Jayne Hardicre

This two-part unit examines the issue of nursing students who fail in clinical practice. Part 1 explores reasons for failure, assessment and the emotional challenges mentors may face when supporting failing students.

Delivering an oral presentation at a conference can be a demanding yet exhilarating experience. It can create a variety of emotions such as excitement, joy and achievement – but for many the overriding emotions are those of anxiety, fear and dread. A certain amount of nervousness can enhance your performance but how can you avoid pre-presentation nerves developing into full-blown anxiety and fear. The key to successful conference presentation is meticulous preparation and practise. This article guides you through ten steps to help maximize your success and enjoyment.

Receiving a letter confirming acceptance for you to present a poster at a conference can evoke mixed emotions. Joy, panic, fear and dread are among the many possible emotions and this is not exclusive to first time presenters. Developing an effective poster presentation is a skill that you can learn and can provide a rewarding way to present your work in a manner less intimidating than oral presentation (Shelledy, 2004). The key to successful poster presentation is meticulous, timely, well informed preparation. This article outlines ten steps to help guide you through the process to maximize your success.

There is an increasing importance being placed on the dissemination of research and other high quality evidence. This article is the first in a series of three that will assist you in ensuring that your work is presented in the best light at the conference of your choice. In this first article we guide you through the ten steps you need to take to ensure that you submit the best possible abstract to the scientific committee. We also will guide you through the process of selection.

Nurses spend a great deal of time and effort in constructing a variety of assignments and dissertations as part of courses, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is not uncommon to read comments from lecturers such as ‘this requires only minimal work to be published’. It might be assumed that many assignments and dissertations would therefore go on to appear in print; however it is questionable just how many of them ever do materialize in journals. The reality is that this transition can be a challenging process. This is highlighted when a search of the literature for use in preparation for this article the authors discovered a dearth of advice to help potential authors make the transition from good quality assignment to published article. With this in mind we will try to guide you through a process that will assist you in converting your academic work into an article fit for publication.

There is an increasing expectation that nurses, whether they work in clinical practice management, education or research, will publish. At the same time there remains a mystique about the best way to go about this. This article provides a simple commentary suggesting ten steps to help you publish in a professional journal.

An ever-growing amount of grey literature is available to nurses, including oral presentations, personal communication, leaflets, newspapers and magazines, unpublished research, internal reports and minutes of meetings. It can be an invaluable research resource.

Background Asymptomatic spontaneous cerebral emboli (SCE) are common in dementia and are associated with cognitive decline in dementia. The significance of their presence in older people is unknown. Method We included 96 participants (mean (SD) age 76.8 (6.7) years, 46% female) who were the control group in a case-control study to evaluate SCE in dementia. Cognitive functioning was assessed prospectively over 2.5 years, using the MMSE and CAMCOG. Results The mean (SD) MMSE score was 28.7 (1.4) at baseline with an average (SD) drop of 0.79 (0.91) per year. The presence of SCE was not related to the annual drop in MMSE score, nor to the CAMCOG score at follow-up (p = 0.88 and p = 0.41, respectively). Linear regression analyses identified higher age in years (β = 0.29, p = 0.003), history of stroke (β = 0.31, p = 0.001) and carotid stenosis (β = 0.28, p = 0.003) as independent predictors of cognitive decline. Conclusion We found no association between the presence of SCE and subsequent cognitive decline in older people without dementia. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The age distribution of the Ε4 allelic form of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) was investigated in 630 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with onset age ranging from 35 to 90 years. Overall, mean age at onset in APOE Ε4 allele bearers was significantly later than that in nonbearers. However, when stratified into early onset AD (EOAD) and late onset (LOAD) groups, mean age at onset in EOAD cases bearing APOE Ε4 allele was later than that in those EOAD cases without Ε4 allele, whereas in LOAD mean age at onset in cases bearing APOE Ε4 allele was earlier than in those without Ε4 allele. When analysed by decade, it was observed that 37% of the total number of APOE Ε4 allele bearers, and 43% of total number of cases with APOE Ε4/Ε4 genotype fell into the 60–69 years age class. Hence, APOE Ε4 allele frequency, at 0.44, was highest in the 60–69 years age class, progressively decreasing either side of this age group. APOE Ε4 allele therefore has its maximum impact between onset ages of between 60 and 70 years.