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Training needs analysis is considered essential to professional and organizational development, for continuing education and for incorporation into professional practice. Increasingly, nurses are encouraged to develop their health promotion role. Despite this there has been relatively little research in Scotland into the health promotion role of the hospital nurse. This study describes the results of a health promotion training needs analysis undertaken on qualified, hospital-based nurses in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Information on the nurses’ current health promotion practices, their attitudes and beliefs, their views on role development and priorities for further training were collated, analysed and discussed within the framework of the Health Action Model. This model was originally designed to assist understanding of the gap that exists between an individual intention to act and the eventual health action. However, in this study the ways in which ’cognitive factors’ (knowledge and beliefs) and ’motivational factors’ (considering values, attitudes and drives) and pressures from social norms and significant others assisted in the understanding of the nurse’s orientation to, and beliefs about, health promotion practice. Fifty-seven per cent of nurses in the study considered health promotion activities to be emerging in clinical care and 4% considered them to be advanced. The interest respondents have in role development and the further integration of health promotion activities into nursing practice was explored by ascertaining the nurses’ attitudes and beliefs about their own health promotion role. Of 107 respondents, a majority 72 (67%) agreed health promotion interventions to be an important function of the nurse with 29 (27%) strongly agreeing (n = 107). Sixty per cent stated they would be interested in developing their role and 30% were very strongly interested. Recommendations are therefore made for future planning and development strategies for the health promotion role of hospital nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK landscape of guidance for clinical practice and public health has become increasingly complicated in recent times, and it is easy to feel confused as to what is available for what purposes, what applies where, and who does what. Within this overall picture, there is potential for uncertainty as to the applicability, or otherwise, in Scotland of guidance produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, including NICE technology appraisals, clinical guidelines, interventional procedures guidance, and public health programme and intervention guidance. This paper is offered as a map to help health professionals and others to find their way through the Scottish landscape, with particular reference to NICE's outputs and the respective roles of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) and NHS Health Scotland (HS).

Training needs analysis is considered essential to professional and organizational development, for continuing education and for incorporation into professional practice. Increasingly, nurses are encouraged to develop their health promotion role. Despite this there has been relatively little research in Scotland into the health promotion role of the hospital nurse. This study describes the results of a health promotion training needs analysis undertaken on qualified, hospital-based nurses in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Information on the nurses' current health promotion practices, their attitudes and beliefs, their views on role development and priorities for further training were collated, analysed and discussed within the framework of the Health Action Model. This model was originally designed to assist understanding of the gap that exists between an individual intention to act and the eventual health action. However, in this study the ways in which 'cognitive factors' (knowledge and beliefs) and 'motivational factors' (considering values, attitudes and drives) and pressures from social norms and significant others assisted in the understanding of the nurse's orientation to, and beliefs about, health promotion practice. Fifty-seven per cent of nurses in the study considered health promotion activities to be emerging in clinical care and 4% considered them to be advanced. The interest respondents have in role development and the further integration of health promotion activities into nursing practice was explored by ascertaining the nurses' attitudes and beliefs about their own health promotion role. Of 107 respondents, a majority 72 (67%) agreed health promotion interventions to be an important function of the nurse with 29 (27%) strongly agreeing (n = 107). Sixty per cent stated they would be interested in developing their role and 30% were very strongly interested. Recommendations are therefore made for future planning and development strategies for the health promotion role of hospital nurses.

Objectives: To examine the effect of socioeconomic status on the attitudes parents of preschool children towards child home safety issues and practice of home safety measures., Setting: A community based study in the Lanarkshire Health Board area, a mixed urban-rural setting in central Scotland., Methods: A postal survey of two random samples of parents of preschool children (aged 3 years). One sample (A) involved parents living in more affluent areas and the other (B) parents living in less affluent areas., Results: In general, parents in both groups showed similar attitudes towards home safety. The only significant differences to emerge were over parental perceptions of the safety of the neighbourhood in which they lived and over the availability of money to keep their child safe (group B > group A, p < 0.0042). Parents from group B also tended to report similar or safer levels of home safety behaviour to parents from group A., Conclusions: The findings do not suggest that differences in the injury experience of children from more and less affluent backgrounds are due to differences in parental attitude, knowledge, or practice of home safety measures. Thus, the study does not support the selective targeting of families from less affluent areas with educational interventions. Instead, the findings do support the use of a multi-method approach to home safety, where educational approaches are complemented by environmental modification.

The accuracy of recording of data on SMR1 forms was reviewed for gastrointestinal diagnoses in the Greater Glasgow Health Board area and compared to previous studies. A total of 778 cases from 1987 formed the study sample and 761 (96.9%) were available for review. Recording on the SMR1 appears to have improved since 1971 and there were relatively few errors in the basic details. The crude agreement between DG1C data (primary diagnosis) and the casenote diagnosis was 560/761 (73.6%) with a Kappa statistic of 0.67. Agreement about the presence of arthritis (as a co-diagnosis) was poor so that uncritical use of SMR1 data might lead to serious underestimation of resource measures, such as length of stay, for patients with significant arthritis in addition to a gastrointestinal problem. In these data patients with arthritis found on casenote review and not recorded on the SMR1 had mean lengths of stay between 61% and 70% greater than patients without any evidence of significant arthritis.

General practitioners are often asked for medical certificates (housing "lines") by applicants for council housing who claim to have medical problems requiring housing priority. The results of a survey by questionnaire showed that general practitioners in Edinburgh do not know how the housing system works and that they seem to overestimate their patients' chances of obtaining suitable council housing. General practitioners need to know how the housing system works, and communication between general practitioners and housing departments should be improved. A comparison was also made between the number of medical points awarded by a community medicine specialist and a group of general practitioners who had written housing "lines" for their patients. The general practitioners tended to award more points than the specialist. Social priority for housing should be recognised as an independent factor and a new category of top social priority added.

The Acheson Report highlights confusion about responsibilities and the poor communication in the control of communicable disease. There is evidence that printed sources of information appear high in the list of reported use of information sources by doctors, although health professionals appear to make poor use of them. This interview survey, conducted by telephone, ascertained the views of 83 recipients of the Fife Community Health Report (CHR) -a monthly communicable disease/environmental health newsletter for community and primary care health staff working in Fife. The 83 individuals interviewed were representing their practice or group of health staff so that the consensus of each group was being sought in the interview. The response rate was 100 per cent and 95 per cent of the respondents stated that all the members of their practice or group read the CHR. Ninety per cent thought the CHR was relevant to their work, and 64 per cent filed it for future reference. However, criticisms were made about the quality of printing. As a result of the survey, improvements have been initiated in the CHR, including the proposed use of desk top publishing (DTP) in its production. Furthermore, the survey has initiated proposals for a similar report in the Greater Glasgow Health Board.