This week in England there has been high profile media reports, both nationally and within the nursing press, about ‘15-minute care’ visits for individuals requiring social and healthcare in the community. Headlines such ‘councils ordered care agencies to complete vital home visits in 15-minute time-slots to save money’ sparked the media ‘frenzy’. The backdrop was […]
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Evidence Based Practice…Roadblocks and Detours
I recently taught a health promotion course to graduate nursing students. We reviewed many issues including the implementation of evidence in practice. We were reminded that evidence based practice includes the use of data from well conducted research studies, but also includes the clinical experience of the practitioner and, most importantly, input from the patient. […]
When is the evidence too old?
A few weeks ago, when submitting an abstract to a nursing conference, I was suddenly faced with a dilemma about age. Not my own age, but the age of evidence I was using to support my work. One key element of the submission criteria was to provide five research citations to support the abstract, and […]
Online Journal Club September Edition
The article for discussion this month focuses on quality of life in years 1, 2 and 3 after prostate cancer diagnosis. This is an important topic, in particular, because of the widespread prevalence of prostate cancer among older men. This longitudinal research used both quantitative and qualitative methods with a sample size of 21. Results […]
Should undergraduate student nurses undertake research?
Last week I took up a new post as Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Having been involved in teaching health professionals research and evidence-based practice at undergraduate and post graduate levels, for over 10 years, I am excited about being offered the opportunity to be part of the school’s […]
The Murky Real World
I am a professor at a university School of Nursing but I also continue to work part time as a nurse practitioner in a primary health care centre. It’s important for me to practice for many reasons. I really enjoy the type of work and the pace of the clinic setting. Additionally, I need to […]
Reflections
My term as Associate Editor, Evidence Based Nursing (EBN) comes to an end this week. As I reflect over the last three years on the activities that we participate in as an Associate Editor – rating scientific abstracts for their rigor and relevance to nursing (those with the highest ratings are selected for a commentary […]
Engaging and collaborating with children, young people and families
Well in my last blog I was preparing for two conferences, the 2nd Paediatric Nurses Association Europe Congress held in Glasgow, Scotland and the 7th International Shared Decision Making conference in Lima, Peru, and promised to share with you the debates and issues from these conferences. The conferences contrasted in relation to delegate backgrounds, focus, and […]
Online Journal Club Session Three
We have an interesting topic this month. Abdominal pain in adolescents, the root causes and use of the health care system as a result. The research findings demonstrated that it is common for British secondary school adolescents to have frequent abdominal pains. The pains are often linked to emotional symptoms, often due to stress. In […]
To Tweet, or not to Tweet?
I attended a conference a few years ago where participant engagement was encouraged through Twitter. Tweets that were sent to the conference group twitter site were simultaneously posted to screens around the conference venue. In keeping with the spirit of the even, I opened a Twitter account. However, after the conference, I was only minimally […]