NMC new student guidance

Happy Friday!

Just a couple of items today. The Nursing and Midwifery Council have published their student guidance for the new academic year. You can access it here.

In other news, NHS Evidence have released an update on neurological conditions, which includes details of the latest research in brain injury, epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

Have a great weekend!

Stats, stats and more stats

Hope everyone had a good bank holiday. I thought I would draw your attention to the statistics section of the Department of Health website, if you haven't seen it already. All the latest figures on various health administration stuff, for example Accident & Emergency waiting times, or bed availability, is uploaded here regularly. A great site if you want the latest national figures.

Online tutorial to brush up your maths skills

Photo credit: Flickr StreetFlyJZ

http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetfly_jz/2762076152/sizes/m/in/photostream/

The University of Leeds has produced some maths for nurses tutorials which you can access here.

You can choose from quizzes on fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, and drug calculations. Great if you need to brush up on your maths skills.

If you are feeling nervous about maths, remember you can also make an appointment to see our Professional and Academic Development (PAD) team.

It's official - chocolate IS good for you!

Acknowledgement: Chocolatier Prepares For Valentine's Day © Getty Images.

Persistent URL: http://0-edina.ac.uk.brum.beds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/purl/eig/84785377-001.jpg

A recent piece of research indicates that 'moderate' amounts of chocolate may cut the risk of heart failure.

This nine-year Boston study found that women who ate high quality dark chocolate once or twice per week were 32% less likely to suffer heart failure than those who didn't. However, the researchers warn that only 1-2 squares of dark chocolate per week are sufficient, and if we eat too much we could undo the health benefits. If only it was the other way around, and the more chocolate you ate the healthier you became...I would possibly be the healthiest woman on the planet if that were the case!

New Cochrane review on oxygen use in heart attack

A new Cochrane review has revealed that the effects of giving oxygen to patients with acute heart attack are inconclusive, and highlights the need for more research in this area. Current guidance is that oxygen should not routinely be given to patients with a suspected heart attack.

Updated referencing guidelines

Just to let you know that the 2010-2011 referencing guidelines for the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences are now available online here.

Nothing to worry about, they are the same as last year's except that some of the examples have been updated.

If you have any queries about the guidelines or referencing in general you can leave me a comment or contact me.

Introducing Quertle

Quertle is a new search engine specialising in biomedical literature but also covering health care. It's still very new (and seems mostly to have content which has been culled from BioMed Central and PubMed Central at the moment) but it's worth keeping an eye on. Quertle's unique-selling-point is the way it searches using "conceptual relationships", supposedly making your search results more relevant. A quick search for diabetes retrieves almost 200,000 hits, so there's certainly plenty to read.