Ruth Chambers

The National Service Framework for mental health aims to provide uniformly good systems so that mental health problems are detected and therefore treated early. This book sets out how learning more about mental health and reviewing current practice can be incorporated into a personal development plan, or practice learning plan. It shows how to integrate quality improvements into everyday work, and bridges the gap between theory and practice. Doctors, nurses and practice managers can build up a personal development plan, or a practice professional development plan through completing the exercises at the end of each chapter, and it demonstrates how to include clinical governance in the mental healthcare services they offer.

The fundholding concept is now an established component of the NHS and is responsible for the growing influence of general practice in the delivery of health care. This book is comprehensive and authoritative, and a reference for GPs, practice managers and all those industries and professions providing services to general practice.

This work is intended for those already in working in community care, including nurses, nursing students and social workers. It is aimed at those who have to provide palliative care from time to time, and at those who are considering a career shift into this field.

Domiciliary care is a sensitive and complex subject. Can I obtain suitable care workers? Which organisations can I call on for support? What are the obligations placed on homeowners? If a relative wishes to remain at home do you know what to do? These are questions often asked by health professionals social workers and service users. This book answers such questions gives choices and shows how to implement decisions. It is essential reading for the new primary care organisations community practitioners primary healthcare teams practitioners in palliative care and geriatrics charities and volunteer groups.

Clinical audit is essential for demonstrating performance for the quality and outcomes framework of the GP Contract. This completely up to date manual uses a practical ‘how-to-do-it’ approach, linked directly to the GP Contract, to make the undertaking of clinical audit a positive and rewarding exercise for both patient care and practice finance. By using examples of clinical audit from around twenty different clinical fields, Clinical Audit in Primary Care provides tips and advice that can be integrated into everyday practice. The recommended process will enable managers, doctors, nurses and clinical staff to collect the data painlessly and to draw meaningful results from it. Its principles will also provide practical guidance to pharmacists and others in the multidisciplinary team involved in clinical audit.

PCGs will plan their future and their goals around Primary Care Investment Plans - documents that seem to owe more to a background in business than they do to healthcare. This workbook is about demystifying business and making planning easy. The series of questions, exercises and answers is designed to help the reader clarify their thinking and "depuzzle" the process.

This guide is a toolbox of techniques from which clinical teachers may select ideas and adapt them to their own teaching style. It presents a menu of techniques which have been tried and tested by the Palliative Care Education Group Gloucestershire group.

This book is for users of comparisons in health care and for researchers. More clinicians managers and patient groups are using research to make comparisons. Information technology and new databases make comparisons easier but not necessarily better. Comparisons can help us discover the causes of disease whether a treatment is effective if it is worth the cost whether a service is performing badly and the value of a health reform or policy. Comparisons can help us learn from other cultures and understand the implications for our own health services. Yet it is all too easy to misinterpret or uncritically accept a study and reach invalid conclusions. This book encourages decision-makers to make more use of comparative research but with an awareness of the limitations of comparisons. Its practical approach enables researchers to plan and carry out better comparative research and to develop new methodologies for this fast growing field of research.

Evidence-based medicine draws on terminology used in biostatistics epidemiology health economics philosophy ethics logic and the social sciences. In this unique compendium the author defines the common terms used in evidence-based medicine and provides useful notes and references to help the reader understand this terminology and explore further if necessary. The book explains statistical formulae commonly used in evidence-based medicine. It is ideal for doctors nurses and pharmacists who are not familiar with statistical terms and statisticians and health economists who are not familiar with pharmaceutical or clinical terminology. The definitions explanatory notes and references are clear and easily understandable.

This volume, focusing on dermatology, is part of a survey of health care needs for specific conditions, published on behalf of the Department of Health. This study overall considers questions such as the population's needs, the services available or unavailable to them, the effectiveness of these services, and other perspectives in disease and service areas. This is the second series of needs assessment reviews.

This volume, focusing on breast cancer, is part of a survey of health care needs for specific conditions, published on behalf of the Department of Health. This study overall considers questions such as the population's needs, the services available or unavailable to them, the effectiveness of these services, and other perspectives in disease and service areas. This is the second series of needs assessment reviews.

This book is a practical toolkit for every doctor, tutor and manager in hospitals, medical schools and primary care who gives formal or informal advice to students, juniors and colleagues. Guiding Doctors in Managing their Careers incorporates, in a practical way, all the key concepts in Modernising Medical Careers, the NHS Priorities, the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework, and new variations in career pathways. It also distinguishes between career information, guidance and counselling and explains the required competencies for each.

All registered nurses are required to keep portfolios which demonstrate their competence in clinical practice in order to receive re-registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. In addition, they are encouraged to seek individual annual appraisals which highlight their progress and areas the require development. This book provides examples and ideas on how to document learning, competence, performance or standards of service delivery. It takes an important clinical theme throughout, providing key information on clinical management from the outset, followed by structured examples of evidence of performance and application of learning in practice, individualised for each clinical theme, focussing on cardiovascular and neurological conditions. It explains how to gather evidence from clinical interactions and other aspects of daily work. All nurses working in primary care with an interest in chronic disease management, especially those who are looking for a more ‘first contact’ work within their role will find this book valuable reading.

Learning is most powerful when it is both hard work and fun. This usually means that it is interactive and based on experience, challenging but at the same time possible. This book presents a wide variety of games, activities and techniques that any teacher, tutor or team leader can use to help others learn. Each of the chapters has a short introduction followed by several exercises that are interactive, fun and will reinforce learning in knowledge, skills and attitudes. The tools provided describe not only how to do an exercise, but also when, with whom, what will make it work well, what can go wrong and give insights into the impact it might make. The authors are experienced in leading teams, planning and providing education, and the tools are tried and tested in real teaching and learning situations. The ideas can be used in and across all disciplines and settings.

This work explains in clear and concise terms the business side of general practice. It provides a reference for every GP practice and is particularly relevant to the needs of the younger principal, GP trainees and other doctors who have recently entered general practice. Each of the book's chapters provides a lucid description of a key facet of general practice and tells the reader how to obtain further advice and assistance.

Widespread recognition of the benefits of minimally invasive procedures in surgery and medicine is resulting in the rapid development of new advances and new techniques in every speciality. This series of books sets out to meet the needs of those responsible for applying the techniques. This volume deals with the field of minimal access gynaecology. Areas covered and techniques described include: advances in instrumentation and equipment for minimal access surgery; operative endoscopy in the treatment of infertility; laparoscopic assisted vaginal hysterectomy and total laparoscopic hysterectomy; advancements in laser fibre optic delivery systems compared to existing electrosurgery techniques; and operative hysteroscopy with electricity.