International Journal of Nursing Studies

09/05/2025

Latest editorial - when unsafe staffing becomes normalised...

12/02/2025

Vital signs monitoring is key to identifying deteriorating hospital patients but we know that adherence to monitoring protocols is limited, with observations frequently missed or delayed. Studies of interruptions and delays to vital signs observations have have not tried to understand what types of tasks are prioritised over vital signs observations or why that happens. Our observational study on acute wards in four English hospitals explored how nursing teams perform vital sign observations on acute hospital wards and to understand which types of work delay or interrupt them, and why.

Two observers recorded structured and unstructured observations (open comments, field notes) data over 128 hours, including 715 sets of vital signs observations and 1127 interruptions.

We identified eight reasons why vital signs were delayed or interrupted: fixed routines, staff availability, bundled care, proximity-related activities, collaborative care, patient inaccessible or unavailable, requests for or responses to time-critical activities, or limited context available. We propose a new concept of ‘temporal status.’ Flexible care (vital signs observations, ‘bundled care’ and ‘proximity-related care’) has a low temporal status so is delayed in favour of higher temporal status activities (fixed routines and time-critical care).

Our findings could explain why vital signs taken early in the morning and evening are least likely to be postponed, as there may be fewer competing tasks with a higher temporal status at these times. Our work also challenges binary conceptualisations of interruptions as ‘beneficial’ or ‘detrimental’, recognising the complexity of nursing care decisions on a moment-by-moment basis. Our new framework suggests the lower temporal status of vital signs observations (and other flexible care) means they are delayed by higher temporal status tasks during daytime shifts in acute hospitals, regardless of their clinical priority.

19/01/2025

Researchers at CPFT have reported findings in the International Journal of Nursing Studies to improve medication management in care and support for patients in the community. Recording detailed clinical records ensures that effective medicines are used in the best way: ➡️ http://bit.ly/4cEEZ7z

NIHR Clinical Research Network East of England University of Cambridge Jesus College, Cambridge Wellcome Trust The Queen's Nursing Institute

10/12/2024

We're pleased to launch another round of Black Futures scholarships, to support UK Black and mixed-Black students in undertaking a PhD at Southampton in the 2025/2026 academic year 🎓

The scholarship includes:
- A £20,000 per annum tax-free stipend for 3.5 years
- Full UK fees paid
- An annual training grant of £1,100
- Access to a bespoke professional development programme
- Dedicated careers training and support

View the full eligibility criteria and apply by Friday 28 February 2025 👇
https://brnw.ch/UoS_BlackFuturesScholarships

25/11/2024

Thoughts on managing authorship on academic papers....

I know of no issue more likely to cause disputes between apparently reasonable and generally well-meaning people than issues of authorship on academic papers. I am also aware of how upsetting these things can be.

30/08/2024

07/08/2024

Studies indicate that a significant proportion of patients with PBC demonstrate hesitancy regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.

07/08/2024

A qualitative synthesis of 24 studies in the literature identified 4 stages of symptom experiences in men receiving androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer.

06/08/2024

Self appraisals an exciting management tool that results in little appraising and a lot of stressing

17/07/2024

27/06/2024

These are just guess work because obviously I've never had bad data before 😶

19/06/2024

Nothing like opening reviewer comments and suddenly feeling as though you'd like the world to open up and swallow whole... research is so fun