Uganda blog 27 January 2015 - entry 1

Jayne Fleming, Nicola Froud, Sophie Park and Alice Lee are 3rd year Learning Disability Nursing students who have have elected to spend time in Uganda at Mbarara University Hospital as part of their clinical placement.

Day 6 in Uganda
Up until now we have been enjoying the magical sights and unspoiled landscapes the country had to offer. The journey to Mbarara did not go without a few hitches...delayed flights...problems boarding transfer flight...lost luggage and sickness to name but a few!

However today saw the start of our clinical placement in Mbarara hospital. Our (Nicola and Jayne) first day began on the surgical ward and opened our eyes to the sobering reality of the inequalities in healthcare. Lack of resources, beds, doctors and nurses are but a few of the challenges faced on a daily basis. The pain and suffering was on a grand scale. With no pain relief to offer, medical staff were forced to carry out procedures in overcrowded wards with no privacy while families looked on helplessly. We observed one nurse working frantically to care for the more than 30 patients on the ward; families cared for the patients while the nurse dressed wounds, cleaned burns having no time to stop and talk or comfort the patient. 

Dr Fred who kindly allowed us to follow his ward round showed a great deal of empathy with nothing too much trouble. He explained in depth the frustrations they faced with patients often left untreated unable to pay for treatment and medication. He highlighted the extraordinarily high cases of breast and stomach cancer with most being advanced and untreatable by the time they reached hospital.

Infection control - although not to UK standards - was carried out very well considering resources were so limited. Sterile gloves were used for each patient and care was taken when disposing of clinical waste. This seemed like a positive step in the right direction. Most wounds we saw were clean and free of infection with the nurse taking pride in the job she had done so well. Tomorrow's stop....the psychiatric ward.

Editorial by Mark Hayter

Professor Mark Hayter, recently appointed an Editor of the prestigious USA publication Nursing Outlook, the journal of the American Academy of Nursing, of which Mark is a Fellow, has published:

Professor Mark Hayter

Hayter M (2015) Ebola - the best and worst within nursing...and maybe us all Nursing Outlook doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2014.11.009

Faculty colleague interviewed on local radio

Helen Sissons was interviewed on local radio on 19 January 2015 about proposals to flouridate the water supply.  Helen's views are included in the following piece:

Fluoride is already in drinking water, but adding extra could help the city's poor dental health. 

Hull City Council say they're considering the possibility of putting fluoride into Hull's drinking water to improve our dental health.

The city is one of the worst places in the country for tooth decay, especially amongst children.

Helen Sisson, a public health lecturer at Hull University, says under normal circumstances fluoride doesn't cause side effects:

"Provided the level of fluoride that's added to water is safe, you know within the recommended levels, no there aren't. And Public Health England monitorsthis every four years in areas where fluoridisation occurs." 

She says the move could spark opposition, because people can't choose to opt out of fluoridation once it's happened:

"The argument against tend to be ethical. You can't have a choice about whether or not the water in your area is fluoridated or not. Once it's happened, you will actually get fluoridated water coming out of your tap." 

But Helen says it's a cost-effective option that could reduce the strain on the health service:

"When you look at the amount that it costs for a child to be admitted under general anaesthetic to have dental work done, because of decay, that's a significant offset for the initial costs." 

In a statement, Julia Weldon, Director of Public Health, says:

"We are working alongside Public Health England, our local dentists, schools and our community dental health providers, to ensure that we make a difference to this important area of public health.

"An oral health plan will be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in March and this will consider fluoridation, alongside a number of other approaches including promoting good dental hygiene and the importance of a healthy diet low in sugar." 

New report calls for LD competency framework for all nursing students

The Council of Deans for Health have issued the following press release, quoting our colleague Sue Beacock:

For immediate release: 21 January 2015

 

Education experts have recommended the introduction of a competency framework to strengthen learning disability education for all nursing students, in a new report published today.

 

Based on existing good practice, Learning Disabilities - Meeting the Educational Needs of Nursing Students, co-authored by the Learning and Disabilities Nursing Academic Network(LIDNAN) and the Council of Deans of Health (CoDH) also includes recommendations forall universities who deliver nurse education to have a link lecturer for learning disabilities and involve people with learning disabilities and their carers across their programmes.

 

Sue Beacock, Senior Lecturer, Learning Disabilities at the University of Hull said: 

 

‘This report will support colleagues and policy makers to better understand current challengesand to meet the growing need for all health and social care staff to know how to work with and care for people with a learning disability.’

Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Chair of the Council of Deans of Health, said: 

‘Our members play a crucial role in educating students to work with people with learning disabilities across all health settings and this report highlights ways in which universities can ensure learning disabilities is reflected in all nursing courses. 

Although this report is focused on the fields of nursing, this is an issue for all health and social care professionals. Our hope is that this will be a first step in a wider debate about education across the professions’.

 

 

-ENDS-

 

RCN Older People’s forum and BGS joint conference

Making integrated care a reality

This inaugural joint conference celebrates how older people’s experiences of services can be improved through multi-professional, multi-agency collaboration. It builds on the success of previous conferences hosted by the RCN and BGS to share experiences of how working together can make integrated care a reality.

Themes for the conference include:
• care closer to home
• partnership in care for people with dementia
• frailty
• developing older people’s nursing.

Monday 30 – Tuesday 31 March 2015

Renaissance Manchester Hotel, Blackfriars Street, Manchester M3 2EQ

Day 1
2pm registration
2.45pm conference begins
5pm conference closes
5–6pm welcome reception and exhibition viewing

Day 2
8.45am registration
9.30am conference begins
4.30pm conference closes

Online booking is now available.

Prestigious studentship award

Henning Holle,  Department of Psychology, and Fiona Cowdell have been successful in our application for a prestigious British Skin Foundation PhD studentship. 

Henning Holle

Fiona Cowdell

Julie Santy-Tomlison - PhD

The Faculty is happy to announce that Julie Santy-Tomlison has completed all the requirements of her PhD entitled:

Julie Santy-Tomlinson

An Exploration of the Patient’s Experiences of the symptoms of Pin Site Infection and Irritation during External Fixation