Nursing students experiences of end-of-life care.

Background: Undergraduate nursing students spend a significant amount of time in clinical placements where they are involved in care at the end of a person's life and care after death. While their role is to provide compassionate care, some students feel wholly unprepared.

Aims: The aim of this qualitative study was to explore student nurses' experiences of care in death, dying and post death care, and to explore how students can be better prepared to provide such care.

Nurses' early and ongoing encounters with the dying and the dead: a scoping review of the international literature.

Background: End-of-life care is high on policy and political agendas in the UK and internationally. Nurses are at the forefront of this, caring for dying patients, 'managing' the dead body, and dealing with the corporeal, emotional and relational dimensions of death. Little is known about nurses' prior or early professional experiences of and reactions to death, dying and the corpse and how these might influence practice.

Barriers and facilitators to adherence to group exercise in institutionalized older people living with dementia: a systematic review.

Objectives: Research suggests targeted exercise is important for people living with dementia, especially those living in residential care. The aim of this review was to collect and synthesize evidence on the known barriers and facilitators to adherence to group exercise of institutionalized older people living with dementia.

Methods: We searched all available electronic databases.

'Doing it for real now' - The transition from healthcare assistant to newly qualified nurse: A qualitative study.

Background: There has been increasing international research and policy interest concerning the transition from student to newly qualified nurse (NQN). However, the influence of previous employment as a healthcare assistant (HCA) on students' experiences of this transition is comparatively under-researched.

Aims And Objectives: To explore the experiences of NQNs also employed as HCAs during their pre-registration education programme and how this prior and ongoing HCA experience influenced their transition experiences.

Managers' role in maximising investment in continuing professional education.

Healthcare organisations face the challenge of delivering care in increasingly complex environments. To do so they depend on competent professionals, and continuing professional education (CPE) plays a major part in ensuring that staff maintain and develop their knowledge and skills. However, there is limited evidence of the effect of CPE on healthcare outcomes, and an emphasis on outcomes has overlooked the contribution of the processes that underlie effective CPE.

Ethnography: principles, practice and potential.

Ethnography is a methodology that is gaining popularity in nursing and healthcare research. It is concerned with studying people in their cultural context and how their behaviour, either as individuals or as part of a group, is influenced by this cultural context. Ethnography is a form of social research and has much in common with other forms of qualitative enquiry.

Illuminating the process: enhancing the impact of continuing professional education on practice.

Background: There has been significant global investment in continuing professional education (CPE) to ensure healthcare professionals have the knowledge and skills to respond effectively to the needs of patients/service users. However, there is little evidence to demonstrate that this investment has had a tangible impact on practice. Furthermore, the current emphasis on evaluating outcomes has overlooked the importance of underlying processes which, when positive, are essential to good outcomes.

'Ready to hit the ground running': Alumni and employer accounts of a unique part-time distance learning pre-registration nurse education programme.

Background: This study explored the impact of The Open University's (OU) preregistration nursing programme on students' employability, career progression and its contribution to developing the nursing workforce across the United Kingdom. Designed for healthcare support workers who are sponsored by their employers, the programme is the only part-time supported open/distance learning programme in the UK leading to registration as a nurse. The international literature reveals that relatively little is known about the impact of previous experience as a healthcare support worker on the experience of transition, employability skills and career progression.

Embodied practice: rediscovering the 'heart' of nursing.

Aim: This article explores the importance of embodiment in nursing. It examines different sources of authoritative knowledge concerning the body and embodiment. It argues that dominant scientific and medical epistemologies of the body have displaced and marginalized embodied epistemologies, creating only a partial understanding of the embodied experiences of our patients and our own embodiment as nurses.

A critical literature review exploring the challenges of delivering effective palliative care to older people with dementia.

Aim: This paper considers the challenges of delivering effective palliative care to older people with dementia and the possible strategies to overcome barriers to end-of-life care in these patients.

Background: In UK alone, approximately 100,000 people with dementia die each year and as the number of older people increases, dementia is set to become even more prevalent. Dementia is a progressive terminal illness for which there is currently no cure.

Calculating the costs of work-based training: the case of NHS Cadet Schemes.

Background: The worldwide shortage of registered nurses [Buchan, J., Calman, L., 2004.

A review of the factors involved in older people's decision making with regard to influenza vaccination: a literature review.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of this paper was to develop an understanding of the factors involved in older people's decision making with regard to influenza vaccination to inform strategies to improve vaccine uptake and reduce morbidity and mortality.

Background: Influenza is a major cause of morbidity and mortality world-wide. In the UK, it accounts for 3,000-6,000 deaths annually; 85% of these deaths are people aged 65 and over.

NHS cadet schemes: do they widen access to professional healthcare education?

Aim: The aim of this paper is to report a study investigating the extent to which National Health Service cadet schemes widen access to professional health care education.

Background: Cadet schemes have been reintroduced in the United Kingdom to increase recruitment of nurses and other health care staff to the National Health Service and also to widen access and increase participation in professional health care education by groups poorly represented in such education, including minority ethnic groups.

Methods: A questionnaire survey of all cadet schemes (n = 62) in England at the time of the study was carried out, and the respondents were cadet scheme leaders (n = 62) and cadet students (n = 411).

The evidence base for gerontological nursing practice. Part 2: Making sense of the evidence.

This is the second of two articles exploring the meaning of 'evidence-based practice'. The first, in last month's issue, considered what is meant by 'evidence'. This month, Jan Draper examines how literature reviews can help nurses make sense of the variety of evidence available to them.

The evidence base for gerontological nursing practice. Part 1: What do we mean by 'evidence'?

In recent years, 'evidence-based practice' has featured increasingly in the lexicon of healthcare practitioners. But what does it mean and how is 'evidence' gathered, graded and described? In the first of two articles, Jan Draper explores the issues.

NHS cadet schemes: student experience, commitment, job satisfaction and job stress.

In the context of various policy initiatives concerning widening access to and strengthening recruitment and retention in the health services, cadet schemes--predominantly in nursing--have proliferated over the last few years. As part of a larger national evaluation of National Health Service (NHS) cadet schemes, this paper reports on a survey of senior cadet students across 62 cadet schemes in England and examines their experience of being a cadet on such a scheme. Cadets forming the most senior cohort from each of the 62 schemes (n = 596) were surveyed using a questionnaire.