Lessons learned from the experiences of newly qualified therapeutic radiography students who transitioned to work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic raised profound questions regarding healthcare values and responsibility for managing collective and individual needs. This context presents a unique opportunity to explore the experiences of newly qualified therapeutic radiographers transitioning to work.

Method: An interpretivist qualitative design used one-to-one, semi-structured interviews.

An exploration of managing emotional labour and maintaining professional integrity in children's hospice nursing.

Background: Research exploring nurse-parent relationships in children's hospices is rare.

Aim: To investigate how children's hospice nurses manage emotional labour and professional integrity in their long-term relationships with parents.

Methods: A purposive sample of six children's nurses, from hospices across England, recorded audio diaries and participated in telephone interviews.

A rapid review of patient-reported outcomes investigated in the context of advanced renal cell cancer or advanced hepatocellular cancer.

Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are key indicators of health status and functioning, coming directly from the patient. Comprehensive monitoring of PROs enables implementation of person-centred care. Currently, the PROs that patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) consider of greatest importance remains unknown.

Consensus-based antimicrobial resistance and stewardship competencies for UK undergraduate medical students.

Background: In the UK there is limited coverage of antimicrobial stewardship across postgraduate curricula and evidence that final year medical students have insufficient and inconsistent antimicrobial stewardship teaching. A national undergraduate curriculum for antimicrobial resistance and stewardship is required to standardize an adequate level of understanding for all future doctors.

Objectives: To provide a UK national consensus on competencies for antimicrobial resistance and stewardship for undergraduate medical education.

Exploring the STEP-uP to practice: A survey of UK Lead Midwives for Education views of the STudent midwife Extended Practice Placement during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: to assess the effect of implementation of the extended placement option available to midwifery students during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Online survey open from 2nd June 2020 to 15th July 2020.

Setting: United Kingdom.

Expectations of therapeutic radiography students in Wales about transitioning to practice during the Covid-19 pandemic as registrants on the HCPC temporary register.

Introduction: The Covid-19 crisis continues to profoundly impact on radiotherapy practice in the UK. We explore the views of therapeutic radiographer students on entering their first post in unique circumstances as a means to evaluate the support that may minimise negative impacts on their transition to practitioners.

Method: Focus groups were conducted outside of students' final year educational programme and immediately prior to them starting work.

Evaluating Canadian Radiation Therapists and UK Therapeutic Radiographers' Experiences and Opinions of a Safety Strap to Secure Patients during Radiotherapy.

Introduction: A serious patient safety incident at a cancer centre in Ontario, Canada, saw a patient fall from an elevated treatment couch. A regional investigation recommended the use of a securing safety strap. The authors evaluate the value of the strap through the experiences of the radiation therapists' who use it.

The volume of liver irradiated during modern free-breathing breast radiotherapy: Implications for theory and practice.

Introduction: Incidental liver irradiation during breast radiotherapy can increase the risk of second primary malignancy and induce adverse inflammatory states. This study establishes the volume of liver irradiated during free-breathing breast radiotherapy. Novel associations between liver dose-volume data and systemic interleukin-6 soluble receptor and blood counts are evaluated.

Soluble interleukin-6 receptor mediated fatigue highlights immunological heterogeneity of patients with early breast cancer who undergo radiation therapy.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the associations between dose-volume parameters of localized breast irradiation, longitudinal interleukin-6 soluble receptor (sIL-6R), and leukocyte counts as markers of an immune-mediated response and fatigue as a centrally-driven behavior.

Methods And Materials: This prospective cohort study recruited 100 women who were diagnosed with stage 0-IIIa breast cancer, prescribed 40 Gy in 15 fractions over 3 weeks adjuvant radiation therapy, and had no prior or concurrent chemotherapy. Dose-volume parameters were derived from treatment plans and related to serum sIL-6R concentrations, leukocyte counts, and a validated measure of self-reported fatigue at baseline, after 10 and 15 fractions, and 4 weeks after radiation therapy.

Originality and the PhD: what is it and how can it be demonstrated?

Aim: To explore the concept of originality in doctoral research and outline ways in which doctoral candidates can begin to identify, formulate and articulate their individual contributions to knowledge.

Background: Originality is a major feature of doctoral research but considerable confusion exists regarding what can and cannot constitute originality in the PhD and how the contribution to knowledge can be demonstrated clearly.

Data Sources: This is a discussion paper.