'Finest of the fine arts'.

Florence Nightingale said nursing is 'the finest of the fine arts'. In the last of our Heart of Nursing series, we consider the similarities between nursing care and art.

Love me tender.

Sympathy, empathy and loving concern transform lives. But to be able to care for people in this way means nurses' hearts must be open and healed.

The beauty of silence.

The distractions around us are not the only things that prevent deep listening. Putting ourselves aside can be a vital means of connecting with another.

The heart of nursing.

In the first of a major new series, Stephen Wright considers what nursing from the heart means and why it is important to patients.

Exploring the evidence around pre-operative fasting practices.

Presenting a patient who is adequately fasted for theatre is still a controversial issue in contemporary nursing practice. This article will explore the evidence on fasting to allow nurses to reflect upon their own practice in this area.

Achieving Magnet accreditation in the UK: a case study at Rochdale NHS Trust.

Aims: This study explored the Magnet accreditation process in the first health care organization outside the USA to attempt to gain the award, Rochdale NHS Trust United Kingdom. The development was supported by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a pilot project and the research conducted as a case study in organizational response to the requirements of a new accreditation system.

Method: Information was collected via 23 face-to-face and three telephone interviews carried out with 11 senior figures at Rochdale during the 2-year period of the Magnet project, from field notes of meetings attended by the researchers and from analysis of documents associated with the project.

The UK's SMARTAL Project: St MARTin's College health students Access to Learning resources whilst on placement.

Background: St Martin's College pre-registration health students spend up to half their course on periods of placement, during which times they need to be able to access learning resources. The project aimed to replicate the Health and Education Northumbria Students Access to Learning resources (HENSAL) project.

Objective: To look at patterns of use and access to learning resources for health students on placement.

'I know why I am here'.

As an African-American, Beverly Malone's path to RCN general secretary has not been easy. Brought up in the deep South, she has faced racism.

Time-dependent observer errors in pulmonary nodule detection.

The work was carried out to investigate differences in visual search characteristics between groups of observers with different levels of experience in the task of pulmonary nodule detection in chest radiology and we report here on these differences in respect of time related decisions. Volunteer observers were divided into three groups depending on their level of expertise. There were eight radiologists, eight radiographers and eight novices.

Spirited approach. Interview by Stephen Wright.

The Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability was established to help healthcare practitioners and others meet the spiritual needs of patients--and explore their own needs The centre was set up in 2004 in Aberdeen. It brings together people from the disciplines of nursing, medicine and divinity. It combines education, research and practice in spirituality and health.