E-Cigarettes

One of my oldest friends is a dedicated smoker. Despite having a cough that would rattle the house, and the accompanying breathlessness associated with emphysema, she persisted with the 20-plus cigarettes a day that she has smoked for the past 40 years.

A crisis of compassion: Who cares?

The Report A crisis of compassion: Who cares? is a transcript of a discussion held at the Battle of Ideas, 20–21 October 2012, London, UK.

It was published in Nursing Ethics in Feb 2013:

http://nej.sagepub.com/content/20/1/109.full.pdf+html

The online discussion at the Battle of Ideas can be accessed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22maGLQyFko&index=12&list=PLUJGOCM8cUJlhCo12wDp6F6MTMDAkWC8j

Book review: Parenting Culture Studies

Book review:
Parenting Culture Studies
Ellie Lee, Jennie Bristow, Charlotte Faircloth and Jan Macvarish
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
ISBN 978-1-137-30463-6

Community practitioners will recognise that there have been major and controversial changes in child rearing practices over the last 30–40 years. You might say the terrain has become a minefield. The starting point for this insightful and topical book was research conducted a decade ago by author Ellie Lee, which explored an issue practitioners may still struggle to comprehend – why and how infant feeding has become such a controversial and morally charged area of social life.

Simple as science fiction

Human ingenuity and modern technology can make a huge difference to the lives of children and adults with disabilities.

Nursing Times Comments

• Comment on: Hospitals’ duty of care in smoking cessation

• Brid Hehir's comment 19-Jan-2014 4:25 pm
  NICE guidance is all about supporting people to quit which is fine for those who want to. But what about people who don't want to quit -be they patients, visitors or carers? How will their choice be supported? I wrote the attached in an attempt to draw attention to the way in which their rights and choices are being overlooked and/or denied. http://bridhehir.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/this-was-first-published-here-13-nice.html#more

Heart disease halved

NHS communications colleagues struggle to get the media interested in positive health stories. That’s replicated at a national and even international level. It seems the only time the press expresses an interest is when there’s a whiff of a scandal. Bad news sells. That we’re living longer and healthier lives doesn’t.

A mission statement with a difference

On March 3, NHS Change Day, thousands of people in and outside the NHS made a pledge to improve the care given to patients. Roy Lilley, a former NHS chair, listed with pride many of the changes staff had pledged that would make a difference to their working lives and the care they deliver to patients and their families, or act as simple reminders that they were valued. These pledges included: introducing themselves by name, a clothes sale with proceeds being invested in patient care,creating a ‘Harlem shake’ video to break barriers between patients and staff, and many, many more.