Issue 31: 12 November 2015
Quality and Safety eBulletin
Welcome to the Quality and Safety eBulletin
This eBulletin brings you the latest news from key national agencies and initiatives across
the UK, under themed headings.
We welcome your feedback on the eBulletin. Please contact us at
qualityandsafety@rcn.org.uk.
Claire Constable, Sarah Raybone and Ross Scrivener
RCN Nursing Department
Quality and Safety part-themed eBulletin: STOP Pressure Ulcer Day
This part-themed Quality and Safety eBulletin focuses on STOP
Pressure Ulcer Day.
STOP Pressure Ulcer Day
The European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel invites you to take part in STOP Pressure Ulcer Day on
19 November 2015. This worldwide event aims to publicise pressure ulcer prevention and
treatment to the public and health care professionals. Visit the website for links to their
promotional materials.
Visit the STOP Pressure Ulcer Day website.
The real cost of pressure ulcers
As the national worldwide pressure ulcer prevention day approaches, Anna Crossley, RCN
Professional Lead for Acute, Emergency and Critical Care, blogs about the human cost of pressure
ulcers and the key role nurses must continue to play in achieving the reduction of their
development.
Read the blog.
Stop the pressure website
Stop The Pressure is an NHS England programme which aims to eliminate all avoidable pressure
ulcers. Visit the website for information on pressure ulcer prevention including videos, webinars,
patient stories and step by step guides. You can also follow Stop the pressure on Twitter:
@STPressure
Visit the Stop the pressure website.
Afternoon tea drop-in: Stop the pressure - 19 November 2015
Join us in our London library space for Stop the pressure day. Learn more by discovering key
resources and chat to Anna Crossley, RCN Professional Lead for Acute, Emergency and Critical
Care. All whilst enjoying a free cup of tea and a biscuit (or two).
For more information, see: Afternoon tea drop-in: Stop the pressure.
Latest RCN highlights 12 November 2015
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). NMC revalidation: next steps. An update from the RCN on
NMC revalidation, plus frequently asked questions.
This is defence nursing: the RCN guide for nursing staff. To mark the closure of UK combat
operations in Afghanistan and the contribution of defence to historic events, such as support
during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, the Royal College of Nursing Defence Nursing Forum
(RCN DNF) worked with Nursing Standard to capture the professional contribution of UK defence
nursing.
Defence nurses’ experiences from Iraq and Afghanistan: the RCN defence nursing forum’s oral
histories project. This short booklet aims to provide supplementary information on the project
which can be used as a resource and further background to the oral histories project itself.
Welcome to the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom: our policy and international
work. We are very pleased to introduce you to the world’s largest professional body and trade
union for nursing staff and to offer further information on our policy and international work.
RCN position statement. The role of the designated nurse for looked after children and named
nurse for looked after children in England. This position statement by the RCN aims to clarify the
roles and responsibilities of the designated nurse for looked after children and the named nurse for
looked after children.
Managing the disposal of pregnancy remains: RCN guidance for nursing and midwifery
practice. The aim of this publication is to enable nurses and midwives to have in place appropriate
systems and processes to ensure the safe and appropriate disposal of pregnancy remains, where
the pregnancy has ended before the 24th week of gestation.
RCN response to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) child mortality report. The
ESRC have released a report placing Britain fourth highest for child mortality rates amongst
Western countries. The report was based on a study by Professor Colin Pritchard of Bournemouth
University.
Public Health cuts “adding to the score of human misery”. The Department of Health has
announced the decision to impose equal cuts of 6.2% on all local authority health budgets,
jeopardising preventative public health measures and cementing health inequalities.
New RCN project celebrates military nurses on Remembrance Sunday. The RCN is launching a new
project celebrating the immense contribution of nursing staff to the British military.
NICE Consultation Gateway
The NICE consultation gateway pages provide information about the work that NICE does, current
NICE consultations and new topics for guideline and guidance development, and how you can get
involved. We will highlight these pages in every bulletin.
You can find out the latest on NICE consultations and new topics in development at Current
consultations and topics in development.
RCN events
The RCN organises an annual programme of events and conferences, including RCN Congress, to
support all health care professionals with their personal and professional development. See:

RCN national events

England regions and branches

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales.
Events
Christmas carol service. RCN President Cecilia Anim is hosting a carol service at Cavendish Square
on Wednesday 2 December 2015. The event will be supported by a local community choir.
SPACE for care homes. Do you want to improve care for residents living with dementia? 12
November 2015 - RCN HQ, 20 Cavendish Square, London, W1 0RN. Following our highly evaluated
SPACE programme¹ the Royal College of Nursing, with support from the RCN Foundation, will be
introducing these principles for a select group of care homes that provide nursing care in the
UK. We are looking for teams to join the programme which runs over 12 months.
Nursing in Africa: Health Care in Crisis and Recovery. 23 November 2015 - RCN HQ, 20 Cavendish
Square, London, W1G 0RN. The Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014-15 highlighted some of the
challenges facing fragile health systems across the world. This free evening event explores these
challenges, alongside international initiatives for strengthening nursing in different parts of Africa:
building capacity through professional bodies and the role of nurses in times of crisis. This includes
an RCN partnership with the Zambian Union of Nurses (ZUNO) to help strengthen ZUNO as the
national nursing association in Zambia, enabling them to influence nursing policy and improve
nursing practice. The event will be chaired by Lord Nigel Crisp, an independent member of the
House of Lords who co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health. He works and
writes extensively on global health issues.
RCN Continence Care forum conference and exhibition. Getting the most from effective
management. 25 November to 26 November 2015 - The International Centre, Telford TF3 4JH.
This conference provides the opportunity to meet other health care professionals who are
passionate about promoting healthy bladder and bowel management. Come together to build
strategies to challenge disbeliefs about growing old and the expectation that age must bring with it
bladder and/or bowel problems.
Nurses, pharmacists and the patient's pathways; working together across primary and community
care. 4 December 2015 - RCN HQ, 20 Cavendish Square, London, W1 0RN. This conference will
bring together pharmacists and nurses to share best practice around the patient journey through
different care settings, focusing on the themes of staying healthy and well at home; engaging with
primary care; complex community services and care home and hospice environment.
Let's talk about end of life care. 15 December 2015 - RCN HQ, 20 Cavendish Square, London, W1
0RN. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) are
delighted to be working together on a series of interactive workshops on caring for people at the
end of their lives. This workshop will be of interest to all non-specialist nurses in both the acute
setting and the community and general practice, including care homes. Particularly those working
with people who have a life limiting illness and may want to talk about their worries and concerns.
Quality improvement
Audit, reviews, legislation, inspections, regulation
Care Quality Commission (CQC). Health and social care fees consultation. This consultation seeks
views from care providers and the organisations that represent them on the regulatory fees that
will come into force from 1 April 2016. The first and main proposal is to achieve full chargeable
cost recovery over a defined timescale. The second consultation question is also whether a
different method should be adopted for full chargeable cost recovery. The deadline for responses
to this consultation is 15 January 2016.
Care Quality Commission. Care Quality Commission seeks views on the future of quality
regulation. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a discussion paper, 'Building on
strong foundations', asking for views on how regulation of health and adult social care in England
can be developed. This is ahead of the next stage of consultation on its new strategy for the next
five years (2016–21). The new strategy will take account of what has been learned from past
inspections and during the development of new models of care, and will consider development of
an assessment of how NHS hospitals use their resources. Comments on the discussion paper are
welcome until 22 November 2015.
Clinical Audit Support Centre. eNewsletter: Issue 79 - November 2015 now available.
Healthcare quality improvement Partnership (HQIP). Outcomes from a paediatric intensive care
remain good despite poor staffing ratios. Mortality rates in children’s intensive care units across
the country remain very low, despite only 15% of them meeting recommended nurse staffing
levels, today's Paediatric Intensive Care Audit report finds.
Guidance, innovation, tools
BMJ Quality and Safety. Vulnerable children and their care quality issues. This article aims to
identify safety reports describing vulnerable children in the England and Wales National Reporting
and Learning System (NRLS). Characterise reports in terms of what happened and reported
causative issues, in order to identify key change concepts (drivers) and related interventions
(change ideas) for improvement.
Department of Health (DH). Accelerated access review: interim report. This report describes the
review’s progress in preparing proposals to improve the current system for developing, evaluating
and adopting innovative medical technology for the benefit of patients, the health system and the
life sciences industry. Building on responses from stakeholders during an initial period of
engagement, which is summarised in the supporting evidence documents, the report sets out five
main propositions which will form the basis of the review’s next phase of engagement.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Ten new rules to accelerate health care redesign. This
article describes ten "new rules" that were developed and are being tested by members of the IHI
Leadership Alliance as a set of guiding principles to help accelerate their progress toward
delivering on the full promise of the Triple Aim. The authors also provide brief case examples
demonstrating how Alliance member organizations are enacting some of these rules.
NHS England. New quick guide will free up vital hospital services. A new quick guide, ‘Better Use of
Care at Home’, has been developed to help people home from hospital. It contains practical tips,
case studies and ideas to improve processes, relationships and the use of care at home.
NHS England. New tool helps NHS staff to identify trafficking victims. Recent research has
highlighted that many victims of human trafficking come into contact with NHS services during the
time they are trafficked, or after their escape. In response to this, the Department of Health has
launched an updated tool to help NHS staff identify and care for trafficked people and refer them
for further support.
NHS England. Prime Minister's challenge fund: improving access to general practice: first
evaluation report. This independent evaluation examines the pilot scheme to improve access to GP
services and increase innovation in primary care. This report looks at how the first 20 pilots have
delivered on their key objectives to provide more GP appointments, expand the types of patient
appointments and improve patient and staff satisfaction in GP access.
Public Health Agency. New shower card helps to catch breast cancer early. A handy new shower
card which shows women what signs to look out for when it comes to spotting possible breast
cancer has been launched by the Public Health Agency and breast cancer charity Pretty ‘n’ Pink.
Public Health England. A new film released by Public Health England (PHE) and the Stroke
Association in the latest ‘Act FAST’ (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) campaign will again urge the public
to call 999 if they notice any of the stroke symptoms in others or experience them
themselves. Since the campaign launched in 2009, an additional 41,382 people reached hospital
within the vital three-hour window and received the immediate medical treatment required. PHE
figures also show that in the same period, over 4,000 fewer people became disabled as a result of
a stroke.
Technology Review. New sepsis detector shrinks the diagnosis from days to hours. Hospitals are
beginning to use a new, more potent weapon against sepsis, the devastating condition that kills
more than 25 percent of its victims and costs hospitals billions of dollars annually.
Practice examples and case studies
King’s Fund. Improving mental health outcomes for young people: the perspective of a GP
trainee. Preety Das, a GP trainee at the Fund, shares her thoughts following our recent event on
mental health outcomes for young people.
Reports, commentary, statistics
Age UK. A report from Age UK examines trends in funding, provision and the use of health and
care services to investigate whether the health and care system is meeting the needs of older
people in England. The report concludes that the system is under severe stress and
underperforming.
Healthcare Infection. A new issue of Healthcare Infection has been published. Articles in this issue
of the Healthcare Infection include: hospital hand hygiene program, vancomycin-resistant
enterococcal bacteraemia, and fluoroquinolone resistance.
Health Protection Scotland (HPS). HPS National Influenza Report - week ending 01 November
2015. This report provides an update on influenza and other seasonal respiratory pathogen activity
of the 2015/16 influenza season.
Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). Data on written complaints in the NHS. This
new quarterly collection (annual prior to 2015-16) is a count of written complaints made by (or on
behalf of) patients. Data are collected via the KO41a and are for complaints about NHS Hospital
and Community Health Services (HCHS) in England. The data relates to the complaints
arrangements introduced in April 2009.
Ipsos MORI. Older people living with multiple long term conditions are generally happy with the
NHS but often find the health and care system is not set up for their needs. That is the main
finding of an ethnographic evaluation by Ipsos MORI for NHS Improving Quality, an in-depth
approach to understanding people and their behaviours over a period of time.
Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS). Alcohol's impact on emergency services. This report reveals the
full extent of the toll alcohol takes on emergency services in England. It presents a survey of police
officers, ambulance and paramedic staff, accident and emergency department consultants and fire
officers. It outlines both the financial burden on the emergency services and the human cost to
frontline staff. The report also recommends a set of evidence-based policy measures to address
this issue.
Monitor. NHS foundation trust bulletin. This newsletter is sent to foundation trust chairs, chief
executives, finance, medical and nursing directors, and board secretaries.
NHS Confederation. Hospitals balancing challenges of today and tomorrow. Despite a marked rise
in activity over recent years, hospitals have brought down median waiting times, reduced the total
number of bed days and cut down patients’ average length of stay, the NHS Confederation’s latest
analysis has shown.
NHS England. Building the right support: A national implementation plan to develop community
services and close inpatient facilities. People with a learning disability and/or autism* will be
supported to lead more independent lives and have greater say about the support they receive
under a national plan published today to radically improve learning disability services. Central to
the progress set out by the plan over the next three years will be new, high-quality, communitybased services.
NHS England. The forward view into action: paper-free at the point of care - completing the digital
maturity self-assessment. NHS England will begin gathering baseline data on providers’
technological capabilities for a digital maturity index. The digital maturity index will give a national
picture of how far the NHS has come on its mission to make effective and meaningful use of
technology and highlight areas for improvement. This guidance sets out the purpose and
objectives for the self-assessment, provides an overview of its structure and the online tool that
will support the process, and details how it will work in practice.
Nuffield Trust. Closer to Critical? QualityWatch annual statement 2015. The third QualityWatch
annual statement, aims to help policy-makers, healthcare leaders, patient groups and others make
sense of quality across health and social care, primarily in England. We observe that while there
are many areas of excellent care, there are also increasingly clear signals that quality is
deteriorating in some areas.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Health at a glance 2015. This
report presents the most recent comparable data on the performance of health systems in OECD
countries. Where possible, it also reports data for partner countries (Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa
Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russian Federation and South Africa). It includes a new
set of dashboards of health indicators to summarise in a clear and user-friendly way the relative
strengths and weaknesses of OECD countries on different key indicators of health and health
system performance, and also a special focus on the pharmaceutical sector. This edition also
contains new indicators on health workforce migration and on the quality of health care.
QualityWatch. Closer to critical? QualityWatch annual statements 2015. This analysis of the quality
of NHS care by the Nuffield Trust and The Health Foundation has found that waiting times for
hospital and other care services are under severe strain and are unlikely to improve in the near
future. It also highlights areas of variation in care quality, pointing to disparities between child and
adult diabetes services and differences between the care received by people with mental and
physical health needs. The report stresses that despite this there are still many areas of excellent
care despite considerable pressures on the NHS.
Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Tackling drug-resistant infections globally- latest
report. Rapid diagnostics: stopping unnecessary use of antibiotics provides an overview of how
diagnostics can play an important role in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, by reducing
unnecessary use.
Patient safety
BMJ. Is researching adverse events in hospital deaths a good way to describe patient safety in
hospitals? This article assesses whether this offers a representative view of the occurrence of
adverse events in comparison to patients who are discharged while still living.
BMJ Quality and Safety. Identifying priorities for improved child health care: a mixed methods
analysis of safety incident reports. Globally children are failed on numerous indicators of care
quality, most of which is provided in the primary care setting. There is a paucity of research and
development to explain iatrogenic harm in the primary care setting, not least safety events
involving children.
BMJ Quality and Safety. Why evaluate ‘common sense’ quality and safety interventions? At times,
the decision to redesign a healthcare service may be driven by a sense that ‘something must be
done’, for instance evidence of a significant failure within a hospital or national data indicating
variable provision of evidence-based care.
Care Quality commission (CQC). Hospice care in England. Hospices in England are caring for and
supporting people in a compassionate way at the end of their lives, according to the CQC.
Centre for Health Economics. How much should be paid for prescribed specialist services? Hospitals
in England are paid according to the number and type of patients they treat, described using
Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs). But it is possible that the costs of providing specialised care
are not properly accounted for, in which case hospitals that provide specialised care may be underfunded. This research assesses whether this is the case and, if so, what might be done about it.
Centre for Health Economics. Hospital trusts productivity in the English NHS: uncovering possible
drivers of productivity variations. This study looks at how NHS trusts perform in terms of how
much they produce given the resources (doctors, nurses, medicines and premises) they use. It
finds that on these criteria - which economists call productivity measures - there is a lot of
variation between trusts and that the best and worst performers stay the same over time. It is not
possible to explain away the variation in terms of the kinds of patients that are treated. These
results suggest that there may be scope for making substantial savings by ensuring that all trusts
perform as well as the best ones.
Critical Care Medicine. Delayed rapid response team activation is associated with increased
hospital mortality, morbidity and length of stay in a tertiary care institution. This study aims to
identify whether delays in rapid response team activation contributed to worse patient outcomes
(mortality and morbidity).
Department of Health (DH). Research into 'the weekend effect' on patient outcomes and
mortality. In the last ten years an increasing number of research studies have examined the
association between weekend hospital admissions and poorer patient outcomes including higher
rates of mortality. There is significant evidence demonstrating this ‘weekend effect’. This document
describes the main research, reports and reviews into this area.
Department of Health. Hospital education: a guide for health services. This guidance for health
services explains responsibilities for teaching children in hospital when illness stops them attending
school.
Department of Health. NHS trust and foundation trust special administration: a guide for
unsecured creditors. The document gives an overview of the special administration process and
explains how the liabilities of NHS trusts and foundation trusts will be treated in the event that
these organisations are put into special administration.
Department of Health. From 31 October, healthcare professionals must alert the police if they treat
a girl under 18 who has had female genital mutilation (FGM). To coincide with the duty coming into
effect, the Department of Health has introduced a range of resources to help ensure that
healthcare staff are equipped and confident to deal with cases of FGM.
Health Foundation. Continuous improvement of patient safety. This report synthesises the lessons
from the Health Foundation’s work on improving patient safety.
Health and Social Care Information Centre. Safeguarding Adults, Annual Report, England 2014-15,
Experimental Statistics. This report provides the key findings from the Safeguarding Adults Return
(SAR) data collection for the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015. This report presents
information about adults at risk for whom safeguarding referrals were opened during the reporting
period, and case details for safeguarding referrals which concluded during the reporting period. A
safeguarding referral is where a concern is raised with a council about a risk of abuse, which
instigates an investigation under the local safeguarding procedures.
International Journal of Clinical Practice. Medication reconciliation at admission and discharge: an
analysis of prevalence and associated risk factors. Medication errors are frequent at care transition
points and can have serious repercussions. Study objectives were to examine the frequency/type
of reconciliation errors at hospital admission and discharge and to report on the drugs involved,
associated risk factors and potential to cause harm in a healthcare setting with comprehensive
digital health records.
Journal of Patient Safety. Risk propensity and safe medication administration. This study aims to
examine the relationship between risk propensity and safe medication administration, while also
providing additional evidence of validity and reliability on the Safe Administration of Medication
(SAM) Scale.
MindMetre research. How sharp are we on safety? An assessment of safer sharps adoption in UK
hospitals. This report finds that not all NHS trusts are not complying with ‘safer sharps’ rules and,
as a result, are continuing to put NHS employees at risk of needle stick injuries and possible bloodborne infections such as hepatitis and HIV.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The safe use and management of controlled
drugs: draft guidance consultation. This draft guidance covers the systems and processes needed
for the safe use of controlled drugs. Key areas include prescribing, obtaining and supplying,
administering, handling, recording and monitoring use.
Springer- for Research and Development. Partnering with parents and families to provide safer
care: seeing and achieving safer care through the lens of patients and families. The best medical
care and the safest outcomes derive from collaborative relationships. In true partnerships,
clinicians feel comfortable expressing their own humanity, and patients and their families are
satisfied that they are being heard.
Evidence based practice
2020 Health. Fat Chance? Exploring the evidence on who becomes obese. Current political,
economic and social discourse on obesity in the UK illuminates the great complexities and myriad
socio-economic considerations that inform people’s health, diets, and health seeking behaviour.
Recent data published in annual Health Survey for England reports suggest that at least a quarter
of the adult population is obese, while two-thirds are overweight, and these rates are rising.
BMC Health services Research. Assessing the performance of maternity care in Europe: a critical
exploration of tools and indicators. This paper critically reviews published tools and indicators
currently used to measure maternity care performance within Europe, focusing particularly on
whether and how current approaches enable systematic appraisal of processes of minimal (or non) intervention in support of physiological or “normal birth”.
Cancer Research UK. Where cancer patients live could influence late diagnosis. The study found
that people’s chances of being diagnosed early could also depend on which cancer they have, with
areas that were among the best for diagnosing one type of cancer early not always doing as well
when it came to other types of the disease.
Cochrane UK. Evidence for everyday: new for nurses and midwives. Since June, Cochrane have
been creating blogshots to share snippets of evidence on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. They
have asked people for some feedback on the design, made some changes and started sharing
them. They are proving to be really popular.
Commonwealth Fund. Models of care for high need, high cost patients: an evidence synthesis. This
brief analyses experts’ reviews of evidence about care models designed to improve outcomes and
reduce costs for patients with complex needs.
Implementation Science. Effectiveness of implementation strategies for clinical guidelines to
community pharmacy: a systematic review. “The clinical role of community pharmacists is
expanding, as is the use of clinical guidelines in this setting. However, it is unclear which strategies
are successful in implementing clinical guidelines and what outcomes can be achieved. The aim of
this systematic review is to synthesise the literature on the implementation of clinical guidelines to
community pharmacy. The objectives are to describe the implementation strategies used, describe
the resulting outcomes and to assess the effectiveness of the strategies.”
Journal of Medical Internet Research. Are Health-Related Tweets Evidence Based? Review and
Analysis of Health-Related Tweets on Twitter “Health care professionals are utilizing Twitter to
communicate, develop disease surveillance systems, and mine health-related information. The
immediate users of this health information is the general public, including patients. This
necessitates the validation of health-related tweets by health care professionals to ensure they are
evidence based and to avoid the use of noncredible information as a basis for critical decisions.”
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Dementia, disability and frailty in later life –
mid-life approaches to delay or prevent onset. This guideline covers mid-life approaches to delay
or prevent the onset of dementia, disability and frailty in later life. The guideline aims to increase
the amount of time that people can be independent, healthy and active in later life.
NICE. Older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions. This guideline covers
planning and delivering social care and support for older people who have multiple long-term
conditions. It promotes an integrated and person-centred approach to delivering effective health
and social care services.
NICE. Paclitaxel as albumin-bound nanoparticles in combination with gemcitabine for previously
untreated metastatic pancreatic cancer. Nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) with gemcitabine (Gemzar) is
not recommended for adults with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas that has not been
treated before.
NICE. A dietetic-led coeliac service incorporating group education. New support tools for Coeliac
disease guidance. NICE has published a new shared learning example to support the guideline on
recognising, assessing and managing coeliac disease. The example looks at a dietetic-led coeliac
service incorporating group education. A new implementation chapter is also available for this
guideline. See also: Implementation chapter.
NICE. Integrated care "critically important" for older people with social care needs and multiple
long-term conditions. Health and social care services should work more closely together to ensure
older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions receive effective care, says
NICE.
Patient focus
BMC Health services Research. Re-inventing care planning in mental health: stakeholder accounts
of the imagined implementation of a user/carer involved intervention. This study aimed to identify
key informants operating with knowledge of both policy and practice related to future models of
mental health management in order to explore the potential de-implementation of existing care
planning and possibilities for the introduction of a training programme designed to implement a
new user and carer involved and focussed process of mental health care planning.
BMJ. One size fits all? Mixed methods evaluation of the impact of 100 per cent single-room
accommodation on staff and patient experience, safety and costs. There is little strong evidence
relating to the impact of single-room accommodation on healthcare quality and safety. This article
explores the impact of all single rooms on staff and patient experience; safety outcomes; and
costs. Why evaluate ‘common sense’ quality and safety interventions?
Centre for Nursing Innovation. ‘MUST DO' Promoting Good Nutrition in a Community Hospital in
Northern Ireland. The keys to success here were inclusion and team work. Despite major
disruptions, the nursing, domestic and catering staff worked together to deliver more personcentred nutritional care in this community hospital in Dalriada. Nutrition has become ‘everybody’s
business’, with more varied menus, greater monitoring of food intake and more positive feedback
from patients.
Department of Health. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined plans for the most patientfocused NHS culture ever. From next year, for the first time, new ‘Ofsted style’ ratings will show
patients how their local area’s health service is performing in crucial areas, including: cancer
dementia diabetes mental health learning disabilities maternity care.
House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Follow-up to PHSO
report: dying without dignity. This report aimed to find out why the care failings detailed in Dying
without dignity were allowed to happen and has recommended three areas where immediate
improvements are needed: culture, behaviour and training; provision of integrated 24/7 palliative
and end of life care; and leadership and commissioning.
Journal of Clinical Nursing. Consumer participation in early detection of the deteriorating patient
and call activation to rapid response systems. This review investigated the impact of consumer
participation in recognition of patient deterioration and response through call activation in rapid
response systems.
NHS Citizen. The Citizen Assembly. The next Citizens’ Assembly will take place on Wednesday 25
November 2015 at the ExCel in London. The NHS Citizens’ Assembly is a meeting to bring citizens
and the board of NHS England together to collaborate on 5 citizen-generated issues that can
influence the strategic priorities of the NHS. These meetings will occur twice a year and are a key
part of the NHS Citizen programme – a national programme to involve more people in NHS
England decision making.
NHS Clinical Commissioners. Local solutions to national challenges: delivering our commitment to
patients. One year into the NHS five forward view, this paper calls for crucial changes that must be
made to support CCGs fulfil the vision it sets out. It puts forward a series of key asks to policymakers, regulators and the government aimed at giving CCGs the freedoms and flexibilities they
need to transform health care for their local populations and concentrate on the big issues:
sickness prevention, health inequality and health care targeted to the needs of the patient.
NHS England. Homes not hospitals for people with learning disabilities. People with a learning
disability and/or autism will be supported to lead more independent lives and have greater say
about the support they receive under a national plan published today to radically improve learning
disability services.
Social Care Institute for Excellence. Because personalisation isn't easy... “With care increasingly
drawn into community settings rather than being held in impervious institutions, each of us shares
responsibilities for respecting dignity; not just to loved ones, but to those we come into contact
with on a day-to-day basis.”
eHealth
BBC Health. New 3D skeleton ‘to transform’ medical training. Glasgow School of Art and the Royal
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh have joined forces to help transform the way that medical
students are trained.
BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making. A user needs assessment to inform health information
exchange design and implementation. This study performed a user needs assessment for the
process of obtaining clinical information from other health care organizations about a hospitalized
patient and identified the types of information most valued for medical decision-making.
Centre for Health Economics. Choosing and booking - and attending? Impact of an electronic
booking system on outpatient referrals and non-attendances. This study examines whether the
introduction of an electronic booking system for general practices making hospital appointments
reduced patient non-attendances and referrals. Looking at data from 7900 practices over a fiveyear period, it found that the use of the system was associated with a reduction in both referrals
and non-attendances.
Health Foundation. Telehealth with a human touch. Flo is a simple system which uses text
messages to support people to manage their own health and wellbeing. This film shows how Flo
can help people in different ways: to manage diabetes, to live with chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease and to breastfeed.
International Journal of Clinical Practice. Medication reconciliation at admission and discharge: an
analysis of prevalence and associated risk factors. Medication errors are frequent at care transition
points and can have serious repercussions. Study objectives were to examine the frequency/type
of reconciliation errors at hospital admission and discharge and to report on the drugs involved,
associated risk factors and potential to cause harm in a healthcare setting with comprehensive
digital health records.
Journal of Medical Internet Research. Translating Evidence Into Practice via Social Media: A MixedMethods Study. Approximately 80 per cent of research evidence relevant to clinical practice never
reaches the clinicians delivering patient care. A key barrier for the translation of evidence into
practice is the limited time and skills clinicians have to find and appraise emerging evidence. Social
media may provide a bridge between health researchers and health service providers. The aim of
this study was to determine the efficacy of social media as an educational medium to effectively
translate emerging research evidence into clinical practice.
Journal of Medical Internet Research. An eHealth Application in Head and Neck Cancer
Survivorship Care: Health Care Professionals' Perspectives. “The aim of this study was to
investigate health care professionals’ perspectives toward follow-up care and an eHealth
application, OncoKompas, in follow-up cancer care that monitors quality of life via PROs, followed
by automatically generated tailored feedback and personalized advice on supportive care.”
Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). Changes in physical activity and psychological
variables following a web-based motivational interviewing intervention. Web-based interventions
for enhancing physical activity participation are in demand for application in health care settings.
Recent research suggests Web-based interventions that are based on motivational interviewing are
effective to increase physical activity.
JMIR. Mobile virtual learning object for the assessment of acute pain as a learning toll to assess
acute pain in nursing. The inclusion of new technologies in education has motivated the
development of studies on mental workload. These technologies are now being used in the
teaching and learning process. The analysis enables identification of factors intervening in this
workload as well as planning of overload prevention for educational activities using these
technologies.
JMIR. Crafting Appealing Text Messages to Encourage Colorectal Cancer Screening Test
Completion. Health interventions that incorporate text messages have great potential to increase
receipt of preventive health services such as colorectal cancer screening. However, little is known
about older adult perspectives regarding the receipt of text messages from their health care
providers.
NHS England. The forward view into action: paper-free at the point of care- completing the Digital
Maturity Self-assessment. This document is intended to provide guidance to providers on the
completion of their Digital Maturity Self-assessment.
NICE. Speeding up the adoption of health technologies. NICE has launched The Office for Market
Access to work with industry to speed up the adoption of new medicines, devices, and diagnostics
by the NHS. The Office for Market Access will give commercial stakeholders access to a dedicated
team at NICE that they can approach for enquirers relating to health technology evaluation.
Public Health England (PHE). Act FAST adverts return to air to highlight symptoms of stroke. The
ads describe what happens when someone is having a stroke and encourages people to call 999 as
soon as they notice any of the symptoms in others or experience symptoms themselves.
Staff focus
BBC Health. New 3D skeleton ‘to transform’ medical training. Glasgow School of Art and the Royal
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh have joined forces to help transform the way that medical
students are trained.
Cochrane UK. Evidence for everyday: new for nurses and midwives. Since June, Cochrane have
been creating blogshots to share snippets of evidence on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. They
have asked people for some feedback on the design, made some changes and started sharing
them. They are proving to be really popular.
Department of Health. Hospital education: a guide for health services. Explains responsibilities for
providing education to children in hospital.
Department of Health. Nurse and midwife revalidation: letter from Chief Nursing Officer. Chief
Nursing Officer Jane Cummings’ letter responds to the decision of the NMC on 8 October 2015 to
introduce nurses’ and midwives’ revalidation.
Health Education England. District nursing and general practice nursing service: education and
career framework. This framework sets out the specialist knowledge and skills needed to deliver
and advance in district nursing and general practice nursing. The document contains frameworks
for both district nursing and general practitioner nursing services within one framework and
outlines the career pathways for both professions, while setting out clearly the key responsibilities
and roles at each level of advancement.
Health Education England. A film highlighting some of the key themes emerging from the
engagement phase of the Shape of Caring Review has been launched on the Health Education
England (HEE) website. Published in March 2015, the Shape of Caring Review ‘Raising the Bar’,
aims to ensure that throughout their careers nurses and care assistants receive consistent high
quality education and training which supports high quality care over the next 15 years.
Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS). The view from here. This project
was designed to understand the experiences, attitudes and outlook of the social services workforce
in Scotland. The resource includes workforce survey data and qualitative analysis, including
reports, diary stories and illustrations.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). National living wage and care homes. The National Living
Wage (NLW) is good news for those working in care homes. Care home workers are almost
universally low paid. They do an important and challenging job and increasing wages is one way to
recognise their contribution. Ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review, JRF-funded research
shows that introducing the NLW for low-paid care home workers will cost £387 million per year.
King’s Fund. Safe staffing in the NHS comes at a cost. The NHS is heading towards an overspend,
and one of the main levers to reduce it – controls on agency staff – risks conflicting with the
priority placed on safe staffing. Many organisations may now feel trapped between the Care
Quality Commission on one side, continuing to draw attention to staffing shortages, and Monitor
and the NHS Trust Development Authority on the other, trying to bring down spending on
temporary staff, says Helen McKenna.
MindMetre. How sharp are we on safety? An assessment of safer sharps adoption in UK hospitals.
In the UK, the Health and Safety (Sharps Instruments in Healthcare) Regulations 20132 were
introduced. These new regulations particularly focus on requirements that are not specifically
addressed in existing, more general, occupational safety legislation in view of the high risks that
exist in the healthcare setting.
Monitor. Improving productivity in elective care. Support for NHS providers to improve productivity
in elective care pathways.
NHS Employers. The Five Year Forward View one year on – Infographic. A new infographic gives a
simple overview of the NHS Five Year Forward View and its goals.
NHS Employers. Employee factsheet on state pension changes now available. Use the short,
informative factsheet to help your staff understand the changes, including who will be affected and
where they can find more information.
NHS Employers. Health Education England (HEE) work experience survey. HEE is looking for
employers' views in a new survey on work experience capacity and capability.
NHS Employers. Call for evidence to assess nurses' place on the shortage occupation list. Migration
Advisory Committee (MAC) is gathering evidence for their partial review of the shortage
occupation list, to assess whether there is a national shortage of nurses.
NHS Employers. Flu fighter good practice infographic. The flu fighter team have produced a new
infographic showing the seven elements of good practice.
NHS Employers. Valuing staff through recognition schemes. Recognising staff for their contribution
to the organisation can have a positive effect on how valued and engaged they feel.
NHS Employers. Electronic Staff Record (ESR). ESR offers a flexible solution to nurse revalidation.
The Electronic Staff Record (ESR) can be used to populate reminders when revalidation is due,
provide online tools for nurses and midwives, and produce reports to enable board level tracking.
NHS Employers. Health Education England launches new frameworks. A new framework to support
the transformation of nursing roles and another to promote a consistent approach to dementia
training have been launched by Health Education England.
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). NMC revalidation: next steps. An update from the RCN on
NMC revalidation, plus frequently asked questions.
Royal College of Midwives (RCM). State of maternity services report 2015. This report finds that
record numbers of births to older mothers are putting maternity units under pressure. The
shortage is made worse, the report says, by the ageing of the midwifery workforce.
Royal College of Nursing (RCN).This is defence nursing: the RCN guide for nursing staff. To mark
the closure of UK combat operations in Afghanistan and the contribution of defence to historic
events, such as support during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, the Royal College of Nursing
Defence Nursing Forum (RCN DNF) worked with Nursing Standard to capture the professional
contribution of UK defence nursing.
RCN. Defence nurses’ experiences from Iraq and Afghanistan: the RCN defence nursing forum’s
oral histories project. This short booklet aims to provide supplementary information on the project
which can be used as a resource and further background to the oral histories project itself.
Skills for Health. New Dementia Core Skills Education and Training Framework. Skills for Health,
Health Education England and Skills for Care have launched a comprehensive new resource to
support health and social care staff and educators in England who work with people living with
dementia and their carers. The framework sets out the essential skills and knowledge necessary
for all staff involved in dementia care.
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