Clinical News In Brief

- A new flip chart on diet and diabetes has been sent to over 10,000 practice nurses. The chart, produced by Diabetes UK, has information on discussing diet with patients on one side and evidence-based advice on nutritional goals on the other.
www.diabetes.org.uk

- Licensing of the COX-2 inhibitor lumiracoxib (Prexige) has been suspended. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said the latest data showed a rise in serious liver reactions with the 100mg dose.
www.mhra.gov.uk

- Nearly 90% of US nurses take vitamin, mineral or herbal supplements, according to a survey from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a US trade association. Of 277 nurses, 59% took supplements regularly, 27% occasionally and 3% seasonally.
www.lifesupplemented.org

- Patients with schizophrenia are almost twice as likely to have a ruptured appendix as those with no major mental illness, suggests a study of 97,589 patients in Taiwan. Rupture occurred in 46.7% of patients with schizophrenia compared with 25.1% of other patients.
BMC Public Health (2007) 7: 331

- Every school in England should have a policy for school nurses, teachers, support staff and paediatric teams to cope with type 1 diabetes, according to a report from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. It found 70% of schools had pupils unable to inject themselves.

- The relatives of critical care patients are often satisfied with information given in an ad hoc fashion, according to Norfolk researchers. The addition of a dedicated relatives’ clinic, set up by the researchers, did not appear to improve satisfaction.
Intensive and Critical Care Nursing (2007) www.sciencedirect.com

- Class 2 drug alerts have been issued for FDC International’s sodium cromoglicate eye drops 2.0% – EL(07)A/23 – and betaxolol hydrochloride 0.5% eye drops – EL(07)A/22. Both products have rough surfaces on the bottle delivery tip.
www.mhra.gov.uk

- People with sexually transmitted infections are putting themselves at risk by buying treatments online, according to University of East Anglia researchers. Fewer than one-quarter of vendors gave information on side-effects, researchers said, who found 77 treatments online.
BMC Public Health (2007) 7: 333

- Nurses develop a more positive attitude to working with patients with coexisting mental health and substance misuse problems after training, researchers in the West of Scotland have found. They surveyed 49 mental health nurses before and after training.
International Journal of Nursing Studies (2007) 44: 1430–1438

- Nurse attitudes to the single checking of medication becomes more positive with experience, Australian research has found. A survey run 18 months after single checks were introduced at a hospital found nurses said it increased their accountability for drug administration.
International Journal of Nursing Practice (2007) 13: 377–382

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