Billiejoan Rice

The immediate Life support course: implementation into an undergraduate nursing programme

AIM The aim of this paper is to outline how the immediate life support (ILS) course was incorporated into an undergraduate nursing curriculum in a university in Northern Ireland. It also reports on how the students perceived the impact of this course on their clinical practice. RATIONALE AND BACKGROUND The rationale of the course was to develop the students ability to recognize the acutely ill patient and to determine the relevance of this to clinical practice. Prior to this, the ILS course was only available to qualified nurses, and this paper reports on the first time undergraduate nursing students were provided with an ILS course. METHODS The ILS course was delivered to 89 third-year nursing students from the adult branch pathway of the BSc (Hons) programme in Nursing Sciences. Each course was taught to 10-12 students and was completed over eight 7.5 h sessions within a 2-week period. Recognized advanced life support (ALS) instructors, in keeping with the UK Resuscitation Council guidelines, taught the students. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Student feedback reported that the ILS course helped them understand what constituted the acutely ill patient and the role of the nurse in managing a deteriorating situation. Students also reported that they valued the experience as highlighting gaps in their knowledge.

Should family members witness resuscitation of their loved one? A critical and systematic review of the literature and guidelines for clinical practice

agreed to participate in the study. A telephone questionnaire was devised, piloted, and used for this study. Median time for study was 6 months. Results: 27% of the participants gave up smoking, 97% stated that their General Practitioners were following up their cholesterol level, 70% stated they had made positive dietary changes, 41% had increased their exercise levels, and 34% had lost weight since attending the RACPC. 90% of the participants claimed that attending the RACPC had influenced their decision to make positive lifestyle modifications. Conclusion: The study illustrates that attending the RACPC does increase patient awareness of risk factors for coronary artery disease and influences patient decisions in making positive lifestyle modifications.