Jayne H Donaldson

Systematic review of grading practice: Is there evidence of grade inflation?

This paper describes the outcomes of a systematic review of literature pertaining to the grading of practice within nursing, midwifery, medicine and allied health professions. From a total of 215 papers, 147 were included and data were extracted using a systematic data extraction tool. The focus of this paper relates to one of the emerging themes: the issue of grade inflation. The paper examines the grade inflation phenomenon: it discusses the reasons for grade inflation from a variety of perspectives. The paper reports on the suggestions made within the literature on how to control grade inflation, but these, the authors conclude, are not fully evaluated and should be adopted only where rigorous evaluation can carried out. It is imperative that evaluations include the usefulness, reliability and validity testing of rubrics or any other solutions to grade inflation that are adopted by clinicians and educators.

Exploring the opinions of registered nurses working in a clinical transfusion environment on the contribution of e-learning to personal learning and clinical practice: Results of a small scale educational research study

AIM To explore the opinions of registered nurses on the Learnbloodtransfusion Module 1: Safe Transfusion Practice e-learning programme to meeting personal learning styles and learning needs. METHOD A qualitative research methodology was applied based on the principles of phenomenology. Adopting a convenience sampling plan supported the recruitment of participants who had successfully completed the e-learning course. ANALYSIS Thematic analysis from the semi-structured interviews identified common emerging themes through application of Colaizzis framework. RESULTS Seven participants of total sample population (89) volunteered to participate in the study. Five themes emerged which included learning preferences, interactive learning, course design, patient safety and future learning needs. Findings positively show the e-learning programme captures the learning styles and needs of learners. In particular, learning styles of a reflector, theorist and activist as well as a visual learner can actively engage in the online learning experience. In an attempt to bridge the knowledge practice gap, further opinions are offered on the course design and the application of knowledge to practice following completion of the course. CONCLUSION The findings of the small scale research study have shown that the e-learning course does meet the diverse learning styles and needs of nurses working in a clinical transfusion environment. However, technology alone is not sufficient and a blended approach to learning must be adopted to meet bridging the theory practice gap supporting the integration of knowledge to clinical practice.

Current evidence on the effectiveness of systemic herbal medicine for psoriasis: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

Herbal medicines have been used to treat psoriasis for many years with anecdotal reports of efficacy which have attracted public attention. We seek to assess the effects of systemic herbal medicine in the treatment of psoriasis. Medical database PubMed/MEDLINE, AMED, CINAHL, and CENTRAL were searched. Randomised controlled trials of systemic herbal medicine used in the treatment of psoriasis included in the meta-analysis. Two reviewers independently applied eligibility criteria, assessed the quality of the trials and extracted data. Any discrepancies were discussed with additional reviewer to achieve consensus. Nine randomised controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. The trials randomised 785 participants. Three RCTs revealed that herbal medicine performed better than placebo control (RR=3.98, 1.3611.62, 95%CI, I2=68%, p=0.01), four RCTs demonstrated that the western drug competitor is superior to herbal medicine(RR=0.73, 0.53-0.97, 95%CI, I2=52%, p=0.03), two RCTs suggested that herbal medicine combined with other medication, (i.e. Auricular Acupuncture or Acitretin (a systemic retinoid), is more effective than herbal medicine alone (RR=1.92, 1.28-2.88, 95%CI, I2=0%, p=0.002). The results of one RCT indicated that herbal medicine reduced the occurrence of adverse reactions of Acitretin, when it was used in combination with herbal medicine. The findings are not conclusive due to the high risk of bias of the included trials and the limited number of trials testing individual herbal medicines. Further well-designed larger scale trials are required to determine the safety and efficacy of oral herbal interventions in the treatment of psoriasis.

The Gordian knot: provision in Scotland and England

Jayne Donaldson, Bryan McIntosh and Simon Jones argue that England can learn from Scotlands approaches to the nature of hospital capacity and the workforces delivery of service