

Nutritional screening and assessment tools for older adults: literature review.

Aim: This paper reports a literature review to examine the range of published tools available for use by nurses to screen or assess nutritional status of older adults, and the extent to which validity, reliability, sensitivity, specificity and acceptability of the tools has been addressed.

Background: The incidence of malnutrition in older adults is high. One method by which malnutrition or risk of malnutrition can be detected is by the use of nutritional screening or assessment tools.

Feeding and dementia: a systematic literature review.

Aim: This paper reports a systematic review of the literature on interventions to promote oral nutritional intake of older people with dementia and feeding difficulty between 1993 and 2003.

Background: Older people with dementia commonly experience difficulty with feeding, especially in the later stages of the condition. This topic and related nursing care was reviewed in 1993 and the conclusion was that there was little research into interventions that nurses could use to alleviate feeding difficulty.

The development and evaluation of the use of a virtual learning environment (Blackboard 5) to support the learning of pre-qualifying nursing students undertaking a human anatomy and physiology module.

Students commence nurse education with varying levels of understanding of human anatomy and physiology due to a wide range of previous exposure to the topic. All students, however, are required to attain a broad knowledge of this topic prior to qualification. This paper describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Blackboard 5, and the associated development of appropriate resources aimed at supporting nursing students undertaking a human anatomy and physiology module at Higher Education Level 1.

Nutritional screening and assessment tools for use by nurses: literature review.

Aim: This paper reports a literature review describing the range of published tools available for use by nurses to screen or assess nutritional status of patients/clients, and to examine whether the validity, reliability, sensitivity, specificity and acceptability of the tool have been investigated. Tools developed specifically for use with older adults are not considered in this review. A screening/assessment tool is described as a tool that uses a questionnaire-type format, contains more than one risk factor for malnutrition and gives an assessment of risk.

Evaluating the use of streaming video to support student learning in a first-year life sciences course for student nurses.

Streaming video was used to support the learning of first year student nurses on a Life Sciences module, as one of many innovations designed to increase the range of resources and support available to students. This paper describes the background to this innovation, the procedures adopted and the results of extensive evaluation. The use of streaming video was evaluated in three applications in the module.