British journal of community nursing
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Br J Community Nurs · Jan 2010
ReviewConsent to organ donation part 2: alternative modes of consent.
In the December 2009 issue of British Journal of Community Nursing Richard Griffith and Cassam Tengnah reviewed the system of consent for non-beating heart organ donation at the centre of the Human Tissue Act 2004. This article considers the benefits and risks of alternative systems of consent being proposed to overcome the United Kingdom's poor organ donation rate that is the worst in Western Europe.
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The enhanced recovery programme (ERP) is being increasingly performed in hospitals in the UK. This article discusses the principles of enhanced recovery and aims to dispel myths and concerns that the ERP might increase the workload for the community nurse. ⋯ With enhanced recovery hospital stays can be reduced to approximately 4 days for resections of the colon. To achieve this care a number of elements are required including early feeding and early mobilization and this results in patients getting better quicker than they would with traditional hospital care.
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Br J Community Nurs · Oct 2009
ReviewObservational pain assessment scales for people with dementia: a review.
Dementia may alter the experience of pain and the ability to communicate it; this will, in turn, result in poor pain detection and inadequate treatment. The aim of this literature review is to identify the observational pain scales that have clinical utility and feasibility for use with people living with dementia in the community by district nurses in their daily practice. ⋯ A further evaluation of the Non-communicative Patients Pain Assessment Instrument has improved its feasibility for use in the community environment, as it can be administered by family carers. This literature review concludes that observational pain scales need to be validated for use in the community and that there is a need to consider the involvement of the informal carer in the assessment of pain.