Nursing times
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The incidence of antimicrobial resistance is increasing and represents a serious threat not only to patients who have infections that do not respond to antimicrobial drugs but also to global healthcare systems. European Antibiotics Awareness Day aims to ensure health professionals and the public understand the importance of ensuring antibiotics are used correctly to minimise the spread of resistance. This article discusses the nursing role in preventing antimicrobial resistance.
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Body temperature is one of the four main vital signs that must be monitored to ensure safe and effective care. Temperature measurement is recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence a part of the initial assessment in acute illness in adults (NICE, 2007) and by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guidelines for post-operative management in adults (SIGN, 2004). ⋯ Inaccurate results may influence diagnosis and treatment, lead to a failure to identify patient deterioration and compromise patient safety. This article explains the importance of temperature regulation and compares methods of its measurement.
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This article describes how we changed nutritional care throughout our trust. To carry out our "nutrition mission", we used change methodology known as Rapid Spread. This programme of change gave our health professionals a step-by-step approach to bringing in and sustaining excellent evidence-based nutritional care across our trust very quickly. Since the initiative, there has been a massive improvement in the nutritional care of patients.