Nursing

One of the most useful pieces of advice Matthew Berrisford can share with a colleague working in dementia care is this: whenever confronted with what you perceive to be attention-seeking behaviour, reframe it to yourself as attachment-seeking behaviour.

Bridget Leach believes that humour, when used sensitively, can connect people in a human way and ease tension in the stressful environment of a hospital. And she's not joking.

Falls are a major cause of disability and mortality for older people and the problem is likely to increase with an ageing population. Other consequences range from distress, pain, injury and loss of confidence to complete loss of independence. Dr Kawa Amin shows how simulation training can help staff deal with falls better.

Liz Charalambous reviews the book: Not Forgotten Lives: Felixstowe 2017 by Bertie Wheen, which celebrates the lives of older people living locally in nursing and residential accommodation in Felixstowe. It's not merely an account of lives lived, but a lesson for anyone involved in the care of others, she concludes

Care homes routinely feature in the press and not always for the right reasons. Sadly the negative stories do little to help us all promote the amazing work that is being done with people who live in care homes up and down the country.

As the BGS celebrates 70 years of improving health care for older people, Cliff Kilgore's thoughts on one of the reasons it has been so successful.

Sam Shah discusses the project exploring hydration, nutrition and mouthcare in hospital and community care settings in advance of his talk at the BGS Spring Meeting 2017. The project involves training staff and raising awareness to improve the quality of care, to help avoid admission and to support discharge.

Miriam Stanyon is a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham but also worked, until recently, as a care assistant in care homes.  Here she talks about work to establish agreed competencies for Registered Nurses working in care homes.