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Found 2,337 results
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Content ArticleInfection preventionist, JoAnn Adkins, psychologist, Dr Lily Brown, and mother of a son with autism, Susan Senator, share their insights into how vaccines work, how to recognise when anxiety may be clouding our judgment, and how both sides of the vaccine debate can finally have a real and productive debate.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the country’s health systems and diminished its capability to provide safe and effective healthcare. This article from Sharda Narwal and Susmit Jain attempts to review patients safety issues during COVID-19 pandemic in India, and derive lessons from national and international experiences to inform policy actions for building a ‘resilient health system’
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Content ArticleBuildings have been associated with spread of infectious diseases, such as outbreaks of measles, influenza, and Legionella. With SARS-CoV-2, the majority of outbreaks involving three or more people have been linked with time spent indoors, and evidence confirms that far-field airborne transmission (defined as within-room but beyond 6 feet) of SARS-CoV-2 is occurring. In this paper, Allen et al. discuss how controlling concentrations of indoor respiratory aerosols to reduce airborne transmission of infectious agents is critical and can be achieved through source control (masking, physical distancing) and engineering controls (ventilation and filtration).
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Content ArticleA group of royal colleges has produced guidance for doctors seeing patients who have concerns about symptoms after receiving the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the Society for Acute Medicine, and the Royal College of Physicians say that anyone who presents with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 vaccine induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT)1 should have a full blood count to check their platelet level. Symptoms of concern include persistent or severe headaches, seizures, or focal neurology; shortness of breath, persistent chest, or abdominal pain; and swelling, redness, pallor, or cold lower limbs.
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Content ArticleCOVID-19 placed unprecedented pressure on the health and care system. Improvement, which offers systematic approaches that can help adapt to change, would be expected to be a useful asset in the response to the pandemic. Q members, a community of over 4,000 people skilled in improvement, were asked about the role of improvement tools, methods, approaches and mindsets in supporting change during COVID-19. This paper summarises their responses and shares key findings and recommendations for action.
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Content ArticleMany of us are hoping vaccines against coronavirus will be our route out of lockdown, enabling us to reclaim our old lives. But scientists say jabs alone will not currently be enough and other measures are still needed. The problem is that no single measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus is 100% effective, and that includes vaccines. This animated BBC article uses the Swiss Cheese respiratory panedemic defence model, first created by Ian M Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, to explain.
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Content ArticleThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued new advice suggesting people under the age of 30 with no underlying health conditions should receive an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine, where available. Both the MHRA and JCVI have stressed that vaccination is highly effective and substantially reduces the risk of infection and severe COVID-19 disease.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented pressure on a nursing workforce that is already under considerable mental strain due to an overloaded system. Convergent evidence from the current and previous pandemics indicates that nurses experience the highest levels of psychological distress compared with other health professionals. Nurse leaders face particular challenges in mitigating risk and supporting nursing staff to negotiate moral distress and fatigue during large-scale, sustained crises. This paper from Sriharan et al. aims to (1) synthesise existing literature on COVID-19-related burnout and moral distress among nurses and (2) identify recommendations for nurse leaders to support the psychological needs of nursing staff.
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Content ArticleSpace From Covid programme is made up of six modules, each addressing issues you may be experiencing due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Each module provides clinically-backed support for trouble sleeping, coping with stress, developing mindfulness, financial worries and experiencing grief and loss. SilverCloud is offering this service completely free of charge and for anyone to use. The average module takes 30 minutes to complete and is accessible 24/7 from a smartphone, tablet or computer.
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Content ArticleHelen McKenna sits down with Suzie Bailey, Director of Leadership and Organisational Development at The King’s Fund, and Professor Michael West to explore the results of the 2020 NHS Staff Survey and discuss how the NHS can create an inclusive, compassionate, and supportive working environment for staff.
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Content Article
Neonatal herpes – more common than you think?
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
Neonatal herpes is a rare, and potentially fatal, disease which usually occurs in the first four weeks of a baby's life. It is caused by the same virus that causes cold sores and genital infections – the herpes simplex virus (HSV). Early recognition and treatment has been shown to significantly improve babies' chances of making a full recovery. In the first of a series of blogs, Sarah de Malplaquet, Chief Executive and Founder of the Kit Tarka Foundation, explains why they are joint-funding new research into neonatal herpes, and how the findings could help save many lives. -
Content ArticleAbi Rimmer asks four experts whether doctors must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in this BMJ article.
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Content ArticleUK guidelines recommend that assessment and monitoring of breathless, unwell, or high risk patients with suspected COVID-19 should include pulse oximetry. Guidance published in January 2021 by the World Health Organization includes a provisional recommendation for “use of pulse oximetry monitoring at home as part of a package of care, including patient and provider education and appropriate follow-up. In this BMJ Practice article, Tricia Greenhalgh and colleagues discuss the remote management of COVID-19 using home pulse oximetry.
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Content Article
Prevention of Future Deaths report – Brian Button
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Coroner reports
Brian Button, 78 years old, was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital following a fall but contracted COVID-19 pneumonitis on the Catherine James ward within the Acute Respiratory Unity. Senior coroner for Brighton and Hove, Veronica Hamilton-Deeley, in the coroner's report, said that the ward contained 13 beds and that these beds were not socially distanced. A patient review confirmed this. The Royal Sussex County Hospital has responded. -
Content ArticleThis study from the COVIDSurg Collaborative and the GlobalSurg Collaborative found that preoperative covid vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritsation by modelling. The authors concluded that as the global roll out of the covid vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritised ahead of the general population.
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Content ArticleThe Point of Care Foundation have developed Team Time in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Team Time is a 45-minute reflective practice that is run and facilitated online and provides an opportunity for people taking part to share experiences of their work in health and social care. As with Schwartz Rounds the focus is on participants’ emotional and social response to their work. However, unlike Schwartz Rounds, the audience is limited in size and is intended to be drawn from an area/department of a health/social care site rather than from across the organisation. The audience will comprise colleagues who have ‘common cause with others in a specialty/pathway’ and consider each other colleagues in the work of that area. Please note that Team Time training is available only to trained Schwartz Rounds facilitators.
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Content ArticleThe NHS risks losing thousands of nurses, doctors and other key workers in the longer term unless they are given the time and space to recover from the pandemic. Without this, the Government will fail to meet its key manifesto target of recruiting an extra 50,000 nurses, and it will take even longer for the NHS to address the impact of the pandemic on waiting times and other services. The NHS Confederation report warns that staff need to recovery time following the past 12 months. The NHS Confederation, which represents the whole health system, is calling on the Government to act now to avert a staffing crisis in the NHS as the country prepares to emerge from a year of restrictions. With the NHS still facing the threat from coronavirus and a massive backlog of treatment, there is a real risk that exhausted NHS staff may leave their roles unless expectations of their workload mean they are allowed time to recover.
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Content ArticleCOVID-19 presents many challenges to healthcare systems internationally, none more so than the significant reporting among healthcare workers (HCWs) of occupational fatigue and burnout or Long COVID related symptoms. Consensus on the extent of HCW fatigue during the pandemic remains largely unknown, as levels of Long COVID related fatigue in HCWs appears to be on the rise. What is known is that, among current levels, impacts of fatigue on HCW well-being and performance is likely. Developing strategies to mitigate fatigue are the responsibilities of all healthcare system stakeholders. Leadership that goes beyond organisational efforts of mitigating fatigue through mandated working hour limits alone are needed.
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Content ArticleNew research by the Health Foundation shows that the amount of hospital care received by those living in care homes in England rapidly declined in the first three months of the pandemic in 2020 and was substantially lower than in the same period in 2019. The research, which is due to be peer reviewed, provides the first comprehensive and national analysis of all hospital care provided to care home residents during the first wave of the pandemic. It appears to substantiate concerns that care home residents (including those in nursing homes and residential care) may have faced barriers to accessing hospital treatment as the NHS rapidly reorganised to free up hospital capacity to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
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Content ArticleThis leaflet offers guidance for workers from Occupational Health Professionals on how to manage getting back to work after COVID-19 infection and Long COVID.
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Content Article
Preventing COVID-19 infections in care homes
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Guidance
Government guidance on the changes to care home visits. -
Content ArticleInfographic for patients from the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) on vaccine safety. This infographic is already available in Italian, Arabic and Spanish. If translation is required, please email: administration@isoponline.org
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Content ArticleHealthcare workers are among the heroes of the pandemic. One year in, many of us are experiencing stress, fatigue, and grief. But this can pale in comparison to the toll faced by those caring for the sick and dying on a daily basis. On the latest episode of The Dose, we listen to the stories of one group of frontline health workers: nurses. Often dealing with inadequate PPE and staff shortages, nurses are putting their own lives at risk — and many are experiencing burnout and exhaustion. In this podcast, guest, Mary Wakefield, takes us on a journey from rural hospitals to clinics in underserved areas, all through the eyes of nurses.
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Content ArticleThe primary objective of this study, published in Intensive Care Medicine, was to investigate the risk of ICU bloodstream infection (BSI) in critically ill COVID-19 patients compared to non-COVID-19 patients. Authors conclude: "The ICU-BSI risk was higher for COVID-19 than non-COVID-19 critically ill patients after seven days of ICU stay. Clinicians should be particularly careful on late ICU-BSIs in COVID-19 patients. Tocilizumab or anakinra may increase the ICU-BSI risk."
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Content ArticleTo safeguard patient safety and the wellbeing of healthcare staff, a realistic approach to tackling the backlog of non-COVID care is needed. NHS and public health services have been running ‘hot’ for a prolonged period of time and an overstretched and exhausted workforce must now be given time to rest and recuperate as they meet the challenges ahead. If staff are being pushed too hard to restore routine care in an unrealistic timeframe and without suitable resources, the likelihood is that we will see a workforce squeeze due to a combination of increasingly high staff absence rates and staff reducing their hours or leaving the workforce altogether. This would make it harder for health services to get back on track and provide timely and safe care to patients who need it.
