What measures have been used to explore the outcomes of family members of critically ill patients: a scoping review.

Background: Family members of critically ill patients are known to experience short and longer term challenges, including emotional and social problems. To undertake robust future interventional research to support this cohort, we undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the measures used in family outcome research to date.

Design: Scoping review.

Protocol for a scoping review investigating success in research capacity building for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.

Objective: To identify and describe how success is currently conceptualised in research capacity building in nurses, midwives and allied health professionals in the UK.

Introduction: Having a research active healthcare workforce is associated with improved patient outcomes as well as staff retention. It is therefore seen as a key target for many healthcare organisations.

Respiratory Clinicians' Views on Offering "Rescue Packs" to Patients Discharged After COPD Exacerbation: Qualitative Interview Study.

"Rescue packs" for COPD exacerbations, consisting of a course of antibiotics and steroids, have become part of self-management strategies for many patients living with COPD. Currently, in the UK, rescue packs are guideline-recommended but not routinely offered on hospital discharge. They are, however, commonly prescribed by primary care teams.

Motivation, self-efficacy, and identity-double-edged swords for relapse prevention in patients with alcohol related cirrhosis.

Background And Aims: Despite the critical importance of alcohol abstinence for patients with advanced liver disease, rates of returning to alcohol remain high and engagement with relapse prevention interventions is low. This study explores the potential barriers to relapse prevention in these patients.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients who had alcohol-related cirrhosis or alcohol-associated hepatitis.

What Is an Identifier Good for? Issues in Using Visual Identifiers to Improve Care for People With Dementia in Hospital.

Aims: To examine practical, ethical, and organisational implications of the use of a key technology deployed in the care of hospitalised people with dementia-visual identifiers-through a comparative analysis with parallel interventions in other spheres of healthcare and social activity.

Design: Discursive paper.

Methods: We contrast visual identification systems used for hospitalised patients with dementia with other, ostensibly similar, systems to understand how they differ in key characteristics: what they disclose, to whom and with what intended consequence.

Muscling in and Making Space: 'Demonstrable Claims' and 'Jurisdictional Clipping' in the Reconfiguration of Professional Jurisdictions in the Surgical Care of Older People.

This paper examines the micro-processes of jurisdictional change in the eco-systems of healthcare work. This qualitative study investigated the expansion of geriatrician involvement in the perioperative pathway for older people. This study shows how, in response to opposition from surgeons and anaesthetists, geriatricians developed linked strategies that involved claiming the medical needs of surgical patients, and simultaneously integrating geriatric expertise into the non-surgical peripheries of the pathway.

Diagnostic inequalities relating to physical healthcare among people with mental health conditions: a systematic review.

Background: Inaccurate diagnosis of physical health problems in people with mental health conditions may contribute to poorer health outcomes. We review the evidence on whether individuals with mental health conditions are at risk of diagnostic inequalities related to their physical health.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, and CINAHL, 1 September 2002-18 Septemebr 2024 (PROSPERO 2022: CRD42022375892).

A realist review of how, why, for whom and in which contexts quality improvement in healthcare impacts inequalities.

Introduction: Quality improvement (QI) is aimed at improving care. Equity is one of the six domains of healthcare quality, as defined by the Institute of Medicine. If this domain is ignored, QI projects have the potential to maintain or even worsen inequalities.

Five principles to prioritise in small-scale surgical quality improvement: a qualitative study of the views of surgical improvement leaders.

Objective: Variations in the quality and safety of surgical care remain persistent. Efforts to improve are needed, but are themselves variably effective, with often disappointing impacts. When compared with large-scale, multisite and better resourced improvement efforts, the evidence base for small-scale quality improvement (QI) has remained under-developed and lacking in clarity on good practice.

Collapse of an early adolescent girl. Syncope? Simple or sinister?

An early adolescent girl presented to the emergency department (ED) of her local hospital following a syncopal episode after a warm bath on a background of increasing breathlessness for 1-year duration. On examination, she was fully alert, no pain or injuries from her syncope, she was warm and well perfused, her respiratory rate at rest was normal and she showed no signs of respiratory distress, there were no signs of seizure activity such as incontinence or tongue biting, she had a raised Jugular Venous Pressure (JVP), a loud pansystolic murmur, there was no cyanosis and no oedema. She was referred for a chest radiograph due to her history of breathlessness and for an ECG based on the examination findings of a murmur.

xiVIEW: Visualisation of Crosslinking Mass Spectrometry Data.

Crosslinking mass spectrometry (MS) has emerged as an important technique for elucidating the in-solution structures of protein complexes and the topology of protein-protein interaction networks. However, the expanding user community lacked an integrated visualisation tool that helped them make use of the crosslinking data for investigating biological mechanisms. We addressed this need by developing xiVIEW, a web-based application designed to streamline crosslinking MS data analysis, which we present here.

Professionalising patient safety? Findings from a mixed-methods formative evaluation of the patient safety specialist role in the English National Health Service.

While safety-dedicated professional roles are common in other high-risk industries, in health care they have tended to have a relatively narrow, technical focus. We present initial findings from a mixed-methods evaluation of a novel, senior role with responsibility for leadership of safety in English National Health Service organisations: the patient safety specialist. We conducted interviews with those responsible for designing, developing and overseeing the introduction of the role.

Odorant transport in a hagfish.

Odorant transport is of fundamental and applied importance. Using computational simulations, we studied odorant transport in an anatomically accurate model of the nasal passage of a hagfish (probably Eptatretus stoutii). We found that ambient water is sampled widely, with a significant ventral element.

A seabird's eye view: visual fields of some seabirds (Laridae and Procellariidae) from tropical latitudes.

The visual field of a bird defines the amount of information that can be extracted from the environment around it, using the eyes. Previous visual field research has left large phylogenetic gaps, where tropical bird species have been comparatively understudied. Using the ophthalmoscopic technique, we measured the visual fields of seven tropical seabird species, to understand what are the primary determinants of their visual fields.

Consensus-building to improve implementation of NICE guidance on planning for end-of-life treatment and care: a mixed-methods study.

Background: Despite the availability of guidance for the provision of good end-of-life care, there are significant variations across the UK in its delivery. This study sought to identify the influences on end-of-life treatment and care planning across several areas where deficiencies in evidence-based practice have been identified, and to develop consensus among healthcare providers and users for recommendations on how to address these deficits.

Methods: An online survey (106 responses), qualitative interviews (55 participants) and a consensus-building exercise (475 participants in the initial round) were undertaken.

Risk Controls Identified in Action Plans Following Serious Incident Investigations in Secondary Care: A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: The impact of incident investigations in improving patient safety may be linked to the quality of risk controls recommended in investigation reports. We aimed to identify the range and apparent strength of risk controls generated from investigations into serious incidents, map them against contributory factors identified in investigation reports, and characterize the nature of the risk controls proposed.

Methods: We undertook a content analysis of 126 action plans of serious incident investigation reports from a multisite and multispeciality UK hospital over a 3-year period to identify the risk controls proposed.

Uptake of self-management education programmes for people with type 2 diabetes in primary care through the embedding package: a cluster randomised control trial and ethnographic study.

Background: Self-management education programmes are cost-effective in helping people with type 2 diabetes manage their diabetes, but referral and attendance rates are low. This study reports on the effectiveness of the Embedding Package, a programme designed to increase type 2 diabetes self-management programme attendance in primary care.

Methods: Using a cluster randomised design, 66 practices were randomised to: (1) a wait-list group that provided usual care for nine months before receiving the Embedding Package for nine months, or (2) an immediate group that received the Embedding Package for 18 months.

Quality and reporting of large-scale improvement programmes: a review of maternity initiatives in the English NHS, 2010-2023.

Background: Large-scale improvement programmes are a frequent response to quality and safety problems in health systems globally, but have mixed impact. The extent to which they meet criteria for programme quality, particularly in relation to transparency of reporting and evaluation, is unclear.

Aim: To identify large-scale improvement programmes focused on intrapartum care implemented in English National Health Service maternity services in the period 2010-2023, and to conduct a structured quality assessment.

Anomalous binocular vision in African Harrier-Hawks.

An animal's visual field is the three-dimensional space around its head from which it can extract visual information at any instant. Bird visual fields vary markedly between species, and this variation is likely to be driven primarily by foraging ecology. The binocular visual field is the region in which the visual fields of the two eyes overlap; thus, objects in the binocular field are imaged by both eyes simultaneously.