Developing a shared language in maternity care
The Royal College of Midwives has published the findings of its project to develop an agreed shared language for maternity care.
An 18-month consultation involved almost 8,000 people, including maternity staff and service users, from all four nations. It found those working in maternity services need terms that are:
- Clear, descriptive and unambiguous
- Consistently understood between individuals and professional groups
- Specific enough to identify differences in the mode of labour and birth
Those using maternity services need terms that are:
- Non-judgemental, non-hierarchal, non-value laden
- Descriptive and technically accurate
- Reflects their actual experience, not what others assume the experience to be
The project also considered the impact of commonly used terms. For example, women said terms such as ‘failure to progress’ or ‘lack of maternal effort’ can contribute to feelings of failure and trauma.
NICE publishes real-world evidence framework
PIF member NICE has published a real-world evidence framework to advance the use of real-world evidence studies in its guidance.
It is hoped the framework will:
- Identify when real-world data can be used to reduce uncertainties and improve guidance
- Describe best-practices for planning, conducting, and reporting real-world evidence studies
A summary of the framework is also available to support users less familiar with real-world data.
Using trusted messengers to address barriers to engagement
A comic, Vaccinated at the Ball: A True Story About Trusted Messengers, uses visual journalism to highlight issues around historical distrust of healthcare systems and the use of trusted messengers.
The comic by Josh Neufeld highlights issues from a recent perspective article in the American Journal of Public Health.
The article’s co-authors have become the main characters of the comic.
They lead the reader through the details of an effort to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among members of the LGBTQ community.
From one drawing to another, the comic discusses health inequalities and the need to address barriers to vaccination, including mistrust in the healthcare system stemming from historical injustices.
It was highlighted in a recent WHO Infodemic bulletin as an example of good practice.
Using mnemonics to empower the public to spot red flags in online health information
This viewpoint article outlines the science of misinformation and the current resources available to the public to identify it.
It describes the development of a mnemonic – CRABS –to identify misinformation in online health content.
The mnemonic stands for Conflict of interest, References, Author, Buzzwords and Scope of Practice.
The author says leveraging evidence-based educational strategies may be a promising approach for empowering the public to differentiate truth from fiction in an infodemic.
NHS Wales e-library announces new access to digital collection
The NHS Wales e-Library has announced access to a new collection of nearly 400 popular and specially-curated e-Books.
Topics include medical, educational, career-building and reference material, providing more evidence tools for those using library services.
The collection has been selected through collaboration with librarians across NHS Wales, along with Welsh Government.
The e-Library is available to users including NHS Wales employees, those commissioned to provide NHS Wales services and students on placement.
European Patient Digital Health Awards
There is still time to submit your entry to the European Patient Digital Health Awards 2022.
The awards, run by MSD and supported by Digital Health Academy, aim to recognise digital health solutions which improve the quality of life of patients and caregivers.
Applications should be submitted by 6pm on 8 July.
Study: Exploring invisibility and injustice in Long Covid
An analysis of patient stories from an online COVID-19 community highlights the complexities and challenges of living with Long Covid.
Distinct themes identified included: the life-changing impact of the condition, the importance of validation and how, for many, seeking alternatives was felt to be their only option.
Authors concluded Long Covid does not easily fit into the dominant evidence-based practice and the biomedical model of health, making patient testimonies vital to understanding and treating the condition.
However, patients are frequently disbelieved and their testimonies are not taken seriously.
This leads to stigma and epistemic injustice, which then introduces a lack of trust into the therapeutic relationship.
Advice on creating accessible emails
An AbilityNet blog shares top tips for writing accessible emails.
It highlights that people read emails in different ways on different devices, sometimes using assistive technologies.
Topics covered in the blog include subject lines, font choices and adding structure to emails.
Cancer information in new languages
PIF member Macmillan has started to add new languages to its core translation offer.
The new languages include Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Turkish and Ukrainian.
You can view Macmillan’s translated resources via the link below.
People who are deaf or hard of hearing encouraged to share experiences
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), partnered with Disability Rights UK, is asking people who are deaf or hard of hearing to feedback their experiences of care.
The appeal is part of CQC’s Because We All Care campaign.
Launched in January 2021, the campaign aims to help health and social care services identify and address quality issues by encouraging people to share feedback on individual experiences of care.
As part of this work, the CQC introduced SignLive video service allowing people to share their feedback using British Sign Language (BSL) as well as text relay.
Call to improve care and support for ethnic minority older people
In this blog for the ALLIANCE, Rohini Sharma Joshi OBE says the proposed National Care Service is failing the most vulnerable members of ethnic minority communities.
He says the service provides an important opportunity to address the care needs of Scotland’s ethnic minority older people.
However, there is a danger the new organisation is falling into ‘the same trap of too much talk and not enough action’.
New patient-facing fragility fracture resource
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has published a resource aimed at patients and carers for the Fracture Liaison Service Database (FLS-DB).
The resource aims to inform members of the public who have a fragility fracture on what level of care they should expect to receive based on three key findings from the FLS-DB annual report.
It was developed in collaboration with the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme patient and carer panel.
What should happen if you or someone you know experiences a fragility fracture? is available to view in HTML format and download as a PDF.
Patient Safety Congress poster competition deadline extended
The deadline for submissions to the HSJ Patient Safety Congress Poster Competition has been extended to 6 July.
Selected posters will be showcased to more than 1,000 patient safety experts via the conference app.
There will also be a top 10 and overall winner announced.
More information on how to enter is available via the link below.