Things in the library 31st Jan...

The last day...                                              

Today is the last chance to sign up for the next Randomised Coffee Trial at SCH, and to take part in our January quiz.        

Things about workload, stress & patient safety...
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement recently dedicated a podcast to this subject.

"The relationship between workload and stress, and the risk this poses for practitioners and patients alike, need more attention. On this episode of WIHI, IHI's longtime safety expert Frank Federico, RPh, and James Won, PhD, talk about the field of human factors in health care, and the role that human factors can play in addressing today's work-related stress."

You will need to create a free account to login to access the content.

Things about patient complaints...

A blog from Sir Robert Francis QC explains how hospitals can cultivate public trust in complaints. This new report – Shifting the mindset (2020) – investigates how hospitals report on complaints and whether current efforts are sufficient to build public trust.

"Complaints should be seen by hospitals as an opportunity to learn. The public expects the NHS to learn from mistakes, and to be kept informed about how these changes are made. Four in five people have told us that seeing where other people’s complaints have made a difference would encourage them to speak up. Yet fewer than half of NHS hospitals in England (38%) are reporting on any action taken in response to complaints raised by patients and loved ones. Complaints are a valuable tool which help hospitals spot and tackle issues quickly. They should not be seen by hospitals as something to ‘be managed’, but as an opportunity to learn and improve. To have a complaints system that works, the NHS must give patients the confidence to speak up by showing them how their views are heard and acted upon."

Things about technology in the classroom...

Trials of pioneering technology to help disabled pupils in the classroom will take place across the country in the first programme of its kind in the world. Speaking at a education technology show on 22 January, Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Minister Chris Skidmore announced plans to fund trials of ground-breaking assistive technology for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in up to 100 schools and colleges.
Innovations are expected to include ‘text-to-speech’ and ‘speech recognition’ software, which can help pupils with dyslexia improve their reading and proof-reading. Other trials include the use of eye-gaze technology, which can help pupils with severe motor impairments to communicate, helping to level the playing field for children with additional needs.


Things about the King's Fund...
The King's Fund have chosen three areas of focus for the next five years, where they feel they have the greatest opportunity to use their skills and resources to improve health and care.


                                            
Things about health inequality...

The Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust have published their latest QualityWatch on health inequalities.There are different types of inequalities in health care that might arise from the region of the country you live in, your ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic status. This data story takes a closer look at the association between deprivation in the area that a patient lives and quality of care.(It is also a really clear way of visualising data.)

Things about brain development...
From the NSPCC an easy to understand set of web pages on How childhood trauma affects child brain development backed up with a list of references. Using accurate references to show people where your information has come from is something that sometimes daunts those who are returning to education after a period of time. Don't forget that via our Book a Librarian service you can arrange one to one help with using Mendeley (reference managing software) or for a general chat abut how to use quotations and references.

Things the Royal Foundation want to know...
Through their 5 Big Questions, they want to bring together the thoughts of individuals, organisations and businesses so that together we can build the healthiest generation in history by giving every child the best start in life.They want to hear from all adults living across the UK, if you are 16 or above and live in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, whether you have children or not – there are no right or wrong answers, they want to hear what you think.

Things to eat...
During my time living, working and giving birth(!) in the Netherlands we were close to Den Bosch ('s-Hertogenbosch) so it was a great outing when we had guests to go to a cafe there for Bossche Bollen...think of them as a round eclairs but much bigger...our 2 year old could make a lot of mess with one!

Things in the library 9th November...

Things about millennium children...

The Centre for Mental Health and UCL’s Institute of Education have published a report 'Children of the Millennium' which finds that one child in every twelve in the UK has behavioural problems from a young age into their teenage years, putting them at risk of a lifetime of disadvantage and poor health. Children with persistent problems are much more likely to have a multitude of risks early in life, including poverty and housing insecurity, parental mental illness and developmental delay.

The project focused on the analysis of pathways of conduct problems during childhood, comparing the pathways by gender; the impact of multiple risks over time; and pathways of conduct disorder for children with multiple mental health difficulties.
As a result of this work, they are calling for:

• Concerted action across government to reduce the risk of severe and persistent behavioural problems
• Government to seek to reduce child poverty and housing insecurity
• The NHS to continue to boost mental health support to new parents
• Local authorities to get the funding they need to boost early years services such as Sure Start and to offer evidence-based parenting programmes to families with the greatest needs.

Things about babies and expectant mothers... 

Progress on stillbirths and neonatal and infant mortality has slowed down in the UK in recent years. This explainer from Nuffield Trust looks at the possible reasons why, and what can be done about it.

Things about the High Street...

The Royal Society for Public Health has a new report  'Health on the High Street: Running on Empty 2018' as part of its campaign to offer practical guidance for local authorities and members of the public who want to make their high streets more health-promoting. Their research looked at the health impact of a range of high street outlets – extending their 2015 analysis to include vape shops, convenience stores, off-licences, cafes, and empty shops – and used this measure to rank Britain’s major towns and cities by the impact of their high streets on the public’s health and wellbeing.

A key finding was around the proliferation of empty shops on Britain’s high streets – their clustering in more deprived areas, and the negative impact they can have on community wellbeing and spirit, representing a decline in community assets. 

Things about reading group...

We have just finished reading 'The Turn of the Screw' and our next meeting on Wed 5th December at 17:15 we are sharing Winter / Christmas poems or short extracts accompanied by seasonal drinks & mince pies. We will also be choosing our reading for the next few months – please email your suggestions in advance.

Things about children...

The University of Sheffield has published a series of policy briefings on working against the challenges faced by children and ensuring they have the best possible chances in life. The four policy briefings cover: the effectiveness of early intervention; single parent families; the role of voluntary organisations in supporting and monitoring young carers; the services provided for young people leaving care.

• Care proceedings in England: the case for clear blue water 

• Stop the clock: how can we prevent young carers undertaking inappropriate of excessive care? 

• Family portrait: single parent families and transitions over time 

• Turning 18: independence or cliff edge? 

Things about keeping unwell children out of hospital...

As part of the King's Fund series 'Practical approaches to delivering better value in the NHS' this blog is from a paediatrician at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  'Better value and a better night's sleep: keeping acutely unwell children and adults out of hospital'  discusses their concept of a ‘virtual hospital’ that adds value by both improving quality (using patient experience and outcomes as key indicators) and reducing costs.

Things to make...

Seeing as the winner of Great British Bake off was a University of Sheffield researcher I thought we ought to have one of his recipes...one of the easier ones! I hope to try this one for chocolate-dipped orange madeleines at the weekend so fingers crossed! 

 

Things in the library 25 May...

Things you might not see again...
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Things about Dept of Health...

The Department of Health and Social Care has set out its objectives and how it will deliver them. The full report can be read here. Their objectives are:

• Keep people healthy and support economic productivity and sustainable public services
• Transform primary, community and social care to keep people living more independent, healthier lives for longer in their community
• Support the NHS to deliver high quality, safe and sustainable hospital care and secure the right workforce
• Support research and innovation to maximise health and economic productivity
• Ensure accountability of the health and care system to Parliament and the taxpayer; and create an efficient and effective DHSC
• Create value (reduced costs and growing income) by promoting better awareness and adoption of good commercial practice across the DHSC and our arm’s length bodies

Things about health and greenspace...

The Department of Landscape and Improving Wellbeing through Urban Nature (IWUN) project invites you to the fifth seminar of the 2017/18 'Health in Place' seminar series. In the fifth of this series of seminars, Dr Paul Brindley IWUN, University of Sheffield discusses the relationship between urban greenspace and general health. The seminar will take place:

Date: Tuesday 12 June 2018

Time: 4pm-5pm

Venue: ICOSS Conference room, University of Sheffield, S1 4DP

Book your place

There has been a growing body of research exploring the health benefits of greenspace. Most, however, treat all urban greenspaces as the same and does not explore distinctions between types of greenspace. In our presentation they will explore the health benefits associated with (1) domestic gardens; (2) landscape metrics (measures that quantify specific spatial characteristics of areas of land, i.e. exploring the configuration of space); (3) trees and areas of woodland; and (4) the differing 'quality' of publicly accessible urban greenspace. Their work includes innovative techniques to explore the potential of quality measures extracted from social media (including Twitter and Flickr data).

Things about Quality...

The BMJ in partnership with and funded by The Health Foundation are launching a joint series of papers exploring how to improve the quality of healthcare delivery. The series aims to discuss the evidence for systematic quality improvement, provide knowledge and support to clinicians and ultimately to help improve care for patients.

Things about physical & mental health...

A new collaborative to support the physical health of people with a mental illness is being created following models in New Zealand & Australia. The Centre for Mental Health, Kaleidoscope and Rethink Mental Illness are working together with support from the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Psychiatrists to create an Equally Well collaborative here in the UK. They want to bring together health and care providers, commissioners, professional bodies, service user and carer organisations, charities and many more, working nationally or locally, to form a collaborative in the UK to bring about equal physical health for people with a mental illness.

They plan in their first year to:

• Co-produce a Charter for Equal Health, setting out the shared principles, aims and objectives of Equally Well in the UK
• Develop a web resource to provide up-to-date information, briefings and case studies
• Bring together organisations that become part of Equally Well for a national event to share good practice and agree priorities for the future

Things about patient information...

The Patient Information Forum are  holding an event on the Perfect Patient Information Journey on Thursday 28 June 2018 in London. Draft agenda for the day and the link for booking.This event will include the launch of the final report of their Perfect Patient Information Journey project. 

Things about obesity...

An meta-analysis and systematic review in 'Obesity Reviews' was published this week which looks at 'Maintenance interventions for overweight or obesity in children'. In summary, this review shows that, although there is limited quality data to recommend one maintenance intervention over another, continued treatment does have a stabilizing effect on BMI-Z-score. Considering the magnitude of the problem of childhood obesity, this is an important finding that highlights the need for further research on weight loss maintenance.

Things about opening hours...

Next week we will be closed on the bank holiday Monday and then closing at 5pm the rest of the week due to staff annual leave. Mine will be spent working on the nearly finished extension and so will soon be able to return to 'proper' cooking!

Things to eat...

I am looking forward to being able to cook pieces of meat that are bigger than my microwave so this Greek roast lamb is likely to make an appearance before too long. Perfect with a green salad and feta cheese.

Things in the library 7th October...

Things about medicines for children...
NHS England has launched a 30 day public consultation on a clinical commissioning policy proposition for commissioning medicines in children.  There has already been extensive engagement on this national policy, it has been developed with the support and input of lead clinicians and patient and public representatives. This approach has helped ensure that the views of key stakeholders have informed and influenced the development of this policy to date. They now wish to test them further with wider groups of stakeholders.


Things about acute paediatric services...
The RCPCH is developing a set of service level measures designed to support acute paediatric services to monitor the effects of service change at a local level, and to facilitate quality improvement. They are doing this:

• To enable and support child health services to monitor the effect of service interventions at a local level.
• To provide a strong evidence base for the development and revision of service standards, such as the Facing the Future suite of standards.
• To identify and share examples of best practice, to aid the improvement of child health outcomes across the four UK nations

The future of the NHS?...

Good Governance (GGI) has published ‘The Future of the NHS’ that critically examines and provides some context to the direction in which the NHS is headed – consuming more and more public money to provide an increasingly worse service. With commentary from eminent colleagues including former secretaries of state for health, the publication Sir William Wells, presented his concerns at a seminar hosted by GGI in Westminster.

Things about TB...

Public health England have published their 2016 report (presenting data to end of 2015)

Mental health of Girls...

Girlguiding has published a report on the mental well-being of girls. Key findings include: girls of all ages face compounding pressures across all areas of their lives including sexist pressures; girls tend to dismiss or play down the issues they face and feel they should be able to cope alone. Recommendations include: all decision-makers need to listen to girls’ voices and engage them in the decisions that affect their lives; schools should take a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment; Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) should be a statutory entitlement for all young people.

Things about numbers...

"Numbers needed to mislead, meta-analysis and muddled thinking" a lecture  at ScHARR by Honorary Professor Stephen Senn FRSE on Wednesday 26 October 2016 at 17.15 - 18.00pm Lecture Theatre 4, The Diamond. 

Free - book tickets here  Professor Senn says "The ardent espousal by the evidence based medicine movement of numbers needed to treat (NNT) as a way of making difficult statistical concepts simple and concrete, has had the unintended consequence of sowing confusion. Many users, including many in the evidence based movement themselves, have interpreted these statistics as indicating what proportion of patients benefit from treatment. I shall explain this, with the example of a recent Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis of paracetamol against placebo in trials of tension headache for which the plain language summary is plain wrong" 

Things about childhood obesity...

Public Health England outline their priority for reducing the proportion of overweight children leaving primary school in their Childhood Obesity Plan

Things about understanding sustainability and transformation plans ...

STPs are place-based, multi-year plans that are built around the needs of local areas and their populations, rather than the activities of individual organisations. In the NHS shared planning guidance 2015, NHS England asked every local health and care system in England to come together to create their own ambitious local STP to accelerate the aims of the Five Year Forward View, including addressing the funding gap, improving service quality and enhancing population health and wellbeing.

This briefing discusses the policy context, development to date, the timetable for further development and implementation, as well as the key messages from local political, commissioning and provider leaders on how the STP process could most helpfully develop in the coming months.

Something warm and comforting...

Seeing as the weather is feeling more nippy we thought this looks a nice weekend eat - Melting meatball macaroni....mmmm must be nearly lunchtime now!

Things in the library 22 July

Usual things - journal club
This week journal club will be 8-9am on Thursday 28th July, F floor Stephenson wing.  James Bull will be presenting the following paper -The Risk of Progression of Scoliosis in Cerebral Palsy Patients After Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy .  Please email the library if you would like a copy of the paper

Physical things
Move More is a Sheffield-wide strategy that aims to make Sheffield the most active city in the UK by 2020. The catalyst for Move More was the establishment of the National Centre of Sport and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM), which is an Olympic Legacy programme. The objective of the NCSEM in Sheffield is to create a culture of physical activity to improve the population's health

Recommended things - Vitamin D

Everyone over one year of age should consume 10 micrograms of vitamin D daily, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) has recommended in its new report "Vitamin D and Health" As a precaution , SACN recommends that all babies from birth up to one year of age should consume 8.5 to10 micrograms3 of vitamin D per day.

Things for health professionals
Pertussis: guidelines for public health management  These guidelines, which update the 2012 Health Protection Agency (HPA) guidelines for the public health management of pertussis, are based on a recent review of all currently available scientific evidence and consultation with experts where required

A clear road ahead Creating a coherent quality strategy for the NHS
A clear road ahead is the result of a project by a team from the Health Foundation, working with Professor Sheila Leatherman – whose previous work on a national quality programme fed into Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review – to recommend how the different parts of the NHS should work together to support and accelerate improvements in quality of care.
The report recommends creation of a single, coherent and compelling quality strategy for the NHS in England.





A new film which aims to help health care professionals to spot and respond to the warning signs of sepsis in children has just been launched. As well as providing some helpful steps healthcare workers should take if they suspect that a patient has sepsis, it also highlights the wide range of learning resurces that are available to assist with the identification and early management of sepsis in children. For more information click here.

Cooling things for summer
Gooseberries are just about ready to pick so why not try this as a refreshing summer cordial
Gooseberry & mint lemonade