Daring to utter the words ‘social media’ amongst a group of healthcare professionals can often prompt the same response as the infamous ‘q’ word*. Whilst pained sighs, words of concern or even just uncomfortable silences might be how we respond, are we turning our backs on possible answers to the known failures in communication across […]
Latest articles
“Everything Is Palliative Which Is Not Curative”: Perceptions and a New Understanding of Incurable Cancer
Hilde Buiting, PhD With Femke Botman, MSc, Patrick Brown, PhD, Vincent Ho, MSc, Gabe Sonke, MD, PhD Patients with incurable cancer often do not perceive themselves as “palliative”, a connotation they more commonly associate with impending death. Instead, these patients often prefer the word “chronic.” On the basis of nurses’ experiences we would like to […]
Sleep deprivation and its relationship with the development of postpartum psychosis
By Lexi Ilgner-McEvoy – Midwife, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Lucy Flatley – Midwifery Lecturer, School of Healthcare, University of Leeds @lucycflatley Postpartum mood disorders are of major clinical and public health concern in the United Kingdom, where suicide is the leading cause of maternal death. The most recent MBRRACE-UK report highlighted a statistically […]
Nursing outside of the box: the work of British Sikh Nurses
By Rohit Sagoo (@RohitSagoo) He is Chair of @NursesSikh The stereotypical view of nurses is a uniformed nurse working in a hospital. Though existing community nurses are also part of the role, grassroots outreach work with organic engagement with community organisations is an innovation beyond the hospital walls. In 2016, British Sikh Nurses (BSN) was set […]
A review of the cancer nursing and AHP workforce within a district general hospital
Vicki Havercroft Dixon (@vjhavercroft), Lead Cancer Nurse – Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Florence Nightingale Leadership Scholar 2021/22 @FNightingaleF In May 2021 I was successful in starting the next part of my nursing leadership journey by commencing as a Florence Nightingale Foundation leadership scholar. Then in September 2021, after nearly 25 years at the same […]
The power of nurses to impact policy: An imperative
Professor Julia Downing Chief Executive International Children’s Palliative Care Network and Chair of the Policy and Advocacy Committee for the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care. As nurses, we are catalysts for change, and as the largest profession within the health service (1) we should have a strong voice, we are trusted bridge builders, […]
Care Leavers – a hidden health inequality
“Children and young people who grow up in care are up to four times more likely to suffer poor health 30 years later than those who grew up with their parents” (1) In 2020/21 there were 80,850 children who were looked after, and 28,440 entered care in that same year (2). Children enter the care […]
The Professional Nurse Advocate
In this week’s blog, Kate Wales (@Katewales20) and Emma Dillon (@EmmaDillonMH) share their thoughts on the experience of the Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) journey as a PNA graduate and PNA module leader. Kate works as a National PNA and Supervision Lead for The Practice Plus Group and Emma is a senior lecturer at University of […]
Coaching for empowerment and self-management
In this week’s blog, Anya De Iongh, an Occupational Therapist from NHS Ayrshire and Arran, United Kingdom reflects on the powerful role of coaching in encouraging shared decision making, empowerment and self-management and how health professionals can implement this in their practice. I recently saw a patient who clearly demonstrated some change talk, and was […]
Long Covid – What can we learn about the cause and management from ME/CFS?
Dr Charles Shepherd Hon Medical Adviser, ME Association @meassociation Three years ago nobody had heard of Long Covid – the patient derived name for a variety of symptoms and continuing ill health that may affect around 10% of people who catch COVID-19 and which persists for three months or more. The numbers are huge. Data from […]