Nursing times
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Around half of the 500,000 deaths in England each year occur in acute hospitals, while around half of all complaints made to acute trusts relate to an aspect of end of life care. Howaver, research suggest that 40% of people who die in hospital have no medical need to be there, and that 55% of people with cancer would prefer to die at home while only around 25% do so. When people die in hospital despite having a preference to die at home and no medical reason to be in hospital, it causes unnecessary distress to patients and their familes, and is costly to the NHS. This article, the seventh in our series on the high impact actions for nursing and midwifery, looks at how nurses can help to improve end of life care.
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Dying in a place of one's choice is considered to be a quantifiable measure of the effectiveness of end of life services in primary care. Although most people say they would prefer to die in their own home, very few actually do so. ⋯ These helped practitioners in supporting adults with terminal illnesses to die in a place of their choice. A subsequent audit of patients' actual place of death against their preferred place demonstrates how working in more integrated ways has helped.
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Young people in young offender institutions experience more physical and mental health problems than the general population. This article explores how the primary nursing service at HM Young Offenders Institution Huntercombe used national policy as a framework for managing change. In outlining the challenges and opportunities that influence practice development, we hope to demystify nursing in a prison setting, which is a hidden and often misunderstood aspect of healthcare.
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The increasing ageing population and the common occurrence of acute and chronic pain in this group means that nurses are likely to come into contact with many older patients who need pain management. This article examines the assessment of acute pain in older people, as well as different approaches to and challenges in pain management.