Biomedical subjects

Jaqui Hewitt-Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to Jaqui Hewitt-Taylor.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Children who require long-term ventilation: staff education and training.

Children who live with conditions that were previously considered incompatible with long-term survival are often highly dependent on medical technology, interventions and equipment. This includes an increasing number of children who require long-term assisted ventilation. It is generally accepted that the social, psychological, emotional and developmental needs of children are best met at home, rather than in a hospital environment, and this applies equally to children who have long-term health problems. However, one of the many factors that can impede the discharge from hospital of children requiring long-term assisted ventilation is a lack of staff who can provide care and support for them and their families. Increasing the number of staff who are able to provide such support may therefore assist in improving the provision of appropriate care for this group. This paper reports on a study of the perceived education and training needs of staff who care for children with complex needs, including assisted ventilation, and their families.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2003

Reviewing evidence.

This paper summarises how evidence based practice is defined, and what can be considered to constitute evidence. It describes the steps which should be undertaken in a systematic review of evidence and some of the issues involved in implementing the findings from such reviews in practice. This includes identifying the types of evidence which should inform decisions about practice and how these should be integrated with clinical expertise and client choice in order to achieve best practice.

Evidence-Based Medicine↗

PubMed2003

Evidence for practice.

This paper identifies the documentary sources that can be included in the evidence base that informs practice, including the relative merits of research based and non-research based sources. It goes on to debate the issues involved in using research findings from both qualitative and quantitative paradigms in a review of the current best evidence. Finally, it discusses the place of clinical expertise and patient choice in evidence based practice, and how this can be combined with documentary evidence to provide optimum and individualised patient care.

Critical Care↗

PubMedDate not supplied

New flexible healthcare roles and the purpose of nursing.

Current policy aims for healthcare professionals to be trained to work across traditional boundaries. The intention of this move is to improve understanding between the professions, to enhance patient care, to promote job satisfaction and to achieve cost-effectiveness (Department of Health (DoH), 2000). However, there is a risk that the blurring of professional boundaries may result in a loss of the unique contributions of specific professions. In the case of nursing, this may mean that the provision of care that is based on holism, empowerment, and partnership may be lost. This may have an adverse effect on nursing morale and job satisfaction as well as patient care. Nurses need to be clear about the nature of their professional priorities and remit. Where these are incongruent with a culture in which meeting quantifiable targets is a major focus, they must be able to articulate clearly the importance of the unquantifiable and humanistic aspects of care.

Delivery of Health Care↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Issues involved in promoting patient autonomy in health care.

Respecting patient autonomy is a central part of the Royal College of Nursing's definition of nursing (RCN, 2003). Although autonomy is a fundamental ethical principle in health care, it stands alongside the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence and justice (Wilmot, 2003), and these principles may be interpreted differently by individuals and professional groups. In seeking to promote patient autonomy, it is therefore necessary for nurses to consider how these principles interlink, and to understand the potentially differing interpretations that they may encounter in practice. This article sets out to address these issues and suggests that facilitating patient autonomy includes engaging in debates which include uncertainties, considering the resource implications of patient autonomy and the responsibilities that patients have themselves. It also identifies that nurses who aim to promote patient autonomy and holistic decision making need to be able to facilitate discussion that may include questioning the dominant biomedical view of health. This will be problematic if nurses do not themselves feel empowered or autonomous.

Decision Making↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Nurses' role in the new NHS: standardization of practice.

The changes that have been proposed or introduced in healthcare provision since the publication of 'A First Class Service' (Department of Health (DoH), 1988) and 'The NHS Plan' (DoH, 2000) have the potential to enhance the quality and equality patient care across the country. These include the development of national technology appraisals and clinical guidelines, greater flexibility over the roles performed by some healthcare professionals and the development of care protocols. This article identifies some of the issues that these initiatives present to nursing, including standardization of practice and addressing individual need, the interface between care protocols or guidelines and professional judgement, and the need for a clear definition of the role of nursing.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence-based practice.

This article summarises how evidence-based practice is defined, and what might constitute evidence. It describes the steps that should be taken in a systematic review of evidence, and some of the issues involved in implementing the findings of such reviews in practice.

Bias↗