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Background: Very young children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often show poorer language development. Whilst there have been attempts to provide early intervention programmes, these sometimes miss the most disadvantaged groups. Aims: This report presents preliminary feasibility and effectiveness data for a novel language intervention designed for parents of toddlers in the United Kingdom. Methods and Procedures: In total, 43 UK families of 2–4‐year‐olds were recruited to the study, half of whom completed an 8‐week course (Tots Talking) focussed on parent interaction, and half of whom acted as wait‐list controls. Results and Outcomes: Results suggest that such programmes are feasible for families with 86% staying in the intervention. In addition, greater changes in underlying communication skills such as joint attention and gesture were evident compared to wait‐list controls. Conclusions and Implications: We conclude that pre‐verbal skills may be more important to measure as initial outcomes than language or vocabulary change in this population. What This Paper Adds: What is already known on the subject: Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are at higher risk of communication difficulties and there is a need for community intervention programmes for very young children. What this study adds: This study suggests that such programmes can be feasible and effective, but that very early/basic communicative skills (such as joint attention) may be boosted first rather than language or vocabulary. What are the clinical implications of this work?: Children's centres and other community services could feasibly run short parent facing courses emphasising contingent communication in low SES families and other diverse groups. These may be more successful run with younger preschoolers. Joint attention may be a better focus of intervention before expecting vocabulary or language change. Community health professionals may find this information useful in referring and supporting families in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Moral distress is recognized as an international problem that contributes to decreased work productivity, job dissatisfaction and intent to leave for adult Critical Care nurses. Aim: To explore Critical Care nurses moral distress levels using the Moral Distress Scale Revised (MDS‐R) and its relationship with intention to stay. The study reported in this paper was part of a larger study that also investigated Critical Care nurses' work environment in Canada and the Midlands region of the UK. Study design: During January to August 2017 a cross‐sectional survey was distributed to adult Critical Care nurses in the Midlands region of the UK. Methods: Surveys were distributed to adult Critical Care Registered Nurses in the Midlands region of the UK examining moral distress levels and intention to stay in Critical Care, the organization (NHS Trust) and in the nursing profession. Results: Two hundred sixty‐six number of a potential sample of 1066 Critical Care nurses completed the survey (25% response rate). Age and moral distress were significantly positively correlated with intention to stay on their current unit (r = 0.16, P =.05), indicating older nurses were more likely to stay in the critical care unit. Moral distress was negatively correlated with intent to stay scores, showing critical care nurses with higher levels of moral distress were less likely to stay on their unit (r = −0.20, P =.02). Moral distress was also significantly negatively correlated with intention to stay with their current employer (r = −0.28, P <.001). Nurses that stated they had high rates of moral distress were more likely to consider leaving their current employer. Conclusion: Moral distress appears to be an issue among adult Critical Care nurses requiring further exploration and development of effective strategies to reduce this phenomenon and stabilize the workforce by reducing turnover. Relevance to clinical practice: By identifying the top causes of moral distress, tools and strategies can be developed to allow the Critical Care nurse to work within an ethically safe clinical environment and reduce the turnover of experienced adult Critical Care nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of support to breastfeeding success is well established, as are the difficulties many mothers face in accessing the support they need. With the majority of UK mothers now accessing social media for support, Breastfeeding Support Facebook (BSF) groups have increased exponentially. BSF groups vary in type (local or national/international) and in moderation—overseen by breastfeeding mothers and by midwives or trained lactation specialists. Some groups aimed at supporting mothers in a specific geographical area also have associated face‐to‐face groups, facilitated as either professional or peer support. Little is currently known about these specific local groups, their prevalence, impact or value to mothers. This paper examines mothers' experiences of using local BSF groups and why they value them as part of a larger study exploring the impact of midwife moderation on these groups. An online survey consisting of open and closed questions was completed by 2028 mothers. Findings identified that local BSF groups are widely used and highly valued for their connection with local face‐to‐face services and other mothers. They offer access to expertise and shared experience in a format mothers find convenient and timely, improving confidence and self‐efficacy. Local BSF groups enable the formation of support networks and development of breastfeeding knowledge that mothers credit with increased well‐being, motivation and breastfeeding duration. As such, they have the potential to add value to local face‐to‐face services and improve breastfeeding experiences and knowledge in communities. The findings have important implications to support the development of integrated online interventions to improve public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Many individual- and job-related factors are known to influence medical careers decision making. Previous research has extensively studied medical trainees' (residents') and students' views of the factors that are important. However, how trainees and students trade off these factors at times of important careers-related decision making is under-researched. Information about trade-offs is crucial to the development of effective policies to enhance the recruitment and retention of junior doctors. Objectives Our aim was to investigate the strength of UK medical students' preferences for the characteristics of training posts in terms of monetary value. Methods We distributed a paper questionnaire that included a discrete choice experiment ( DCE) to final-year medical students in six diverse medical schools across the UK. The main outcome measure was the monetary value of training post characteristics, based on willingness to forgo and willingness to accept extra income for a change in each job characteristic calculated from regression coefficients. Results A total of 810 medical students answered the questionnaire. The presence of good working conditions was by far the most influential characteristic of a training position. Medical students consider that, as newly graduated doctors, they will require compensation of an additional 43.68% above average earnings to move from a post with excellent working conditions to one with poor working conditions. Female students value excellent working conditions more highly than male students, whereas older medical students value them less highly than younger students. Conclusions Students on the point of completing medical school and starting postgraduate training value good working conditions significantly more than they value desirable geographical location, unit reputation, familiarity with the unit or opportunities for partners or spouses. This intelligence can be used to address the crisis in workforce staffing that has developed in the UK and opens up fruitful areas for future research across contexts and in terms of examining stated preferences versus actual career-related behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim The successful development and maintenance of professional identity is associated with professional development and retention in the health workforce. This paper explores students' perspectives on the ways pre-entry experiences and curricula content shape professional identity. Methods An online cross-sectional survey was sent to students enrolled in the final year of entry-level programmes in five countries. Descriptive statistical analyses of data were completed. Results The results reflect the perceptions of 319 respondents from five countries. Respondents identified professional education (98%) and professional socialisation during placement (92%) as curricula components with the greatest influence on professional identity formation. Discipline-specific knowledge such as, occupation-focussed models and occupational science were ranked lower than these aspects of practice. The students' length of programme and level of entry-level programme did not impact on these results. Conclusion When designing curricula educators need to be mindful that students perceive practice education and professional socialisation have the greatest affect on professional identity formation. The findings reinforce the need for curricula to provide students with a range of practice experiences, which allow the observation and application of occupation-based practices. It highlights a need for educators to provide university-based curricula activities, which better prepare students for a potential dissonance between explicit occupation-based curricula and observed practice education experiences. The study indicates the need for further research into the role curricula content, and in particular practice education, plays in the multidimensional formation of professional development within entry-level programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a survey of mental health clinician views of including people with psychosis and negative symptoms in outcome research. A questionnaire was forwarded to clinicians (the majority of whom were mental health nurses) completing post-registration undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in psychosocial interventions for psychosis. Fifty questionnaires were returned (a response rate of 84.7%). A total of 47% of respondents indicated that they might refrain from offering this group as potential participants to clinical trials. Thematic analysis suggests views that negative symptoms are not amenable to treatment inform such decisions. The results highlight the potential difficulties faced by researchers investigating new treatments for people with negative symptoms, and suggest further exploration of clinician views of referring this group to research and psychosocial treatments is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]