Preparing for Trust status–an investigation into the morale of nurses undergoing change

The morale of nurses is a phenomenon often open to public comment without substantiated evidence. This study objectively explored the morale of nurses in a large district general hospital preparing for transition to National Health (NHS) Trust status. Information was sought using a 72-item questionnaire. The investigation was firmly centred around a structured theory which construes morale in terms of nine dimensions. The notion of morale being a construct synthesized of nine dimensions adds to the uniqueness of the study. Other studies fail to differentiate between the dynamic morale construct and the more complacent attitudes of job satisfaction.     

Collegiality, adaptation and nursing faculty

Many nurse educators in the United Kingdom are currently faced with the challenge of change, of leaving the culture of the British National Health Service and integrating into the culture of tertiary education This paper reports on a study of the process of developing collegial relationships in the context of a new collaboration to develop a combined curriculum for nurses within a tertiary institution The aims of the study were to analyse this process of integration and to identify the conditions that enhanced the development of collegiality between members of the nursing group The case study centred on the analysis of data collected on video during unstructured interviews with the five members of the group Data were analysed using Burnard's method of thematic content analysis The paper argues that during the transition from the National Health Service to tertiary education, individual nurse educators and their managers must address problems related to issues such as 'ingroupism', nursing the students, perceived difference between nurse academics and other academics, and expectations of power-relationships     

长效甾体避孕药RP-HPLC流动相选择性优化与定量分析

采用极角混合设计技术,模拟溶质色谱保留行为的数学模型,用预测优化流动相实验,对溶质色谱保留行为的数学模型进行修正。通过数次预测、迭代、修正数学模型,提高模型的拟合精度,采用多目标优化指标,计算机辅助,寻求三元流动相的最佳组成。首次利用可编程序紫外检测器的时间程序检测功能,提高微量组分的检测灵敏度,成功地解决了两种长效避孕药制剂的定量分析。     

Revealing the human mutome

Chen JM, Férec C, Cooper DN. Revealing the human mutome. The number of known mutations in human nuclear genes, underlying or associated with human inherited disease, has now exceeded 100,000 in more than 3700 different genes (Human Gene Mutation Database). However, for a variety of reasons, this figure is likely to represent only a small proportion of the clinically relevant genetic variants that remain to be identified in the human genome (the ‘mutome’). With the advent of next‐generation sequencing, we are currently witnessing a revolution in medical genetics. In particular, whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) has the potential to identify all disease‐causing or disease‐associated DNA variants in a given individual. Here, we use examples of recent advances in our understanding of mutational/pathogenic mechanisms to guide our thinking about possible locations outwith gene‐coding sequences for those disease‐causing or disease‐associated variants that are likely so often to have been overlooked because of the inadequacy of current mutation screening protocols. Such considerations are important not only for improving mutation‐screening strategies but also for enhancing the interpretation of findings derived from genome‐wide association studies, whole‐exome sequencing and WGS. An improved understanding of the human mutome will not only lead to the development of improved diagnostic testing procedures but should also improve our understanding of human genome biology.     

Uterine artery embolization for symptomatic fibroids with imaging follow up

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of uterine artery embolization (UAE) as a primary treatment method in treatment of symptomatic fibroids, whether there are any preembolization MRI characteristics of fibroid predictive of reduction in volume and assess reduction in uterine and dominant fibroid volumes using ultrasound (US) and MRI. Study was carried out in total of 32 patients aged 25–49 years (mean 40.9 years). Uterine and dominant fibroid volume were determined using US and MRI before UAE, MRI and US at 3 months and US alone at 6 and 12 months post‐UAE, supplemented by clinical evaluation at interval of 3, 6 and 12 months. Procedure was carried out through unilateral femoral puncture using poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) particles 355–500 μm in size. All 32 patients had successful procedures. Overall, 25 patients responded, giving a clinical success rate of 78.12%. Mean reduction in volume of uterus and fibroid was 33 and 59.7% and 48.9 and 75.5% on US at 3 and 12 months respectively, and 33.3 and 58.6% on MRI at 3 months. Volume reduction on US and MRI at 3 months was highly correlative. There was no statistical difference in size reduction in volume of fibroids, which were hypointense or hyperintense on T2‐weighted image (T2WI) on pre‐UAE MRI. Uterine artery embolization leads to good technical success and fibroid volume reduction. Ultrasound alone may be used for follow up of patients post‐UAE. Preprocedure signal characteristics on T2WI are not predictors of volume reduction after UAE.     

Endogenous and exogenous research? Findings from a bibliometric study of UK nursing research

AIMS OF THE STUDY: This paper uses the findings of a recent bibliometric analysis of published UK nursing research to ask whether the field is characterized by a fundamental split between two underlying areas of research interest. These can be termed 'endogenous' and 'exogenous'. The former term describes research which tends to be concerned with problems and issues to do with nursing as a profession; the latter is concerned with problems and issues centring around the nursing of patients. DESIGN/METHODS: Papers in the Wellcome Trust's Research Outputs Database (ROD), a database of UK biomedical research, were analysed. Nursing papers published between 1988 and 1995 numbered 1,845, just less than 1% of the total papers in the ROD. RESULTS/FINDINGS: Analysis of the subfield identified that nursing research was atypical of biomedical research as a whole in a number of ways. One difference was that usually in biomedical research there is a general correlation between numbers of funders acknowledged on a paper, numbers of authors, and esteem of the journal in which a paper appears. In nursing there was, if anything, a tendency for highly esteemed papers to have fewer authors and be less likely to have acknowledged funding. However, the apparently endogenous and exogenous papers have quite different characteristics. This paper explores this apparent difference and possible reasons for this difference and will briefly compare nursing research with some other newly emerging social and academic groups. CONCLUSIONS: Thinking of nursing research outputs in this way can provide insight into the existence of different reward systems influencing nurse researchers. However, it is impossible to draw too confident a differentiation without reading each individual paper and making judgements about whether they are 'endogenous' or 'exogenous', a practice generally beyond the scope of bibliometric practice.