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Aim: To investigate female university students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours towards sun exposure and the use of artificial tanning devices. Subject and methods: A descriptive correlational survey design using online questionnaires, targeting a population of female university students aged 18–25 from one university in the United Kingdom. Results: Three hundred and thirty-five students participated (response rate = 26.4%). Students demonstrated average knowledge and good attitude to tanning behaviours, but neither were statistically significantly associated with tanning behaviours. Students showed a history of substantial tanning behaviours, including the use of sunbeds, primarily because having a tanned skin made them look good and thus feel better. Conclusion: This study has re-affirmed that there is no simple correlation between individuals’ knowledge and attitudes and subsequent sun-tanning behaviours. Feeling good and looking goodare critical attributes to female university students’ self-esteem, and these values and beliefs outweigh risk perception of sun-tanning behaviours, and female university students continue to engage in risky tanning behaviours. Focused health promotion activities by public health authorities and higher education institutions should target students’ principal belief of looking good feeling good, as such targeted health promotion may reduce harmful sun tanning behaviours and ultimately mitigate the rising incidence in skin cancers.

The Nursing Department at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland has updated its nursing philosophy. Staff and students collaborated to ensure the philosophy reflected current attitudes. Fundamental concepts such as the individual, environment, health, nursing and education emerged. About 297 staff and students submitted concept definitions that ultimately formed the new philosophy.

Aim:The aim of this paper is to report on a study that compared ambulance clinicians’ views of two different types of patient coverings, focusing on core caring concepts such as comfort, dignity, and safety.Design:Ambulance clinicians’ views were gathered in respect of two types of patient coverings, and 128 ambulance patients were randomly distributed into a control or experimental group receiving respectively either the traditional cotton blanket or a multi-layered TelesPro rescue covering. Views were gathered using a short questionnaire developed by the authors.Findings:Ambulance clinicians, in their own view, maintained the core caring concepts no matter which type of covering was used. Findings suggest strongly that the rescue covering provided for a superior patient experience in respect of all core concepts and one functional aspect.Conclusions:Ambulance clinicians undertake caring that encompasses the core caring concepts of comfort, safety, and dignity, while remaining vigilant to threats to these constituents of caring.

The primary aim of this project was to explore the effects of experiential learning in pre-hospital emergency care by nursing students on placement with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service. The literature suggests that experiential learning has great potential for expanding understanding, knowledge and skills. The study employed a qualitative approach that was inductive, exploratory and descriptive, using diaries and focus group interviews to collect data. One hundred and forty-one nursing students participated, providing a response rate of 74%. Content analysis indicated that the concept of holistic nursing comes to the fore in students’ thinking and deliberations in pre-hospital emergency care. An appreciation of the skills and abilities of paramedics has created the foundation for enhanced inter-professional collaboration in this setting. In conclusion, experiential learning stimulates the evolvement of an understanding of the complete process of care, from the receiving of the emergency call by ambulance control to the patient’s discharge. The study recommends that such an experiential learning placement in pre-hospital emergency care is made a compulsory part of pre-registration education for nurses.

The learning of nursing psychomotor skills has traditionally been associated with lecturer demonstrations. In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on the development of independent learning within nurse education, and this study aims to investigate the potential for self-learning of psychomotor skills in nursing. Students were sampled from a number of different nurse education facilities in Northern Ireland, and a true experiment was carried out. Results indicate that students can learn a psychomotor skill both with and without a demonstration. Students who received a demonstration appeared to pay more attention to the principles of asepsis and communication; however these students were also more likely to pick up bad habits from the lecturer. This study adds to the existing research base for the learning and teaching of psychomotor skills in nursing.

This article uses a case study approach to demonstrate how awareness of recent research findings and a sound understanding of pathophysiology enable the nurse to become an effective practitioner. A scenario is described in which the nurse is faced with a man admitted to the coronary care unit with a diagnosis of suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Through analysis of the patient's health status, with frequent reference to pathophysiology, the nurse can perform an accurate nursing assessment and so determine immediate priorities for nursing care. The priority objectives were identified as pain control, management of cardiogenic shock, reperfusion of the myocardium, cardiac monitoring for complications of AMI and the effects of treatment, and management of anxiety. Research-based rationales are provided for all objectives.