What has been the impact of the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) scheme in the UK on information provided with herbal products bought over the counter?

Background: In 2011 there was a strengthening of European Union (EU) legislation on the licencing of herbal products which, in the UK, resulted in the introduction of the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) scheme. This scheme sets out standards for the safety and quality of herbal medicines and includes the provision of information to the customer on the safe use of the product. The aim of this study is to replicate a survey undertaken in 2011, prior to the implementation of the THR scheme, and evaluate the impact of this scheme on the information provided with herbal products bought over-the-counter.

Using laws to further public health causes: the Healthy Prisons Agenda.

In this commentary, we propose using laws in implementing the Healthy Prisons Agenda. We evaluate the efficacy of laws in tackling health inequalities in prisons, provide recommendations on how states can uphold their international commitments that safeguard prisoners' right to healthcare, and frame prisons as health-promoting settings. We also assess the challenges that can thwart this proposal, such as the non-binding nature of international obligations, global prison overcrowding and the dependency on prison governors and staff for implementation of the Agenda.

Barriers and facilitators to implementing dementia care mapping in care homes: results from the DCM™ EPIC trial process evaluation.

Background: Psychosocial person-centred interventions are considered best practice for addressing complex behaviours and care needs such as agitation and anxiety, and for improving the quality of life of people with dementia in care homes. Dementia Care Mapping (DCM™) is an established practice development tool and process aimed to help care home staff deliver more person-centred care. To date, few studies have evaluated the efficacy of DCM™ and have found mixed results.

Applying a psychosocial pathways model to improving mental health and reducing health inequalities: Practical approaches.

Background: Mental health can help explain how social inequalities impact on health. Many current public health challenges are shaped by social, economic and environmental conditions that take a mental toll on society.

Purpose: This article describes a conceptual framework illustrating the psychosocial pathways that link the wider conditions to health behaviours and outcomes.

Measuring subjective well-being from a multidimensional and temporal perspective: Italian adaptation of the I COPPE scale.

Background: The objective of this study is to present the psychometric and cultural adaptation of the I COPPE scale to the Italian context. The original 21-item I COPPE was developed by Isaac Prilleltensky and colleagues to integrate a multidimensional and temporal perspective into the quantitative assessment of people's subjective well-being. The scale comprises seven domains (Overall, Interpersonal, Community, Occupation, Psychological, Physical, and Economic well-being), which tap into past, present, and future self-appraisals of well-being.

A knowledge translation project on community-centred approaches in public health.

This article examines the development and impact of a national knowledge translation project aimed at improving access to evidence and learning on community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing. Structural changes in the English health system meant that knowledge on community engagement was becoming lost and a fragmented evidence base was seen to impact negatively on policy and practice. A partnership started between Public Health England, NHS England and Leeds Beckett University in 2014 to address these issues.

Men's accounts of infertility within their intimate partner relationships: an analysis of online forum discussions.

Objective: This article aims to provide insights into men's accounts of infertility in the context of their intimate partnerships.

Background: Although we are beginning to understand that men experience the emotions of infertility acutely, little is known about how such emotions impact on men's intimate partner relationships. Evidence suggests that infertility can impact intimate partner relationships (both positively and negatively), but there is a paucity of research around how men talk about such relationship impacts, and how they share their stories with other men.

Implementing Dementia Care Mapping as a practice development tool in dementia care services: a systematic review.

Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) is an observational tool set within a practice development process. Following training in the method, DCM is implemented via a cyclic process of briefing staff, conducting mapping observations, data analysis and report preparation, feedback to staff and action planning. Recent controlled studies of DCM's efficacy have found heterogeneous results, and variability in DCM implementation has been indicated as a potential contributing factor.

Play Within the Pre-registration Children's Nursing Curriculum Within the United Kingdom: A Content Analysis of Programme Specifications.

Purpose: To determine the number of programme specifications which cite play within the curriculum and in what context. Play is an essential part of childhood. Therefore we might expect nurses caring for children to be trained in how to facilitate play within their clinical areas.

What works in delivering dementia education or training to hospital staff? A critical synthesis of the evidence.

Background: The quality of care delivered to people with dementia in hospital settings is of international concern. People with dementia occupy up to one quarter of acute hospital beds, however, staff working in hospitals report lack of knowledge and skills in caring for this group. There is limited evidence about the most effective approaches to training hospital staff on dementia.

Exploring the Potential for Secondary uses of Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) Data for Improving the Quality of Dementia Care.

The reuse of existing datasets to identify mechanisms for improving healthcare quality has been widely encouraged. There has been limited application within dementia care. Dementia Care Mapping is an observational tool in widespread use, predominantly to assess and improve quality of care in single organisations.

Support for mentors-an exploration of the issues.

Nursing and midwifery mentors are fundamental to the process of ensuring future practitioners are adequately prepared and supported during the practice element of their degrees. However, there is evidence to suggest that the infrastructure and support for the mentoring role is not always adequate. This article provides a review of some of the issues including the emotional labour associated with supporting pre-registration students, difficulties in accessing protected learning time for mentoring, and lack of supportive networks for mentors to develop within the role.

A qualitative synthesis of the positive and negative impacts related to delivery of peer-based health interventions in prison settings.

Background: Peer interventions involving prisoners in delivering peer education and peer support in a prison setting can address health need and add capacity for health services operating in this setting. This paper reports on a qualitative synthesis conducted as part of a systematic review of prison-based peer interventions. One of the review questions aimed to investigate the positive and negative impacts of delivering peer interventions within prison settings.

Starting where I am: a grounded theory exploration of mindfulness as a facilitator of transition in living with a long-term condition.

Aim: To explore how practising mindfulness affects people's experiences of living with a long-term condition.

Background: Increasing evidence suggest that mindfulness meditation-based interventions benefit people with long-term conditions, particularly in terms of psychological well-being. Most evidence, however, relates to short-term outcomes and limited information exists about how people use mindfulness in the longer term and how this affects their experience of living with their condition.

Using sense-making theory to aid understanding of the recognition, assessment and management of pain in patients with dementia in acute hospital settings.

Background: The recognition, assessment and management of pain in hospital settings is suboptimal, and is a particular challenge in patients with dementia. The existing process guiding pain assessment and management in clinical settings is based on the assumption that nurses follow a sequential linear approach to decision making. In this paper we re-evaluate this theoretical assumption drawing on findings from a study of pain recognition, assessment and management in patients with dementia.

Improving interprofessional competence in undergraduate students using a novel blended learning approach.

Interprofessional simulation interventions, especially when face-to-face, involve considerable resources and require that all participants convene in a single location at a specific time. Scheduling multiple people across different programs is an important barrier to implementing interprofessional education interventions. This study explored a novel way to overcome the challenges associated with scheduling interprofessional learning experiences through the use of simulations in a virtual environment (Web.

What matters to users of services? An explorative study to promote shared decision making in health care.

Background: Involving service users and carers in decisions about their health care is a key feature of health-care practice. Professional health and social care students need to develop skills and attributes to best enable this to happen.

Aims: The aims were to explore service user and carer perceptions of behaviours, attributes and context required to enable shared decision making; to compare these perceptions to those of students and academic staff with a view to utilizing the findings to inform the development of student assessment tools.