What's on the Agenda for Change?

With the imminent roll-out of "Agenda for Change", most nurses will be busy checking their job profiles and ensuring they get the most out of the process. In this article, Yvonne Savage provides a timely overview of what all this effort will mean in the longer term.     

Where will clinical nurse specialists be placed on Agenda for Change?

The imminent introduction of a new approach to pay and career development known as Agenda for Change will raise and dash many nurses' expectations. Among them clinical nurse specialists (CNS) could have a lot to gain if they are able to convince employers that they should be in the highest pay band. Already nurse consultants (NC) are in the top band, but the question needs to be asked as to whether this is simply to fulfil political directives, or whether it is because they match the job evaluation criteria? The political context for the introduction of Agenda for Change and for NCs is outlined, as is the professional debate about higher level practice. Job evaluation factors and the career progression framework are discussed, and suggestions are made regarding how to compare job profiles. If CNSs do not present themselves as expert practitioners, they will not be paid or recognized for what they might already do.     

Assessor or mentor? Role confusion in professional education

This paper reports on research conducted as part of a multi-professional study involving nursing, medicine and midwifery, which aimed to investigate both mentee and mentor perceptions of the mentorship role and the context within which it is conducted. It is well recognised that mentorship plays a vital part in the support and training of healthcare professionals. Documentation published by regulatory bodies regarding the mentorship role and changes in it's implementation in practice has resulted in confusion among practitioners. This study consisted of questionnaires and semi-structured telephone interviews with both mentors and mentees, within three healthcare professions and focuses on the responses from the nursing profession. The mentors participating in the study struggled with their dual role as assessor and mentor and found conflict within this responsibility. The role of assessor was poorly recognised and the complexity of being both an assessor and a supporter/friend is discussed.     

Teamwork in the operating theatre: cohesion or confusion?

RATIONALE: The aim of the research that we report here was to empirically assess the cohesiveness of the multidisciplinary operating theatre (OT) team. METHOD: We used concepts from the team performance and team mental models literature to assess OT professionals' perceptions of their teamwork, the structure of their teams and their respective roles within them and their teams' performance. RESULTS: Team structure: OT professionals would welcome a change from the current structure of the team, although there was no agreement on what that structure is. Nurses perceived the team as unitary, surgeons and anaesthetists perceived it as comprising multiple subteams. Team roles: OT professionals tended to overrate their own understanding of their colleagues' role in the OT relative to the role understanding that the colleagues attributed to them. This tendency was especially marked for the surgeons. Team communication and team performance: OT professionals agreed on the relative importance of the various communicating pairs in the OT. Moreover, they were satisfied with the quality of communication among them, except for the communication between the surgeon and the anaesthetist, which received lower ratings. Finally, the quality of the teamwork in the OT was deemed acceptable, although there is room for improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The OT environment need not be as cohesive as previously assumed--a finding that carries implications for the effectiveness of team training interventions. Further research is needed in order to fully comprehend the dynamics of the OT as a working environment and, most importantly, their relation to patient safety.     

Menopause and the hormone controversy: clarification or confusion?

providers. To assist in providing women quality healthcare, recently published new guidelines help provide direction for NPs.