Things in the Library 13th May

Things about mental health...

This week is World Mental Health Awareness Week, and the theme is loneliness. The connection goes both ways - poor mental health leads to loneliness and loneliness leads to poor mental health. It can mean the world to check in on a friend or colleague if you suspect they may be feeling lonely. Mental Health UK have created a Connect for Mental Health Board to encourage building meaningful connections with friends, acquaintances, family or colleagues for this week and beyond.

The Health Foundation have published a blog discussing contextual factors in young people's mental health. How increasing cost of living, missing school due to Covid 19, and having unemployed parents can have great impact on the mental health of children and young people, who may feel like they don't want to add a further burden to their families by being open about their struggles. 

    "Focusing on the NHS side of young people’s mental health tells only part of the story. Mental health     problems do not come into existence only at the point of referral to NHS services. The young people     behind these statistics are part of wider society, workers or in education, and part of families, often        families under strain."

Things about DynaMed...

Last week library staff had a training session on how to use DynaMed, which is a point of care tool that we have recently subscribed to. We were really impressed with how simple it is to use, and the depth of information provided. You can subscribe to alerts in your speciality, use the calculators, and search for drug interactions. Each topic has a succinct overview plus detailed information on diagnosis, management, complications, prevention and guidelines. You can easily log in with Open Athens. Let us know if you'd like to be shown how to use DynaMed!

Things to read...

You still have time to read this month's reading group book, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. It's an absolute classic about an African American girl growing up in the South in the early 1900s, and there is certainly lots to discuss. It's still available to borrow from the library, as is the rest of our leisure reading collection.

Things about paediatric sepsis...

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health are running a one-day course on how to manage paediatric sepsis. By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe the early signs of sepsis 
• Appraise parents’ assessment of their children
• Explain which is the most appropriate antibiotic to choose 
• Discuss current issues in fluid resuscitation 
• Estimate which inotrope to use, when and how much
• Compare differences in children with complex health conditions
• Differentiate between orders of immunodeficiency 
• Analyse appropriate management strategies in these cases. 
• Practise and assess your knowledge and skills through sepsis simulation scenarios.

Things about strength training...

The New Scientist has reported that only one in twenty adults in England are exercising their muscles enough. Strength exercises such as lifting weights and body weight exercises are really important for improving strength in muscles, which can help mobility as you age. The UK’s weekly health guidelines, which recommend 150 minutes of moderate activity a week – including two bouts of strength training.

Things about child safety...

NSPCC Learning has published a report as part of the Together for Childhood project which aims to make local communities safer for children by helping local partners and families come together to prevent child abuse. The report discusses the evaluation approaches used to look at the effectiveness of Together for Childhood. For the Transformative Evaluation, 37 stories from community members and partners about the biggest changes they have experienced during their involvement with Together for Childhood, were collected. A selection of these stories have been shared in the report which reveals changes such as improved knowledge and awareness around preventing abuse. The report finds that the variety of changes cited in the stories demonstrates the added value of joining up different services, professionals and communities.

Things to make...

This week I'll be making one of my favourite spring recipes, baked ricotta with asparagus and jersey royals (though I have to admit I cut back on the salt in this recipe!). Love a jersey royal!

Things in the library 1st Dec...

Things for clinical answers...

We often mention how useful TRIP Databse is for evidence based medicine and it just got even better. They have just announced that DynaMed Plus content has been added to TRIP. Even though our institution does not currently subscribe to DynaMed you will be able to access 10 free 'views' each month. Remember that you need to sign into TRIP and have a current NHSAthens account  or University of Sheffield login to access the PRO features of TRIP without charge.

Things about yoga...

During the 20th century, yoga became increasingly recognised outside India, and over the past decades it has continued to grow in popularity worldwide as a system for promoting health and well-being. While modern yoga often focuses on physical poses and is sometimes thought of as a type of exercise, the practice usually incorporates one or more of the mental or spiritual elements that are traditionally part of yoga, such as relaxation, concentration, or meditation. For this reason, yoga is considered a mind-body exercise. There are currently many different types or schools of yoga, each with a different emphasis on and approach to practice. It is widely thought that some of these yoga practices may help treat or prevent physical or mental illnesses, and improve overall quality of life. There is therefore a need for information on the potential health benefits and harms of yoga.
This Cochrane Library Special Collection of systematic reviews on yoga focuses on reviews evaluating the effectiveness of yoga for improving physical or mental symptoms and quality of life in a range of health conditions. It has been developed to bring the best available evidence on the health-related effects of yoga to the attention of the general public, patients, health professionals, and other decision makers, and to inform choices on the use of yoga to improve health and well-being.

Things about searching for evidence...

If you want a basic introduction to literature searching skills to access online you might be interested in ‘Building the Foundations’  three modules to enable users to assess their current level of skill in literature searching, find out more about the resources available and get started planning a search. The modules are aimed at anyone doing a literature search on a health related topic. They are primarily targeted towards novice searchers or those who would like a refresher.  Each module has a glossary explaining key terminology in further detail.
Module 1 Introduction to searching  
Module 2 Where do I start searching? 
Module 3 How do I start to develop a search strategy? 
A login is not required to access the modules. To by-pass the need to log in, click continue when presented with the sign-in pop-up. If you wish to track your learning along with other modules within e-Learning for Healthcare, you can login with your NHS OpenAthens account.

For more in-depth and personalised training on literature searching then book a free individual 1 hour session with us via our Book a Librarian service.

Things about children in hospitals...
The CQC have published the results of their latest survey (2016), which looks at the experiences of children, young people and their parents and carers attending hospital for treatment as an inpatient or day case. Overall children and young people’s experiences of inpatient and day case care were mostly positive. The majority of children and young people said they were well looked after while in hospital, staff were friendly and that they received answers to their questions. Most parents and carers reported positive experiences for how their child’s pain was managed and for receiving enough information about new medication. For more information on key findings for England, please see the statistical release, which provides the results for all questions and contextual policy information.
The survey results suggest there is scope for improvement in a number of areas, including:

• Children and young people having enough things to do whilst in hospital
• Involving children and young people in decision making
• Being treated on age appropriate wards

These results for NHS Trusts show how trusts performed on individual questions in the survey. The technique used to analyse these results allows the CQC to identify which trusts they can confidently say performed 'better', 'worse' or 'about the same' when compared with other trusts.

Things about perinatal deaths...
The MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Confidential Enquiry Report 2017 has been published this week and focuses on term, singleton, intrapartum stillbirths and intrapartum-related neonatal deaths. Since the last confidential enquiry into intrapartum stillbirths and intrapartum-related deaths in 1993-1995, overall stillbirth rates have reduced by just over a fifth and neonatal death rates by over a third. Nevertheless the UK rates are still high compared with other European and other high income countries. Whilst term intrapartum stillbirths and intrapartum-related neonatal deaths account for only a small proportion of extended perinatal mortality rates, improvements in care during labour, delivery and immediately following birth should reduce such cases apart from those that are inevitable. This enquiry focuses on intrapartum-related deaths, specifically those born at term, excluding major congenital anomalies but including those anomalies where the cause of death was felt to be related to the intrapartum period rather than the anomaly. The premise of the enquiry was if a baby was determined to be alive at the onset of labour at term then the expected outcome would be a healthy
infant.  Read the full text http://bit.ly/2BzAFou

Things about our reading group...
Our last meeting of 2017 is on Wed 6th December...and it's the time to choose what we will read for the next few months. So if you would like to join us do come along to the library at 17:15 for seasonal fare and a chat about books. The book we will be discussing in January is Terry Pratchett's 'Hogfather' perfect Christmas reading.

Thinking about Pratchett reminds me of a quote from one of his books (Judgement Day) which I feel could apply to any conference delegate (as well as wizards) ..."The senior wizards, eyeing the chocolate biscuits on the tray brought in by the tea lady, listened with as much attention as could be expected from wizards momentarily afflicted with chocolate starvation."

So something chocolatey...
These crunchy chocolate and orange biscotti could be made as a gift or enjoyed  with a cup of coffee or more decadently dipped in hot cocoa!