New DH guidance on substance misuse published

Until now there has been no formal guidance to help clinicians to manage substance dependence among young people. This has left practitioners concerned that their practice may not accord with the developing evidence base. A new guidance document, published by the Department of Health, describes good practice on the best ways to manage a clinically complex condition.

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Podcast from St Christopher's Hospice – Palliative care support to community psychogeriatric team

View this Podcast from St Christopher's Hospice, London, who have appointed an experienced clinical nurse specialist (CNS) to work with people with advanced dementia and their carers, with the support of a palliative medicine consultant and learn more about their findings.

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Community Therapists Network Annual Conference - 14th October 2009 Manchester.

Providing ‘Patient Centred Care’ continues to be a major objective for the Department of Health, measuring the effectiveness of the care has until recently focused on processes and clinical indicators. Now, this is set to change with the drive to monitor patient outcomes. To reflect this welcome development the Community Therapists Network invites you to learn more about the existing tools that you can access, the experience with those tools and the actual outcomes that patients desire! Click here to find out more and to book your place!

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HSJ - Clinical Coding Conference 18th June 2009

This conference is an essential opportunity for all clinical coders and their managers to come together and hear all the latest developments around classification systems, national audit and HRGs. High-level debate and sharing of best practice sessions will also enable delegates to benchmark with peers from across the country. Why not click here for further information.

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Spirit Possession and Mental Health Conference

Spirit possession is recognised world wide across many cultures and by several religions. Spirit possession is often seen as an idiom of distress causing a change in behaviour and mental well being. Spirit possession is also included in the ICD 10 and DSM IV classifications of mental disorders, yet the extent to which it is recognised and / or discussed in clinical practice is less than we would expect, even in UK cities where there resides a diverse population. This one day event on 29th June 2009, will consider the critical themes and debates on spirit possession from an anthropological, social, psychological, medical and religious perspective using a range of illustrative case study, clinical practice, research and short film presentations. Click here for further information and to book your place.

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The Common User Interface (CUI) programme needs NHS clinicians to take part in user feedback sessions

The CUI Programme needs volunteers to attend patient safety workshops and would also like to do on-site interviews at your place of work. Clinical feedback is essential for providing design guidance to help improve your IT systems.
They would like to talk to 10 clinicians in secondary care that complete admission clerking or initial nursing assessments on acute medical wards. This includes hospital doctors (particularly junior doctors) and acute nurses who regularly complete admissions as part of their role.
The emphasis for this workshop will be on the way in which clinical noting for such admissions is currently recorded / input and displayed (experience of paper and / or electronic systems both relevant). It will not be focussed on the clinical content, ie. the dataset for hospital admissions.
For further information or to book your place click here!

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NIHR Clinical Academic Training Pathway for Nurses, Midwives

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Chief Nursing Officer for England are pleased to announce the launch of the NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship scheme.
The NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (NIHR C-DRF) is aimed at graduate (post-degree) nurses, midwives and allied health professionals sited in England who have at least 1 year’s experience of clinical practice since graduating; have had sufficient research experience or research training to prepare them to undertake a PhD; and wish to obtain a PhD by research whilst still developing their clinical skills. Click here for further details.
Closing date for applications is 8th April 2009.

Clinical Coding Best Practice Forum 2009

Health Service Journal is delighted to present its fourth annual Clinical Coding Best Practice Forum. This must-attend event is an essential opportunity for all clinical coders and their managers to come together and hear all the latest developments around classification systems, national audit and HRGs. Its taking place on 17th June 2009 in central London, click here for further information and to book your place.

Reduce data duplication and improve staff efficiency.

Having to constantly enter the same information into clinical systems is a huge frustration for clinical staff – and it can lead to errors. London’s Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust decided to develop an e-handover solution to tackle the problem, by working with Microsoft’s Common User Interface team to get advice on how to structure and display information, and to make sure its solution could be rolled out more widely.
Click here to find out more and discover how you can get involoved.

Shared learning: implementing NICE guidance

Have you got some tips to share with other organisations on implementing NICE clinical or public health guidance? Or would you like to learn from other people’s experiences? If so, the Institute’s ‘shared learning’ database can help.
NICE are looking for jargon-free, easy to understand examples of how you have successfully met the challenges – and overcome the pitfalls – of putting NICE guidance into practice.
The quality assurance process ensures that all examples appearing in the database meet a minimum quality standard.
All submissions will be entered into the new NICE Shared Learning Award. Find out further information here

Two new national leadership programmes from the Improvement Foundation

The Leading Improvement for Health and Well-being Programme and the Leadership for Clinical Service Improvement Programme both build on experience and expertise of delivering highly successful leadership programmes and health improvement programmes across the UK and abroad. Making a difference to peoples’ health and quality of life and reducing health inequalities requires strong leadership from different agencies working together towards common goals. These programmes aim to bring such people together and for them develop the personal, leadership and quality improvement skills required to make such improvements. Applications are invited and should be made online by early 2009 If you have any queries about the programmes or wish to discuss an application please do not hesitate to contact Dr Catherine Hannaway, the Improvement Foundation’s National Lead for Leadership Developmentor or telephone 07810 836306.

Effective Care - Effective Communication: Living and Dying with COPD DVD

Effective Care - Effective Communication: Living and Dying with COPD is an educational package from IMPRESS consisting of a DVD and a CD of PowerPoint slides. The DVD comprises short film clips of patients' and carers' stories and views on diagnosis and end of life dialogue and an 'expert panel' discussion on ways to approach these issues with tips on how to improve the consultation. The CD also draws out the key learning points, references and links to the latest evidence and publications and consultation on the COPD Clinical Strategy. Click here for further information and to order a copy.

DH releases service specifications for new Clinical Directed Enhanced Services

Service specifications for the new clinical Directed Enhanced Services
(DES) for 2008/9 have been released by the DH. Directions and amendments to the Statement of Financial Entitlement (SFE) will be released in October. PCTs should await the publication of these two documents before entering into any Local Enhanced Services. Practices however should examine the service specifications and put systems in place to provide them if they so wish.
Click here for further information.

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND DEMENTIA ANNUAL EVIDENCE UPDATE 2008

The Later Life Specialist Library's Alzheimer's Disease and
Dementia Annual Evidence Update aims to provide healthcare
professionals with a clear path to the most important recent
evidence surrounding the five major types of dementias:
Alzheimer's; Vascular dementia; Dementia with lewy bodies;
Frontotemporal dementia; and mixed dementias.

The Dementia AEU provides bibliographies and clinical commentary on secondary research (systematic reviews, meta analyses and guidelines) from the last 14 months for the following topics: 1. Definitions, Diagnosis and screening; 2. Risk factors and aetiology; 3. Pharmacological treatments; 4. Non-pharmacological treatments; 5. Rehabilitation, practice and care standards; 6. Evidence on other Dementias. Full details can be found here.

Clinical Leaders Section - new on HSJ website

This new section for clinical leaders will bring together the clinicians who influence and aspire to influence how the NHS is managed. It offers news, information and analysis, as well as a forum where clinical leaders can discuss and debate the most important clinical challenges in policy and discuss the evolving relationship between managers and clinical professionals.

Engaging clinicians in service improvement: talking the talk

Changing how we talk can help to bring about a change in culture, as one hospital's approach has demonstrated. Read full article here. You will need to log-in/register on HSJ website to view this article.

Write up of the New Horizons – Liberating Surgical Teams Conference

The conference programme aimed to show delegates practical ways of designing a smooth pathway through the operating theatre for the benefit of patients, to help surgeons use their skills for both service and training, to improve staff morale in operating theatres and to ensure the viability of the units in the new business environment. Read the write-up here.

Enhancing Engagement in Medical Leadership

This project is designed to encourage doctors to become more actively involved in the planning, delivery and transformation of services and to help the NHS create a culture where doctors are engaged. Support from and engagement of doctors is necessary to improve the delivery and effectiveness of health and social care services. Find out more here. A Medical Leadership Competency Framework is due to be published shortly following approval from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

How to Achieve Effective Clinical Engagement and Leadership when Working Across Organisational Boundaries

These practical recommendations identify the characteristics and impact of high quality clinical engagement, leadership and team effectiveness across organisational boundaries. They share the knowledge obtained from working with actual change projects, and pick out the fundamental elements that allow clinicians to lead change and make a real difference to the patient experience and quality of life. Access the full document here.