IN BRIEF Nurses and midwives have until July 30 to apply for a travel scholarship of up to £5,000 from the Florence Nightingale Foundation to study in the UK or overseas. Successful applicants for 2014/15 should be able to demonstrate that their project will benefit patients and the profession. Visit tinyurl.com/co52m42. The RCN is calling on community-based learning disability nurses to get in touch with information on staffing levels. The college is asking nurses to describe their community service setting, how they ensure safe levels of staffing and whether they use an evidence-based tool, and, if so, which one? To submit a response go to [email protected] Specialist nurses working in urology are being asked to take part in a survey about the care of patients with prostate cancer. Charity Prostate Cancer UK and the British Association of Urology Nurses are looking at where investment is most needed and assessing the contribution of specialist nursing. To complete the survey go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/PCUK Healthcare professionals should warn parents of the link between falling asleep with a baby in a bed, on a sofa or a chair and sudden infant death syndrome, says the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Royal College of Midwives quality and audit development adviser Jane Munro said: ‘Midwives and other health professionals need to have enough time to discuss these important issues with families.’ NICE’s draft recommendations, under consultation until July 31, can be viewed at tiny.cc/NICE_update Patients who undergo Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery to lose weight have discovered changes in their appetite, taste and smell, researchers at the University of Leicester have found. The patients were interviewed before and after the procedure and 73 per cent noticed their taste palate had altered, especially for sweet and sour foods. Forty two per cent of the 103 patients said their sense of smell had changed. The RCN has renewed its calls for more investment in community nursing after a Commons report found the cost of treating people with long-term conditions will soar by £4 billion a year by 2016. MPs on the health select committee warn that managing conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure accounts for 70 per cent of annual NHS spending in England. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said community nurses are ‘ideally placed’ to treat people and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. Tips on children’s health issues, such as how to introduce vegetables into toddlers’ diets, have been published. More than 70 factsheets, for parents and health visitors, were launched by health minister Dan Poulter last week. Go to tinyurl.com/ op3eol3 and tinyurl.com/oqp8q5w.
REORGANISE CANCER CARE SAYS TOP NURSE Breast cancer services should be redesigned to allow nurses to spend more time with patients who are terminally ill, says nurse and research fellow Gill Donovan. Ms Donovan, who is based at Cardiff University, made the comment after research into the experiences of women with advanced breast cancer found half would like more time with health professionals. Pharmaceutical company Novartis surveyed patients with advanced breast cancer, some of whom can live with the disease for many years. Ms Donovan said: ‘Working with these patients is complex because they need to be referred to social workers and support groups.’ She added that it could be helpful, where an advanced cancer specialist nurse is not available, to separate the time a non-specialist nurse spends with patients who have early and advanced breast cancer. For example, the last two hours of the day could be spent with advanced cancer patients.
Report recommends new ‘customer care programme’ Nurses and other front line health workers in Wales should be sent on customer care training programmes to reduce the number of patient complaints, an independent review has recommended. The Welsh Government commissioned the former chief executive of Panasonic UK and Ireland Keith Evans to lead the 12-week investigation into how complaints are handled across the country. Patients and members of the public were encouraged to contact the NHS about how processes could improve, after it was revealed that complaints about the NHS in Wales had increased by 40 per cent in the past five years. The report, published last week, makes more than 100 recommendations on how to strengthen the complaints process, which include introducing a national customer care programme to focus on values, getting the basics right and patient experience. Mr Evans said that every complaint should be viewed as a gift and used as an opportunity to improve. The Welsh Government will respond to the review in the autumn. To read the full report go to tiny.cc/gift_of_complaints
10 july 9 :: vol 28 no RCNi.com 45 :: 2014by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 26, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING STANDARD Downloaded from other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
REORGANISE CANCER CARE SAYS TOP NURSE Breast cancer services should be redesigned to allow nurses to spend more time with patients who are terminally ill, says nurse and research fellow Gill Donovan. Ms Donovan, who is based at Cardiff University, made the comment after research into the experiences of women with advanced breast cancer found half would like more time with health professionals. Pharmaceutical company Novartis surveyed patients with advanced breast cancer, some of whom can live with the disease for many years. Ms Donovan said: ‘Working with these patients is complex because they need to be referred to social workers and support groups.’ She added that it could be helpful, where an advanced cancer specialist nurse is not available, to separate the time a non-specialist nurse spends with patients who have early and advanced breast cancer. For example, the last two hours of the day could be spent with advanced cancer patients.
Report recommends new ‘customer care programme’ Nurses and other front line health workers in Wales should be sent on customer care training programmes to reduce the number of patient complaints, an independent review has recommended. The Welsh Government commissioned the former chief executive of Panasonic UK and Ireland Keith Evans to lead the 12-week investigation into how complaints are handled across the country. Patients and members of the public were encouraged to contact the NHS about how processes could improve, after it was revealed that complaints about the NHS in Wales had increased by 40 per cent in the past five years. The report, published last week, makes more than 100 recommendations on how to strengthen the complaints process, which include introducing a national customer care programme to focus on values, getting the basics right and patient experience. Mr Evans said that every complaint should be viewed as a gift and used as an opportunity to improve. The Welsh Government will respond to the review in the autumn. To read the full report go to tiny.cc/gift_of_complaints
10 july 9 :: vol 28 no RCNi.com 45 :: 2014by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 26, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING STANDARD Downloaded from other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
