Nurses In Scotland Research Articles

An exploration into registered nurses’ knowledge of adult fever in Scotland: A mixed method study

BackgroundFever may be a result of many causes, infective or non-infective. Nurses’ fever management can be affected by their knowledge and beliefs and also by patients’ beliefs. Consequently, an understanding of fever is vital in the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of various ailments and diseases. Greater knowledge of fever will guide more accurate assessments of the epidemiology of fever and its management. ObjectivesThis study explored nurses’ knowledge in the context of fever and identified factors that affected this knowledge acquisition. MethodsA mixed methods approach was used with a validated questionnaire designed to gather information about nurses’ knowledge of fever. This was followed up by semi-structured interviews to explore factors associated with the acquisition of fever knowledge. The online survey was distributed to registered nurses in Scotland. ResultsA total of 177 questionnaires were completed. The questionnaires were scored with a correct answer 1 point, while a wrong answer −1 point. The mean total score in the knowledge section was 0.47. Only 49.2 % of participants scored above 0. The stepwise linear regression demonstrated working experience in critical care unit, acute care unit and the role of nurse practitioner together could predict 10 % of the total knowledge score (P < 0.05). Through analysis of associations and qualitative data, it was found that many factors had contributed to the nurses’ knowledge about fever, specifically educational content, individual confidence and the Sepsis Six bundle. ConclusionsConsiderable misconceptions were found to exist in the nurses’ understanding of fever. Only a few factors were found to be associated with the total knowledge score. It was highlighted that the due to the strong influence of the Sepsis Six bundle, participants often assumed a direct causal connection between fever and infectious disease or sepsis. The study result indicated a concern in nurses’ acquisition of fever knowledge. Tweetable abstractMisconceptions from foundational learning were found in nurses’ understanding of fever. However, the Sepsis 6 was found to impact their current knowledge of fever.

Strategies to promote nurses’ health: A qualitative study with student nurses

Developing strategies to support student nurses' health is a global priority for healthcare organisations and governments. This is because emerging international evidence indicates that improvements in student nurses' health are required to increase the longevity of careers and reduce the loss of time, skill and financial cost of sickness absence and workforce exit. However, we do not know what intervention strategies student nurses think would support their health. The study aim was to explore student nurses' views on factors that influence health-related behaviours and strategies that could improve health. Data were collected through participatory activities during focus groups with student nurses in Scotland. Analysis was theoretically informed and involved mapping to the Behaviour Change Wheel framework. Students identified several factors that influenced health-related behaviours. Four were ranked most important: knowledge, culture, time constraints, and stress. Strategies student nurses thought should be prioritised to improve nurses' health-related behaviours were: stimulating a health-promoting environment by reviewing shift work, improving workplace support, increasing staffing levels, subsidising and role-modelling of healthy food and exercise; and creating applied health-promoting curricula by integrating time and stress management training and lifestyle advice into nursing education. Educational and environmental interventions are needed to support student nurses’ health.

The future of CPD for general practitioners, registered pharmacy staff and general practice nurses in Scotland - qualitative responses from a national survey

ABSTRACTIn the United Kingdom, undertaking continuing professional development (CPD) is required for revalidation with regulatory authorities for general practitioners, general practice nurses and registered pharmacy staff – pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. A survey of CPD preferences and activities of these four professions has been published and this paper focuses on one qualitative question in the survey: ‘Please describe any changes that you anticipate in the way in which you will undertake CPD over the next 12 months.’ Responses were analysed using content analysis, then codes and themes were developed into a coding framework. 1,159 respondents provided comments to the question and five themes were identified: options for learning, time, appraisal and revalidation, people in transition and use of technology. There was a desire for face-to-face courses, for interactive learning and for variety of learning methods. Respondents valued learning with others and Practice-Based Small Group Learning was considered to be flexible and promoted inter-professional learning and socialisation. Lack of time for learning was seen as a barrier for respondents. Respondents considered that CPD was needed to support them as their roles developed in primary healthcare.

Nurses in Scotland may win legal guarantee for continuing professional development

Nurses in Scotland may win legal guarantee for continuing professional development

Expertise in action: Insights into the dynamic nature of expertise in community-based nursing.

To gain insight into community nurses' experiences and how they make sense of the expertise they offer in their role. Globally, the spotlight is currently on community nursing expertise because of the movement of hospital-based to community-based care. Caring for people at home is no longer solely concerned with prevention, but delivering complex care to patients who are acutely unwell or at the end of their life. Little is known about the distinct expertise of community nurses, or their contribution to patient outcomes. There is a need to examine expertise in this group in order to inform current and future care provision within community settings. A hermeneutic, phenomenological study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight community nurses in Scotland, UK, who hold an additional postregistration, professional qualification. Participants also kept audio-journals. Data were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Participants described their expertise in three themes: negotiating a "way in" to care, managing complexity and "thinking on your feet." They did not refer to themselves as specialist practitioners, nor did they perceive that they were viewed as specialist by colleagues or management. They appeared to dismiss their range of expertise which included forming trusting relationships, anticipating care needs and problem-solving, enabling them to undertake complex care management. Expertise of community nurses in this study is dynamic, contextualised and action-oriented enabling them to be creative problem-solvers. It reflects engagement with patients and families and all aspects of the setting where care is provided, rather than being solely an identifiable set of specialist skills. It is vital to recognise community-based expertise internationally, especially if current WHO aims for community-based health care are to be achieved. Highlighting this expertise contributes to current discourse and may be considered in education and practice reviews.

To Care and Educate: The Continuity Within Queen’s Nursing in Scotland, c. 1948–2000

To Care and Educate: The Continuity Within Queen’s Nursing in Scotland, c. 1948–2000

Diana Children’s Nurses make a difference in palliative care

Specialist children’s nurses in Scotland have helped families to ‘regain a sense of control in desperate circumstances’, a report has found

To Care and Educate: The Continuity Within Queen's Nursing in Scotland, c. 1948-2000.

To Care and Educate: The Continuity Within Queen's Nursing in Scotland, c. 1948-2000.

The patient who transformed motor neurone disease care.

In March 2015, Nursing Standard published a feature about a remarkable young man called Gordon Aikman. He had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) the previous year, aged 29, while working as director of research for the Better Together campaign, ahead of the Scottish independence referendum. The Scot, pictured, knew the prognosis wasn't good, and was determined to make the most of the time he had left.

Pedometers

Nursing students and trainee midwives at Edinburgh Napier University have been given pedometers to boost their health and fitness after research revealed nearly 70% of nurses in Scotland are overweight.

Childhood flu immunisation programme: Learning from the Scottish experience

The childhood flu immunisation programme in England is planned to be rolled out to all primary schools. Seeta Bhardwa looks at the strategies used by school nurses in Scotland, where all primary school-aged children are already being offered the vaccine, to maximise uptake.

Inspirational, meaningful care quality nursing across Scotland.

In Scotland, geography and social conditions are placing demands on nurses' ingenuity. As RCN Scotland Director Theresa Fyffe says: 'Nurses in Scotland are constantly overcoming the challenges thrown at them by our health and social care system and diverse geography.

Understanding nurses' decision-making when managing weaning from mechanical ventilation: a study of novice and experienced critical care nurses in Scotland and Greece.

To examine how nurses collect and use cues from respiratory assessment to inform their decisions as they wean patients from ventilatory support. Prompt and accurate identification of the patient's ability to sustain reduction of ventilatory support has the potential to increase the likelihood of successful weaning. Nurses' information processing during the weaning from mechanical ventilation has not been well-described. A descriptive ethnographic study exploring critical care nurses' decision-making processes when weaning mechanically ventilated patients from ventilatory support in the real setting. Novice and expert Scottish and Greek nurses from two tertiary intensive care units were observed in real practice of weaning mechanical ventilation and were invited to participate in reflective interviews near the end of their shift. Data were analysed thematically using concept maps based on information processing theory. Ethics approval and informed consent were obtained. Scottish and Greek critical care nurses acquired patient-centred objective physiological and subjective information from respiratory assessment and previous knowledge of the patient, which they clustered around seven concepts descriptive of the patient's ability to wean. Less experienced nurses required more encounters of cues to attain the concepts with certainty. Subjective criteria were intuitively derived from previous knowledge of patients' responses to changes of ventilatory support. All nurses used focusing decision-making strategies to select and group cues in order to categorise information with certainty and reduce the mental strain of the decision task. Nurses used patient-centred information to make a judgment about the patients' ability to wean. Decision-making strategies that involve categorisation of patient-centred information can be taught in bespoke educational programmes for mechanical ventilation and weaning. Advanced clinical reasoning skills and accurate detection of cues in respiratory assessment by critical care nurses will ensure optimum patient management in weaning mechanical ventilation.

A one-year practice-based learning programme for new general practice nurses in Scotland: evaluation of the pilot

This paper summarises the evaluation of a pilot programme introduced by NHS Education for Scotland to provide education and skills training for nurses new to general practice. The programme was developed through extensive consultation with existing general practice nurses and was educationally accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Nursing in 2013. Twelve nurses embarked upon the programme 2012–2013 and nine completed it. The programme was extensively evaluated through questionnaires (with supervisors, practice staff and participants), analysis of programme documentation and interviews with participants. Based on the evaluation feedback, alterations have been made to subsequent deliveries of the programme. These include removing some topic areas and lengthening the programme by three months. The programme continues to be successfully delivered and evaluation is ongoing to ensure it continues to meet nurses’ needs.

Vets drive CPD in Scotland.

The CPD provider, VET Trust, was set up by a group of vets nearly 25 years ago with the aim of making CPD accessible to vets and veterinary nurses in Scotland. Kathleen Robertson reports on the Trust's aims and its newest CPD prize.

Prevalence of overweight and obesity among nurses in Scotland: A cross-sectional study using the Scottish Health Survey

BackgroundIncreasing prevalence of overweight and obesity represents a global pandemic. As the largest occupational group in international healthcare systems nurses are at the forefront of health promotion to address this pandemic. However, nurses own health behaviours are known to influence the extent to which they engage in health promotion and the public's confidence in advice offered. Estimating the prevalence of overweight and obesity among nurses is therefore important. However, to date, prevalence estimates have been based on non-representative samples and internationally no studies have compared prevalence of overweight and obesity among nurses to other healthcare professionals using representative data. ObjectivesTo estimate overweight and obesity prevalence among nurses in Scotland, and compare to other healthcare professionals and those working in non-heath related occupations. DesignCross-sectional study using a nationally representative sample of five aggregated annual rounds (2008–2012) of the Scottish Health Survey. SettingScotland. Participants13,483 adults aged 17–65 indicating they had worked in the past 4 weeks, classified in four occupational groups: nurses (n=411), other healthcare professionals (n=320), unqualified care staff (n=685), and individuals employed in non-health related occupations (n=12,067). Main outcome measuresPrevalence of overweight and obesity defined as Body Mass Index≥25.0. MethodsEstimates of overweight and obesity prevalence in each occupational group were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). A logistic regression model was then built to compare the odds of being overweight or obese with not being overweight or obese for nurses in comparison to the other occupational categories. Data were analysed using SAS 9.1.3. Results69.1% (95% CI 64.6, 73.6) of Scottish nurses were overweight or obese. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher in nurses than other healthcare professionals (51.3%, CI 45.8, 56.7), unqualified care staff (68.5%, CI 65.0, 72.0) and those in non-health related occupations (68.9%, CI 68.1, 69.7). A logistic regression model adjusted for socio-demographic composition indicated that, compared to nurses, the odds of being overweight or obese was statistically significantly lower for other healthcare professionals (Odds Ratio [OR] 0.45, CI 0.33, 0.61) and those in non-health related occupations (OR 0.78, CI 0.62, 0.97). ConclusionsPrevalence of overweight and obesity among Scottish nurses is worryingly high, and significantly higher than those in other healthcare professionals and non-health related occupations. High prevalence of overweight and obesity potentially harms nurses’ own health and hampers the effectiveness of nurses’ health promotion role. Interventions are therefore urgently required to address overweight and obesity among the Scottish nursing workforce.

Nurses sceptical about two-week discharge target.

Most nurses in Scotland do not believe the country's new two-week patient discharge target will help reduce delays, a survey has found.

Fighting for MND specialists.

Awareness of motor neurone disease (MND) is rising, but many patients struggle to get the care they need. MND specialist nurses provide support and help people navigate the system. Gordon Aikman has campaigned successfully for funding to double the number of nurses in Scotland.

Pedagogical Innovation to Establish Partnerships in Adolescent Health Promotion

Nurses have an established and expanding role in health promotion in support of public health strategies to reduce health inequalities, refocus health care on prevention, and rebalance responsibility for health toward individuals. However, evidence suggests that nurses may be unclear about the content and lack the skills to conduct health promotion. Education has been identified as an important vehicle to increase nurses’ competence and confidence in health promotion, and health promotion is a required component of undergraduate nurse education in the United Kingdom. This article presents a pedagogical innovation that enabled undergraduate student nurses in Scotland to research and rehearse health promotion to raise adolescents’ awareness of risk-taking behaviors. Student nurses completed a 2-week group-work project to develop a resource (e.g., mobile app, poster, lesson plan) targeted toward an adolescent risk behavior (e.g., self-harm, unsafe sex, alcohol misuse). The project culminated with a public “marketplace” event where students showcased their resource and obtained professional, peer, and public feedback. Opportunities afforded by the national curriculum for high school pupils enabled partnerships in adolescent health promotion to be established through involvement of pupils from a local secondary school with an interest in health care careers. School pupils participated in focus groups where students “pitched” their resource and appraised students’ work at the marketplace. This article shares the design and delivery of this project to enable replication or adaptation by health educators elsewhere and offers reflections on perceived project outcomes from the perspective of student nurses, school pupils, and nursing faculty.

Scottish Government invests £700,000 in motor neurone specialist nursing

An online campaign has helped secure an additional £2.5 million for specialist nurses in Scotland and double the number of nurses caring for patients with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).