The importance of upholding the duty of candour during patient care

The introduction of the duty of candour was part of the Government's plans to modernise the NHS by making it more accountable and transparent and it remains an enforceable duty for providers to carry...

Looking back over the past year in patient safety

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) (2020)State of Care annual assessment of health and social care in England noted some improvement in NHS acute care, where 75% of core services were rated as good or...

Positive obligations to protect against deprivation of liberty in the community

The European Court of Human Rights requires that nurses consider three elements when determining whether a person is being deprived of their liberty:.

Best practice skin antisepsis for insertion of peripheral catheters

Notwithstanding concern regarding unnecessary insertion, recent research has highlighted the under-reported risks posed by the placement and management of PIVCs including inadequate technique for skin...

Finding the right leadership style

‘I hope that the need for strong leadership is not misunderstood, by leaders, as a requirement to assert themselves on those whom they lead. Kind, compassionate leadership is the sweetness that...

Inequality: it's life and death

Mental health, society and COVID-19

Oesophageal mucosal tears caused by suboptimal nasogastric tube insertion: a case study

A 78-year-old woman was admitted to the authors' hospital with pneumonia. She had previously experienced a cerebral infarction. Emergency tracheal intubation was performed because her heart rate was...

Weaning on the web: using social media to empower parents

At the time that changes to the delivery of the weaning sessions were being considered, Doncaster Health Visitors was already running a successful Facebook page with around 3000 followers. This was...

Voiding dysfunction and the experience of intermittent self-catheterisation

Voiding dysfunction is relatively uncommon in young women (Mevcha and Drake, 2010) and can often be an incidental finding when investigating another medical condition. The cause of voiding dysfunction...

Taking care of continence patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Indisputably, all staff who have worked within and around heath and social care provision (including all support services, such as administrative, portering, domestic and catering staff) have done an...

Early intervention toilet training for children with Down syndrome

The early intervention toileting skill development programme was promoted as widely as possible through study days and parent workshops, and it was at a parent workshop in December 2018 that we...

The Mental State Examination

Concepts closely related to what is now known as the MSE in current day practice have been used in psychiatry for decades (Kareem and Ashby, 2000). The use of the MSE when considering an individual's...

Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-associated vasculitis: a guide and case study

The term vasculitis refers to a relatively rare and poorly understood set of conditions, causing inflammation of the blood vessels, and AAV is a sub-group within this collection (Ball et al, 2014)....

Pilot study of a nurse-led adult lacrimal clinic at a tertiary ophthalmic centre

It is important to diagnose and treat patients with watery eyes, as this symptom has been shown to decrease patients' quality of life through impairment of their ability to perform activities of daily...