Volume 10, Number 1, Jan-Feb-Mar 2013

BACK TO BASICSFollow-up and coding of patients with chronic kidney disease

POPULAR
TOPICCHANGING BEHAVIOUROver the limit? A healthier approach to alcohol
Sue Baic

Alcohol forms part of the diet for over 90% of adults in the UK and is unusual in being both a nutrient and a drug. For many of us, alcohol is a safe and pleasurable part of the diet. However, there is growing concern that many people who see themselves as social drinkers are consuming levels that may cause harm. Understanding how to assess safe levels of alcohol consumption and identify strategies for cutting down can help us to advise our patients how to moderate their intake.

POPULAR
TOPICDISEASE FOCUSDanger: clots kill! Controlling risk factors for thrombosis
Beverley Bostock-Cox

Clots are life-saving in the right place at the right time, when they can stop us bleeding to death. But a clot in the wrong place can spell disaster, leading to heart attack, stroke, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. This article explains why life-threatening clots can develop so quickly, what can be done to prevent them, and how each type of clot is treated.

EDITORIALEditorial
Jan Procter-King

Sometimes I feel like a nephron. These hard-working filters keep on working regardless of the pressure of blood flowing into the kidney. In just the same way, practice nurses must stay at the job no matter how many patients stream through the doors of the surgery. What is more, just as the kidney compensates when it loses nephrons, practice nurses take on more work to make sure that patients do not suffer when staffing levels fall.

POPULAR
TOPICFOOD FOR THOUGHTThe portfolio diet: healthier lipids in the bag?
Fiona Waddingham

Lifestyle modification for people at high cardiovascular risk includes positive changes to their diet. The portfolio diet is a new approach to lowering cholesterol that builds on a conventional cardioprotective diet by including specific foods that are known to target abnormal lipids.

EVIDENCE IN PRACTICEEvidence in practice
Sue Lyon

Providing need-to-know information and recommended actions resulting from new clinical research

HAVE YOU HEARD?Have you heard?
Sue Lyon

PREVENTION IN PRACTICENarrowing the heart health gap in severe mental illness
Professor Richard Holt

Deaths from cardiovascular disease have fallen over the last 20 years but people with schizophrenia and bipolar illness have not shared in these benefits. At the end of last year the first National Audit of Schizophrenia highlighted important deficiencies in management. A systematic care pathway, and straightforward screening, treatment and follow-up in primary care could reduce the continuing health inequalities experienced by people with severe mental illness.

POPULAR
TOPICTESTING TIMESWhy - and when - to check urea and electrolytes
Dr Andrew Blann

Urea and electrolytes (U&E) are the most commonly requested tests that we send to the laboratory. In fact, U&E are so routine that it is easy to take them for granted, but they are an essential aid to the diagnosis of kidney disease. It is important for practice nurses to understand why and when U&E are ordered, and how to act on the results if kidney problems are suspected.

HANDS ONCPR: to breathe or not to breathe?
Laraine Sullivan

UK guidelines recommend hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as an option for untrained people, or when ventilation is difficult. But standard CPR with ventilation remains best practice, and it is vital to ensure that everyone in the practice knows how to use basic life support to save a patient’s life after cardiac arrest.

POPULAR
TOPICMEDICATION REVIEWStable angina: the no tears review
Dr Clare Hawley

Approximately 5% of adults aged over 40 years have stable angina, appear on our coronary heart disease (CHD) registers and are recalled at least annually for reviews. People with angina are often prescribed four or more regular items, and it is widely believed that patients are more likely to take their medicines effectively when they agree to their prescription and feel involved in decision-making. The medication review involves patients in prescribing decisions, and supports them in taking their medicines most effectively, so improving health outcomes and satisfaction with their care.