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Search results for "training" OR "education"
141 records
found from year 2006
| View search results from other years: 2005 2004 |
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| Thursday, 13 July 2006 10:50 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Danish research suggests that people living alone doubles the risk of severe heart disease compared to living with a partner.
The latest study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, focused on the incidence of acute coronary syndrome - a spectrum of conditions including angina, heart attack or sudden cardiac death. Between 2000 and 2002, 646 people were diagnosed with one of these conditions.
The Danish researchers, led by Dr Kirsten Nielsen of University Hospital, Aarhus, examined risk factors including poor educational attainment and low income to see whether these had any influence. But they found that the two strongest predictive factors for serious heart problems were age and living alone.
Women aged over 60 and living by themselves and men over 50 in the same position, were twice more likely to suffer angina, a heart attack or other serious heart-related condition than the rest of the population.
The researchers noted that lone women over 60 made up just over 5 per cent of the whole population, yet they accounted for a third of all deaths from serious heart problems within 30 days of diagnosis.
Lone men over 50 were just 8 per cent of the population, yet accounted for two-thirds of such deaths.
Dr Kirsten Nielsen said: "There is an accumulation of heart disease risk factors in people who live alone.
"But something else is also happening, which we haven't yet identified.
"Studies on monkeys have shown animals that are isolated have a higher risk of atherosclerosis [a build up of fatty deposits in the arteries].
"Living alone is a risk factor GPs should take into account - and it may be necessary to contact those living on their own and advise them on how to cut their risk of disease”.
Ellen Mason, spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation said: "Lifestyle habits linked to living alone, such as smoking and eating unhealthy food, are more of a problem than living alone itself.
"The weakness of the researchers' interpretation is that many people who choose to live alone have strong social support and healthy lifestyles, all of which help keep their heart healthy”.
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| Sunday, 09 July 2006 09:35 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Maternity care assistants (MCAs) are to be introduced in Scotland’s maternity wards to help ease pressure on busy midwives and assist new mums with tasks such as breastfeeding and nappy changing.
MCAs have already been deployed in the US and in England. A training programme is now being drawn up to pilot the role north of the Border amid fears of future staffing shortages in maternity services.
Midwives and campaigners say the MCAs can be useful, but warn they should not be used as an excuse to employ midwives “on the cheap”.
A document published by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) warns that there are challenges in providing “sustainable” maternity services, with potential for a serious shortage of staff in the future. It states: “The introduction of MCAs as a distinct role development within the family of health care support workers has been identified as one possible solution to this emerging workforce need.”
It acknowledges that the role is controversial: “The development of MCAs has generated considerable polarised debate from those concerned with the erosion of the role of the midwife to those advocating improved quality of services to women and their families”.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) is consulting its members to gauge opinion on whether MCAs should be allowed to join the organisation. An RCM spokeswoman said midwives were divided on the issue.
“Some of the midwives really don’t like the idea of it,” she said. “If the mum asks the person [a question] they may think they are getting professional advice and only a midwife can do that.
“But some people see it a bit like the role of a classroom assistant: sometimes it is helpful for the midwife to have somebody else to hold something or to do something so you don’t have to leave the mother at a crucial moment”.
The spokeswoman said that jobs carried out by MCAs in England, where they were introduced around two years ago, varied according to the health trust in which they were employed. But she said the extent of their role had to be clearly defined.
“If you are looking for somebody who can explain whether you need an epidural or not, then it is not the MCA’s job,” she said. “But if the woman is desperate for a cup of tea or wants her back rubbed, then that is probably OK.”
She added: “There is some concern about roles and responsibilities but so long as they work as part of a team, generally speaking they fit in and it works very well”.
Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said the group backed the idea of MCAs “providing they were used properly”.
“You don’t want a midwife spending time answering the door to relatives. That is crazy,” she said. “But you don’t want a MCA doing things that a midwife should be doing”.
Phipps said it was likely there was a financial element behind introducing lower-paid MCAs and cautioned against the idea of midwives “on the cheap”.
“They can be useful and they are certainly proving useful in England, but their introduction has to be managed carefully,” she said. “They have got to have training, and the whole of their role should be to support midwives”.
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said a pilot of the training programme was likely to get under way in the autumn. He claimed the MCA role was not being introduced to combat manpower shortages but to enhance the care of women.
“Maternity care assistants could work as part of the multi-professional maternity care team, working alongside midwives and doctors and freeing them up from non-clinical tasks,” he said.
“This would be done under the supervision of a midwife and will facilitate a seamless, woman-centred maternity service”.
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| Sunday, 09 July 2006 08:59 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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A survey by officials at NHS Education for Scotland has revealed that the health service is facing a massive staff shortage because the growing numbers of female GPs are working fewer hours than their male counterparts.
They claim that female doctors tend to work fewer hours, preferring to do part-time work and job-sharing, meaning that although the total number of GPs working in Scotland has soared over the last 10 years, the amount of time spent with patients has changed little.
The report, written together with researchers at Edinburgh University, states:
"The rapidly increasing proportion of women in general practice may lead to an increasing shortfall of medical availability in the future if current work patterns are maintained”.
Mary Church, a GP negotiator for the British Medical Council, said the NHS needed to change its recruitment and employment policy to prevent future shortages.
She said: "Either more money must be spent training more doctors to ensure there is enough cover with less of a return, or they need to change the balance of female to male doctors working in the NHS”.
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: "Workforce planning is ongoing and the number of medical training places for doctors is considered on an annual basis.
"The changing shape of the workforce, including increases in part-time working, is taken into account when we do this planning”.
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| Wednesday, 05 July 2006 10:44 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Researchers from the University of California Berkeley, claim that children exposed to the pesticide DDT while in the womb experience development problems.
The pesticide was banned in the US and UK in the 1970s, but it is still used in some countries to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
The researchers measured blood levels of DDT and one of its breakdown products, DDE, in 360 pregnant women, the majority of whom were born in Mexico, where agricultural use of the chemical was only banned in 2000.
Factors including age, income, education, marital and work status, the child's gender, duration of breastfeeding and the quality of the home environment for young children were considered.
The researchers tested the mental and physical skills of the women's babies at six, 12 and 24 months using established tests to measure the children's development.
For each tenfold increase in DDT levels measured in the mother, the team found a corresponding two to three-point decrease in the children's mental development scores at 12 and 24 months.
Children with the highest DDT exposures in the womb were associated with a seven to 10-point decrease in test scores, compared to the lowest exposures.
When the children's physical skills were measured, there were two-point decreases in children's scores at six and 12 months for each tenfold increase in DDT levels in the mothers.
Similar, but weaker effects were linked to DDE exposure.
The team also found that the longer babies were breastfed for, the better they scored on the developmental tests - even though they would have been exposed to DDT through the milk.
Dr Brenda Eskenazi, who led the research, said: "People need to consider these data if they are going to continue using DDT or reintroduce it in countries where it's been banned.
"Given the impact of malaria on child health, I'm not saying that we shouldn't use it.
"But if we do, we need to think of ways to protect women and children”.
The researchers plan to continue to follow the children as they develop.
Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh, said: "The older the woman before her first breastfeeding episode and the longer and the higher her DDT exposure has been, the greater will be the amount of chemical delivered to the baby.
"So the first baby gets the worst of the chemicals stored in the mum's fat.
"There may also be a bonus to the mum in that she is ridding herself and her fat tissue of the chemicals in question and because some of these chemicals are potentially implicated in the development of breast cancer - the breast is mainly fat.
"This could be one of the ways in which early breastfeeding protects against breast cancer”.
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| Tuesday, 04 July 2006 11:11 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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The Government announced yesterday that international nurses are to be banned from working in the UK to improve the chances of home-grown candidates getting a job.
The vast majority of overseas nurses will no longer be able to get work permits unless NHS trusts can prove they are unable to fill the posts with candidates trained in the European Economic Area or the UK.
However, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) attacked the move, warning it would be impossible to replace retiring nurses with home-grown talent alone.
Health Minister Lord Warner said the Government had invested heavily in nurse training and recruitment policies.
As a result, there were now 82,000 more nurses working in the NHS than when the Government came to power in 1997 - and record numbers in training.
He said: "We are now moving away from year-on-year growth in the NHS workforce to more of a steady state where there is a closer match between demand and supply.
"Large-scale international nurse recruitment across the NHS was only ever intended to be a short-term measure.
"The aim of the NHS has always been to look towards home-grown staff in the first instance and have a diverse workforce that reflects local communities.
"Therefore to ensure that UK resident and newly trained nurses are given every opportunity to continue their career in the UK and to secure the future workforce of the NHS, we are today taking Agenda for Change band five and six nurses off the shortage list”.
Dr Beverly Malone, RCN general secretary, said: "International nurses have always been there for the UK in times of need, and it beggar’s belief that they are now being made scapegoats for the current deficits crisis.
"Removing nursing from the list of recognised shortage professions is short-termism in the worst possible sense.
"We know that the vast majority of international nurses are employed in bands five and six, the very bands which are going to be affected.
"If this proposal goes ahead, I guarantee that the effects will be far-reaching and immediate.
"Over 150,000 nurses are due to retire in the next five to 10 years and we will not replace them all with home-grown nurses alone”.
Shadow Health Minister Andrew Murrison accused the Government of a "short-sighted" move.
He said: "Demographic changes over the next ten years mean that there will be a continuing need for the ethical recruitment of healthcare professionals from abroad, including nurses.
"This move is presumably designed to save the Government's blushes as hospitals cut jobs and freeze nursing posts in a desperate attempt to resolve deficits”.
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| Tuesday, 04 July 2006 09:56 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Care homes and childminders across Scotland will be given ratings under a new, easy-to-follow grading system to help customers compare services.
The Care Commission, the official watchdog, who regulates care services by registering, inspecting, and investigating complaints, is adopting the same point scale used by school inspectors to assess education standards.
Homes will be marked one to six according to the quality of life available to residents, the living environment, staffing and management.
The move is expected to make it easier for people to choose homes that meet their requirements and give owners an incentive to drive up standards.
A pilot is planned before the end of the year and it is hoped the scheme will be rolled out across Scotland by the end of 2008.
During the pilot, homes will first assess themselves using the new criteria, which are based on the national care standards set by Scottish ministers.
When the commission in-spects the premises it will verify the scores and take the final decision on the grades earned.
Several factors will be taken into account under the four headings. The staffing score will cover staffing levels, competence and turnover.
People will ultimately be able to find the home's registration and results on the Care Commission's website.
David Wiseman, director of strategic development with the Care Commission said: "This is an exciting step forward for the Care Commission … We will be able to better assess the success and reaction when the pilot period concludes in March 2007”.
Joe Campbell, chairman of Scottish Care which represents independent care home owners, said: "We are happy to be involved in trying to devise a system which is fair and understandable. Everyone should know exactly what they can expect from a care home”.
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| Sunday, 02 July 2006 08:48 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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British doctors are needed to plug gaps in the Australian health service.
Recruiters will be in the UK this autumn to attempt to lure thousands of junior medics and GPs to a new life down under.
The Australian government prefers doctors from Britain because of the standard of training at medical schools here.
Britain, on the other hand, has a glut of junior doctors with little prospect of gaining more senior consultant positions.
The British Medical Association (BMA) claims 21,000 qualified doctors are competing for fewer than 10,000 training posts that lead to consultant positions.
A spokeswoman for the BMA Scotland said: "It is not just fully qualified doctors and consultants who are targeted to go and work in Australia but also trainees . . . and unless we ensure there are enough specialist training places available then there is a real risk they will leave the country, which is a terrible waste of taxpayers' money.
"It is vital we offer good career options and attractive packages to retain and even encourage doctors to work in Scotland".
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| Friday, 30 June 2006 10:49 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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An Executive report on the future of dental practices in Scotland found that Scotland is short of more than 100 dentists this year and will fail to reach the target for another six years.
The latest figures, compiled by the NHS information and statistics division, show that although the number of NHS High Street dentists, currently 2367, is increasing, it falls short of requirements by 120. This gap is expected to disappear by 2012.
Andrew Lamb, BDA director for Scotland, said: "People already know that there is a shortage of dentists here and many are unable to access dental care because of this. While it's good that longer term workforce issues are being addressed by training more dentists, the executive must also tackle problems facing patients and dentists today."
He renewed the BDA's call for a full review of the executive's recruitment and retention incentives so that their effect on easing the problems many people have in accessing dental care could be assessed. He also called for the views of the dental profession to be properly considered in workforce planning.
"Unless urgent action is taken to resolve the issue about the way dentists' commitment to the NHS is measured, our concern is that many more patients could lose access to NHS dentistry," he said.
Shadow Health Minister Shona Robison said: "These figures show that it is highly unlikely that the Lib-Lab executive will meet their target to recruit enough dentists to meet the needs of the NHS by 2012."
Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald said: "I am convinced we will continue to see these numbers increase, in line with our dental action plan targets over the coming months. The number of dentists who undertook their vocational training in Scotland last year was an all-time high of 135. This has increased further to 145 funded posts in 2006 and will increase again to 155 in 2007.
"The main problem of access to NHS dentistry is for adult patients who are deregistered against their will and then forced to pay for private treatment. For us to invest money without setting a threshold for the number of adult NHS patients a dentist must treat would compound this problem, not solve it”.
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| Wednesday, 28 June 2006 10:19 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Doctors attending the British Medical Association’s annual conference in Belfast have today agreed on solutions to the challenges of workforce planning in Scotland.
Speaking of Scottish Executive plans to increase the number of medical school graduates at St Andrews Medical School, Sabrina Talukdar, chair of the BMA's Scottish Medical Students Committee, and St Andrews graduate, said:
"One year ago, the Scottish Executive accepted recommendations to create 100 extra medical school places in Scotland which would allow St Andrews graduates to complete their clinical medical training in Scotland rather than Manchester. It was felt that this would increase the chances of the students staying in Scotland and giving service to NHS Scotland in the future."
But, she warned that greater planning was required in order for this approach to be successful:
"This increase in numbers to be planned carefully so that it does not compromise the high quality of training that students receive in Scotland. Many medical schools are working to capacity already and may well struggle to cope with yet more medical students.
"The number of academics must also increase in line with the numbers of students they will have to teach. Scotland already leads the way in terms of recruiting and retaining Medical Academics, and we would hope that this continues."
Conference also debated measures to increase the number of senior doctors in Scotland in the shorter term. Dr Lewis Morrison, a consultant geriatrician from Lothian, and member of the BMA’s Scottish Consultants Committee, said:
"Scotland needs more senior doctors but a significant number of consultants are expected to retire next year and there are currently few if any incentives to stay on.
"MMC goes live next august in Scotland. If we get that wrong trainees will leave Scotland.
"It is simple arithmetic and I hope that this gives a simple message to the Scottish Executive.
· Create sufficient MMC training posts to accommodate all current trainees and you will keep the majority in Scotland. If you keep them in Scotland as trainees more will stay as seniors.
· Make it practical to reduce workload at the end of a career and you will keep your senior doctors working for longer.
· Ensure that senior posts are just that i.e. GPs and Consultants.
"If you build it they will come. If you build it, but you don’t fund it they won't. These measures require adequate ring fenced monies.
"Scotland has an opportunity to largely solve its senior doctor recruitment problems. I urge the Executive to take that opportunity."
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| Tuesday, 27 June 2006 10:18 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Doctors in Scotland have welcomed the decision not to pursue a series of untested NHS reforms north of the border.
Speaking at the British Medical Association's [BMA] annual conference in Belfast today, Dr Peter Terry, Chairman of the BMA in Scotland addressed the growing divergence in health policy between England and Scotland.
"We are in the midst of a UK-wide experiment," he said. "Health policy is diverging at a fast pace. In Scotland, as in England, Wales and here in Northern Ireland, we are desperate to improve our health service but, for the meantime we are happy to be the control arm of this experiment for we are guided by the principle in medicine of "first do no harm".
"In England, health policy is based on contestability and choice. In Scotland, we believe that collaboration and partnership is better, if only to eliminate the significant process cost associated with commissioning. We also feel that collaboration is more likely to allow a greater integration of primary and secondary care to the benefit of patients."
Dr Terry also criticised Prime Minister Tony Blair for knocking the NHS in Scotland during his campaigning for the 2005 General Election.
"Mr Blair trumpeted the success of the Health service in England compared to that in Scotland.
"The evidence for this success, he claimed, was based on waiting times for elective surgery, an activity that probably results in less than 5 per cent of the total expenditure on health, but unlike most other activity, can be measured and thus financed for the benefit of the patient but also for political gain – so eloquently demonstrated by Mr Blair himself."
Commenting on the issue of choice, Dr Terry called for 'real choices' for patients.
He said: "Patients want ‘real choices’ in terms of involvement in decisions about their care and treatment, not whether they travel the length and breadth of the country for a hospital."
In a written report to conference, Dr Terry expressed his concerns about recent legislation on joint inspection of children’s services.
This law enables inspectors from police, education, health and social work to access children’s confidential health records without consent, even when there are no issues of child protection.
He wrote: "The BMA will campaign to maintain patient confidentiality and protect the doctor patient relationship."
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