Nursing times
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This first in a two part unit on bereavement and last offices discusses relatives' grief reactions and caring for deceased patients, taking into account spiritual and cultural differences.
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The enactment of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 represents a watershed moment in the history of the delivery of high quality nutritional care. The problem of undernutrition has been an intractable issue in health and social care for decades. This new act comes at the same time as a range of new initiatives, such as the high impact actions for nursing and midwifery, which include an action to stop inappropriate weight loss and dehydration in NHS care. Poor nutritional care equals poor quality care; it is an expensive waste of resources that the NHS can ill afford as we meet the challenge of delivering comprehensive healthcare in this financial climate.
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Approximately one in four patients in NIIS hospitals are either malnourished or at risk of malnurition and as much as 70% of malnutrition in acute hospital admission is unrecognised and unmanaged. Although most of those who are malnourished live in the community, malnutrition and dehydration are key challenges for NHS organisations. ⋯ Ensuring patients receive all of the nutrients they need is vital to the delivery of good care. This article, the second in our series on the high impact actions for nursing and midwifery, looks at how nurses can reduce malnutrition in their patients.
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Non-invasive ventilation is increasingly used on acute wards to treat patients with acute type 2 hypercapnic respiratory failure. This article highlights the main factors that should be considered in providing an acute NIV service outside of a critical care setting.