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This study explored the perceptions of NHS employees working within a UK mental health trust in relation to the social impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Questioning focussed on social isolation and desire to interact with others before and since COVID‐19; effects of safety measures including personal protective equipment and social distancing; and perceived influences of the pandemic on service users and social aspects of service delivery. All employees at an English NHS mental health service were invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire (July–September 2020), resulting in 464 completed questionnaires. Response frequencies were summed across the total sample, and the influence of patient contact, age, and vulnerability to COVID‐19 were explored using pairwise comparisons. Approximately two thirds of employees felt there had been a fundamental change in how they felt about interacting with others, and many had lost confidence in their ability to relate emotionally to others. Respondents were keen to adhere to safety guidance, but the majority believed that face masks and social distancing could have a detrimental effect on communication and rapport within the workplace. Other concerns included passing on the virus, social isolation of employees and service users, and a reduction in community services. COVID‐19 safety measures may impact morale, communication, empathy, and the provision of client‐centred care. More generally, the pandemic has changed the attitudes of mental health workers towards social interaction, with younger employees reporting more mental health difficulties that may be linked to concerns about longer term social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Health and Safety Executive have completed an inspection initiative focussing on the prevention and management of sharps injuries in forty NHS organisations. Health and safety breaches were found in 90% of the services visited and inspectors issued improvement notices to 45% of those NHS organisations. In this article Richard Griffith sets out the key findings of the inspection initiative and considers their impact on district nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the sixty years that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy underwent the transition from wood and sail to steam and iron. The impact that this had on the health of workers in the Royal Dockyards has been neglected by historians. In this article, records from the medical department at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard are used to demonstrate that the nature and causes of physical injuries sustained by dockworkers changed as a result of this transition. It is also shown that the environment of the dockyards became more hazardous to health. More broadly, this study suggests that the Royal Dockyards warrant inclusion in historical debates about industrialisation and the formation of welfare states; and in analyses concerned with the development of local healthcare provision in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocating for midwives in the UK has been number one on the Royal College of Midwives' agenda. During COVID-19, this has been no different [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the psychological and physical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include distress, grief and dying, struggles of the British National Health Service in dealing with the crisis as well as the anticipation of dealing with its aftermath, and the previous and upcoming conferences of the British Association of Urological Nurses.