Why is it important to be aware of how personal experiences may influence your behavior in your nursing practice?

Bob Price Healthcare education and practice development consultant, Surrey, England

Attitudes are of crucial importance in nursing. Attitudes help us to understand how people perceive issues and processes in care and determine what they deem important, good, relevant and appropriate. We should understand attitudes if we are to provide collaborative, patient-centred care; however, they are poorly understood. This article enables the reader to examine attitudes and their constituent beliefs and values. It explores the function of attitudes, considers how they are formed and reflects on the process of attitude change, examining how persuasion can be used to enable individuals to revisit behaviours that seem problematic or less effective.

Nursing Standard. 30, 15, 50-60. doi: 10.7748/ns.30.15.50.s51

All articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software.

Received: 12 May 2015

Accepted: 27 July 2015

Keywords :

professional issues - staff attitudes - organisational culture

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Page 2

Anita Skinner Deputy matron/manager, Lourdes Community Nursing Home in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent

A CPD article helped to remind Anita Skinner of the effects of stigma on patients with mental illness

As a nurse who has worked in mental health units in hospital and prison, I am aware that stigma is common in these settings. The words ‘mental health’ create stigma on their own.

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Page 3

Kathy Oxtoby Freelance journalist

Nurses are not always as assertive as they should be, but there are some simple measures that can be taken to address this, writes Kathy Oxtoby

A lack of assertiveness among nurses can affect job satisfaction and has a detrimental effect on patient care, according to a nurse educator.

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Page 4

Catherine Sadler

Specialist nurse Diane Walker believes self-care dialysis units in hospitals signal a new era for renal nursing, writes Catherine Sadler

When Diane Walker asked about a discarded machine in her hospital’s storeroom during her nurse training in the 1980s, she was told it was for kidney dialysis but no one knew how to use it. This prompted her to take the ENB renal nursing course as soon as she qualified.

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Page 5

Courses, events, grants, and awards to progress your career

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Page 6

Diabetes UK has reported that 75% of the 3.2 million people living with diabetes in the UK will develop kidney disease, with about 20% needing treatment.

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Page 7

Anita Fatchett Associate senior lecturer in nursing, Leeds Beckett University

Anita Fatchett reflects on the changes in the profession since she started her nurse training at Bart’s 50 years ago

On November 15 1965, my friends and I started our nurse training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Dressed in our Bart’s uniforms, complete with frilly dovetail caps, we began to share a whole new way of life.

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Page 8

Graham Scott Editor

They came in their hundreds, from all over the UK. Nursing students and their supporters converged on Whitehall to stand outside the Department of Health and voice their protests at plans to scrap bursaries and end free tuition for nursing students.

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Page 9

A new role that bridges the gap between nurses and healthcare support staff is to be trialled at 30 trusts across England next year.

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Page 10

College members in Northern Ireland (NI) could be balloted on whether to take industrial action over not receiving a pay rise this year.

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Page 11

Nurses trained overseas need more support to adapt to working in the UK according to one of the authors of a report that shows there is lower patient satisfaction in hospitals employing more nurses who have been educated in other countries.

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Page 12

Chris Longhurst

Nurses are putting pressure on the government to perform a U-turn on its decision to scrap student bursaries.

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Page 13

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted it was a ‘mistake’ to cut the number of nurse training places in the last parliament.

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Page 14

Nursing directors said they are fearful about the effects of the latest caps on what their organisations can spend on agency nurses.

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Page 15

The respect and kind words of just one nurse can help to change the life of a patient for the better, CNO summit delegates heard.

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Page 16

Eleven cases of female genital mutilation were reported in London in the four weeks since a change in the law made it mandatory for clinicians and teachers to report cases to the police.

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Page 17

Stephanie Jones-Berry

Sophie Blakemore

Hundreds of nurse leaders came together last week to create a wish list of future priorities for the profession.

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Page 18

Nurse leaders were told to take a ‘hard look’ at their organisations to ensure enough is done to promote black and minority ethnic nurses to senior roles.

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Page 19

Petra Kendall-Raynor

Patient access to lung cancer nurse specialists has fallen to below the recommended minimum level, according to the National Lung Cancer Audit.

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Page 20

Devastating floods across the north of England, Scotland and Wales wreaked havoc with healthcare over the weekend; leaving hospitals without power, services cancelled and nurses unable to get to work.

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Page 21

Health professionals caring for patients who are a risk to themselves and others have been issued with guidance on restraint.

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Page 22

Stroke-trained nurses who work with post-acute inpatient services may lack training in screening for dysphagia.

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Page 23

A roundup of the latest nursing news

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Page 24

Clare Lomas

Malnutrition affects millions of people in the UK. A new tool could help to identify it early, prevent harm and save money. Clare Lomas reports

Nurses have welcomed the launch of a new self-screening tool to help identify adults in the community who are at risk of malnutrition.

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Page 25

Drinking diet soft drinks can raise breath/alcohol levels by up to 20%

A survey published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence reveals that certain mixer drinks can increase alcohol in breath dramatically.

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Page 26

Clinicians, led by GPs, are the masters of clinical commissioning groups – one of the main reforms in the NHS in England in the past five years. But are the voices of patients being heard… or ignored?

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