Racism in the NHS is rampant: nurses demand action We have spoken to hundreds of ethnic minority background participants working in frontline health and social care roles with shocking stories of racism at work Archie Battersbee and the limits of law The court cases around the end of Archie's life were a minus sum game with no possible winners The twisted morality of outlawing abortion A leaked ‘Draft Opinion’ from the US Supreme Court has indicated that the court is likely to overturn the Roe vs Wade ruling which guarantees the right to a legal, safe abortion. If implemented, it will leave individual states free to ban abortion Improving care by releasing the creativity of nurses Too often, nurses feel undervalued and unable to work to their full potential. They are rarely involved in decision making, despite their understanding of services and patients’ needs. When they are properly valued, however, they can put this knowledge to good use The cost of living crisis is bad for your health Natural justice would ordain that health and social care professionals were due a break, after two years of coping with a pandemic, but no such luck. With inflation running at around 6%, the 3% pay award for NHS staff becomes objectively a pay cut Nurses need a fair settlement for soaring fuel prices If district and community nurses are unable to afford the increasing costs this could mean less frequent visits to patients and chronic illnesses becoming exacerbated or even missed The legacy of COVID-19 – two years on With the best will in the world, COVID-19 would still have hit the UK hard, but had we started with a better health infrastructure, and had the Government acted more decisively, would we still have seen 175,000 people perish from the disease? How kidney disease takes it toll on mental health Patients with end-stage kidney disease do not just have to deal with constant physical pressures – it can also have a significant impact on their emotional well-being Why 'Partygate' betrays the health service In defiance of lockdown, Boris Johnson led a happy hour government where garden parties, birthday bashes and basement discos were all happening in his official residence The NHS – political purity or patient care? There is a type of zealot who prioritises an imaginary ideal over actual patient care Practice nursing – saving the Cinderella service it is very odd that one group who have played a key role in rolling out one of our main defence against COVID-19 – the vaccine programme – should feel largely invisible.They are nurses like me who work in general practice. Could a house party topple a Prime Minister? The idea of the people who set the rules not playing by them is always infuriating to the public A century of self-awareness Dr Aaron T Beck, of Pennsylvania in the USA, passed away at the beginning of this month at the impressive age of 100. He may well be the greatest medical pioneer you have never heard of Time to Take Action on Sugar During Sugar Awareness Week Excess sugar intake is linked to tooth decay and increases the risk of weight gain which can mean a higher likelihood of living with overweight, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. We, as a population from young children to older people, are exceeding our daily maximum sugar intakes by double or even three times what we should be eating. Nurses are crucial in combatting malnutrition Malnutrition Awareness Week (October 11-17) is an opportunity to focus on what we can do better to improve patient nutrition and hydration COVID-19's impact on care homes was not inevitable What national policymakers do to protect people who use and provide adult social care still matters – and the scale of the impact of COVID-19 on social care was not inevitable Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? The clinch that brought down Matt Hancock was the sort of awkward fumble more often seen in the school disco than in the old News of the World, and yet to the public it was infinitely more obscene. Mr Hancock was making rules that the public followed stoically, but he clearly didn’t believe that they applied to him End the hospice funding crisis – before it is too late Sue Ryder Chief Executive Heidi Travis warns that funding hospices cannot be left solely to chance and charity More than just a jab – the ethics of the vaccine There is nothing our current Prime Minister likes to do more than play Father Bountiful – even if he does give the impression of someone who is much happier writing cheques, than he is honouring them Black health matters ?In the tumultuous story of the last year or so – which will be much more fun for people to study in the future than it is to live through now – the question of race and racial inequality has loomed almost as large as the pandemic COVID-19 and the need for ‘mental PPE’ If the crisis point for healthy care professionals of the early pandemic was the lack of adequate PPE, the current one is of mental health The Nurse and Diabetes Care For World Diabetes Day, Professor Andrew Boulton of the International Diabetes Federation explains the importance of nurses in managing the condition 3 comments Reducing usage in the ‘Painkiller Capital’ of the UK How one CCG managed to reduce the number of prescriptions for painkillers 2 comments The sick man of western democracy ?If they were your patients, you’d probably be advising them to stay home right now, but in the US two men in their Seventies are vying to become President Celebrating nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic We must continue to celebrate nursing throughout the pandemic, says Crystal Oldman
Racism in the NHS is rampant: nurses demand action We have spoken to hundreds of ethnic minority background participants working in frontline health and social care roles with shocking stories of racism at work
Archie Battersbee and the limits of law The court cases around the end of Archie's life were a minus sum game with no possible winners
The twisted morality of outlawing abortion A leaked ‘Draft Opinion’ from the US Supreme Court has indicated that the court is likely to overturn the Roe vs Wade ruling which guarantees the right to a legal, safe abortion. If implemented, it will leave individual states free to ban abortion
Improving care by releasing the creativity of nurses Too often, nurses feel undervalued and unable to work to their full potential. They are rarely involved in decision making, despite their understanding of services and patients’ needs. When they are properly valued, however, they can put this knowledge to good use
The cost of living crisis is bad for your health Natural justice would ordain that health and social care professionals were due a break, after two years of coping with a pandemic, but no such luck. With inflation running at around 6%, the 3% pay award for NHS staff becomes objectively a pay cut
Nurses need a fair settlement for soaring fuel prices If district and community nurses are unable to afford the increasing costs this could mean less frequent visits to patients and chronic illnesses becoming exacerbated or even missed
The legacy of COVID-19 – two years on With the best will in the world, COVID-19 would still have hit the UK hard, but had we started with a better health infrastructure, and had the Government acted more decisively, would we still have seen 175,000 people perish from the disease?
How kidney disease takes it toll on mental health Patients with end-stage kidney disease do not just have to deal with constant physical pressures – it can also have a significant impact on their emotional well-being
Why 'Partygate' betrays the health service In defiance of lockdown, Boris Johnson led a happy hour government where garden parties, birthday bashes and basement discos were all happening in his official residence
The NHS – political purity or patient care? There is a type of zealot who prioritises an imaginary ideal over actual patient care
Practice nursing – saving the Cinderella service it is very odd that one group who have played a key role in rolling out one of our main defence against COVID-19 – the vaccine programme – should feel largely invisible.They are nurses like me who work in general practice.
Could a house party topple a Prime Minister? The idea of the people who set the rules not playing by them is always infuriating to the public
A century of self-awareness Dr Aaron T Beck, of Pennsylvania in the USA, passed away at the beginning of this month at the impressive age of 100. He may well be the greatest medical pioneer you have never heard of
Time to Take Action on Sugar During Sugar Awareness Week Excess sugar intake is linked to tooth decay and increases the risk of weight gain which can mean a higher likelihood of living with overweight, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. We, as a population from young children to older people, are exceeding our daily maximum sugar intakes by double or even three times what we should be eating.
Nurses are crucial in combatting malnutrition Malnutrition Awareness Week (October 11-17) is an opportunity to focus on what we can do better to improve patient nutrition and hydration
COVID-19's impact on care homes was not inevitable What national policymakers do to protect people who use and provide adult social care still matters – and the scale of the impact of COVID-19 on social care was not inevitable
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? The clinch that brought down Matt Hancock was the sort of awkward fumble more often seen in the school disco than in the old News of the World, and yet to the public it was infinitely more obscene. Mr Hancock was making rules that the public followed stoically, but he clearly didn’t believe that they applied to him
End the hospice funding crisis – before it is too late Sue Ryder Chief Executive Heidi Travis warns that funding hospices cannot be left solely to chance and charity
More than just a jab – the ethics of the vaccine There is nothing our current Prime Minister likes to do more than play Father Bountiful – even if he does give the impression of someone who is much happier writing cheques, than he is honouring them
Black health matters ?In the tumultuous story of the last year or so – which will be much more fun for people to study in the future than it is to live through now – the question of race and racial inequality has loomed almost as large as the pandemic
COVID-19 and the need for ‘mental PPE’ If the crisis point for healthy care professionals of the early pandemic was the lack of adequate PPE, the current one is of mental health
The Nurse and Diabetes Care For World Diabetes Day, Professor Andrew Boulton of the International Diabetes Federation explains the importance of nurses in managing the condition 3 comments
Reducing usage in the ‘Painkiller Capital’ of the UK How one CCG managed to reduce the number of prescriptions for painkillers 2 comments
The sick man of western democracy ?If they were your patients, you’d probably be advising them to stay home right now, but in the US two men in their Seventies are vying to become President
Celebrating nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic We must continue to celebrate nursing throughout the pandemic, says Crystal Oldman