OBJECTIVES To introduce the practice of a nurse-led orthopaedic clinic for managing stable patients after total hip or knee replacement and to evaluate its efficacy. DESIGN Case series. SETTING A public hospital in Hong Kong. PATIENTS Patients who had stable primary total knee replacement or total hip replacement done for longer than 2 years were managed in a nurse-led total joint replace...

Recent advances in legislation have enabled nurses in the United Kingdom (UK) to become Nurse Independent and Supplementary Prescribers (NISP). The NISP can assess, diagnose and independently prescribe any licensed medicine within their area of competence. This change has meant the number of nurse prescribers in disease specific areas has increased. This study set out to assess the number of Ep...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To examine the prescribing practices of nurse supplementary prescribing in diabetes. BACKGROUND Nurses in several roles are involved in the management of medicines for patients with diabetes. Nurse prescribing should help optimise these roles. Nurses in the UK have virtually the same independent prescribing rights as doctors. There is little or no evidence on the extent to...

Practice nurses are defined as those nurses who work in general practices and are employed by GPs.This includes nurses who have gained further qualifications and are working as nurse practitioners and minor illness specialist nurses. Despite the success of nurse-led services in primary care, the move into extended nurse prescribing has not been as high as predicted. A questionnaire survey of al...

Some nurses describe individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) as among the most challenging and difficult patients encountered in their practice. As a result, the argument has been made for nursing staff to receive clinical supervision to enhance therapeutic effectiveness and treatment outcomes for individuals with BPD. Formal clinical supervision can focus on the stress...

Robin Cooper is an Independent Specialist Nurse and also a Leg Ulcer Specialist Nurse for Salisbury Foundation NHS Trust This paper will discuss the value of measuring wounds in order to assess the effectiveness of treatment for venous leg ulcers. It will discuss the use of an electronic Leg Ulcer TeleMedicine system (LUTM) which can predict healing times of venous leg ulcers from measurements ...

Janice Bianchi is a Medical Education Specialist, Glasgow: David Gray is a Clinical Nurse Specialist; John Timmons is a Tissue Viability Nurse both at the Department of Tissue Viability, NHS Grampian, Aberdeen; Sylvie Meaume is Dermatologist-Geriatrician, Head of Wound Healing Unit, Geriatric Department, APHP Rothschild Hospital, Paris, France The challenge of chronic wounds remains significant...

OBJECTIVE We seek to determine the optimized multidisciplinary care team (MDCT) composition for antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. METHODS We analyzed all new regimen starts (n = 10,801; 7071 ART naive, 3730 ART experienced) among HIV-positive patients in Kaiser Permanente California from 1996 to 2006. We measured 12-month adherence to ART (pharmacy refill methodology) and medical center...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore the practice of nurses who prescribe medication for patients with skin conditions. BACKGROUND Nurses have lead roles in dermatology services. In the United Kingdom, nurses in primary care frequently prescribe medicines for skin conditions, but there are concerns about role preparation and access to continuing professional development. The prescribing practices o...

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) contributes to the disparity in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Improving hospital care for Aboriginal patients has been identified as a means of addressing this disparity. This project developed and implemented a working together model of care, comprising an Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer and a specialist cardiac nurse, prov...