Toolkit to ensure good information is available for people looking to join the healthcare sector

This chapter is all about supporting managers, mentors, JCP advisors, training providers and colleges to provide training and guidance to individuals who are interested in a career within the health sector, or who want to progress their current career in the health sector | Ambition London Toolkit

The chapter is broken down into smaller sections:

• Section 1 – Confidence Building

• Section 2 – Job and Programme Search Skills
• Section 3 – Applying for a Job in the Health Sector
• Section 4 – Continuing Professional Development
• Section 5 – Planning for Success
• Section 6 – Developing Mentor Skills

• Section 7 – Advanced Learning Loans
• Section 8 – Career Maps

The full toolkit is available here

Implementing EBP: in-hospital family-witnessed cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Sak-Dankosky, N. Nursing in Critical Care. Published online: 9 April 2017

Background: In-hospital, family-witnessed cardiopulmonary resuscitation of adults has been found to help patients’ family members deal with the short- and long-term emotional consequences of resuscitation. Because of its benefits, many national and international nursing and medical organizations officially recommend this practice. Research, however, shows that family-witnessed resuscitation is not widely implemented in clinical practice, and health care professionals generally do not favour this recommendation.

Conclusion: Despite existing evidence revealing the positive influence of family-witnessed resuscitation on patients, relatives and cardiopulmonary resuscitation process, Finnish and Polish health care providers cited a number of personal and organizational barriers against this practice. The results of this study begin to examine reasons why family-witnessed resuscitation has not been widely implemented in practice. In order to successfully apply current evidence-based resuscitation guidelines, provider concerns need to be addressed through educational and organizational changes.

Read the full abstract here

Dementia: Best practice repository for clinical commissioning

NHS England has developed a repository of examples and case studies of best practice, which is available via the online Learning Environment.

In March 2016, NHS England introduced a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This framework brings together a range of key indicators, enabling NHS England and CCGs to work together to drive improvement for patients.
The CCG IAF framework has indicators for six national clinical priority areas, including dementia. The dementia indicators are:

• Estimated diagnosis rate for people with dementia.
• Dementia care planning and post-diagnostic support.

NHS England recognises that CCGs will have varying levels of need for support based on their performance against the indicators, and in October 2016 published a support offer to help with this.

To substantiate the support offer, the NHS England Dementia Team has developed the Best Practice Repository on the NHS England Learning Environment website. This repository is currently being developed and case studies will be added to the NHS England Learning Environment website along with links to other resources.

View an overview of the resource here

Search for case studies here

UK top in primary care co-ordination according to international survey

The UK emerges as the first of 11 countries in an international survey of care co-ordination in primary care settings | The Commonwealth Fund

In a survey of health care experiences in 11 high-income countries, the rate of poor primary care coordination was 5.2 percent overall and 9.8 percent in the United States, the highest rate. Patients who have a positive, established relationship with their provider were less likely to report poor primary care coordination. Being young or having a chronic illness was associated with poor care coordination.

Image source: The Commonwealth Fund

The dimensions of care coordination assessed for this study were:

• access to medical records or test results;
• receiving conflicting information;
• use of diagnostic tests that the patient felt were unnecessary; sharing of information between primary care doctor and specialist.

The UK had the highest percentage of patients reporting no care coordination gaps within primary care.

Full results can be accessed here