Benefits of mindful compassion for staff, patients and carers.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: This study intended to examine the long-term effect on the emotional wellbeing and behaviour change of staff, patients and carers who attended a one-day Macmillan course on mindful compassion. METHODS: People who attended mindful compassion study days in 2016 and 2017 were invited to participate in an online questionnaire in 2019. RESULTS: Nearly 50% (99) of the 200 people who received the invitation completed the survey. Immediately after the course, 38.78% practised mindful compassion as and when required, 28.57% practised when possible, 15.31% practised daily, 13.27% practised 3-4 times a week and 3.5% were not practising. More than half (56%) used mindful compassion to help with home and work life, relationships and family. Two or three years after the course, when asked again, 15.31% of those who answered still practised daily, 11.22% practised 3-4 times a week, 23.47% practised as and when possible and 42.86% did so as needed; 7.14% had not continued practising. CONCLUSION: Training in mindful compassion benefits patients and carers. In both the short and long terms, mindful compassion was found to reduce anxiety, aid sleep, improve pain management and help people feel more empowered, calm and relaxed. It also helped people cope with stressful situations, gave them time for themselves and enabled them to become much more focused.

Making patients safer: nurses' responses to patient safety alerts.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to determine whether action required by patient safety alerts was effectively taken. BACKGROUND: Over the last 10 years, there has been a growing awareness of the number of patients unintentionally harmed in the course of their treatment. Safety alerts are designed to reduce the incidence of adverse events by removing these predisposing factors. METHOD: A multi-method study was carried out in 20 acute, two mental health, four ambulance and 15 primary care provider organizations in the United Kingdom in 2006-2007 using surveys, interviews with senior managers and front-line staff, collection of documentary evidence and equipment audit. The implementation of three safety alerts for nursing action is reported. FINDINGS: Most staff were aware of the dangers posed by gloves to staff with latex allergy, but only 20% were aware of the types of common equipment that posed a danger to sensitive patients. Almost 40% of nurses were unable to give a correct acidity value to allow nasogastric feeding to commence. One alert, on needle-free intravascular connectors, was distributed in only a few organizations as the term used was unfamiliar at all levels of the organization. CONCLUSION: Healthcare providers have succeeded in setting up successful systems to disseminate alerts to middle management level, but there is evidence that implementation of recommendations by nurses is sub-optimal.