Development of a continuing professional development website to raise awareness of preconception counselling and pre-pregnancy care for Women with Diabetes

Aims: Pre-pregnancy care reduces the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with diabetes, yet the majority of women receive suboptimal care due to poor preconception counselling rates and a lack of awareness about the importance of specialised pre-pregnancy care. The primary aim was to develop a continuing professional development (CPD) resource for healthcare professionals (HCPs) who work with women with diabetes to facilitate preconception counselling with this group.

Methods: The website was developed under the direction of a multidisciplinary team, adhering to NICE guidelines. The tone, key messages and format are informed by the “Women with Diabetes” preconception counselling website, www.womenwithdiabetes.net, an existing resource which is effective in helping women to be better prepared for pregnancy.Results: This e-learning resource will give HCPs the necessary knowledge and tools to prepare women with diabetes to plan for pregnancy. The website features women with diabetes sharing their views and experiences, alongside an evidence-based commentary and key messages from research papers and clinical guidelines. It comprises two modules: “Planning for Pregnancy”, focusing on contraception, risks and planning; and “Diabetes and Pregnancy”, focusing on support during pregnancy with an overview of each trimester of pregnancy.

Conclusion: This website will be a useful CPD resource for all HCPs working with women with diabetes, providing a certificate on completion. This resource will empower HCPs to engage in preconception counselling with women with diabetes by providing the HCP with a greater understanding of the specific needs of women with diabetes both preconception and during pregnancy.

Safe moving and handling of patients: an inter-professional approach

A gap in the medical undergraduate curriculum on safe moving and handling of patients was identified, and a project to enhance moving and handling education for undergraduates in various healthcare disciplines was undertaken. A team of nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and e-learning professionals developed a cross-discipline e-learning resource, piloted with medical and nursing students at Queen’s University Belfast. One outcome of the project was the development of a deeper recognition of the common curriculum across healthcare disciplines.

Does vicarious traumatisation affect oncology nurses?:A literature review

It is widely documented that nurses experience work-related stress [Quine, L., 1998. Effects of stress in an NHS trust: a study. Nursing Standard 13 (3), 36-41; Charnley, E., 1999. Occupational stress in the newly qualified staff nurse. Nursing Standard 13 (29), 32-37; McGrath, A., Reid, N., Boore, J., 2003. Occupational stress in nursing. International Journal of Nursing Studies 40, 555-565; McVicar, A., 2003. Workplace stress in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 44 (6), 633-642; Bruneau, B., Ellison, G., 2004. Palliative care stress in a UK community hospital: evaluation of a stress-reduction programme. International Journal of Palliative Nursing 10 (6), 296-304; Jenkins, R., Elliott, P., 2004. Stressors, burnout and social support: nurses in acute mental health settings. Journal of Advanced Nursing 48 (6), 622-631], with cancer nursing being identified as a particularly stressful occupation [Hinds, P.S., Sanders, C.B., Srivastava, D.K., Hickey, S., Jayawardene, D., Milligan, M., Olsen, M.S., Puckett, P., Quargnenti, A., Randall, E.A., Tyc, V., 1998. Testing the stress-response sequence model in paediatric oncology nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28 (5), 1146-1157; Barnard, D., Street, A., Love, A.W., 2006. Relationships between stressors, work supports and burnout among cancer nurses. Cancer Nursing 29 (4), 338-345]. Terminologies used to capture this stress are burnout [Pines, A.M., and Aronson, E., 1988. Career Burnout: Causes and Cures. Free Press, New York], compassion stress [Figley, C.R., 1995. Compassion Fatigue. Brunner/Mazel, New York], emotional contagion [Miller, K.I., Stiff, J.B., Ellis, B.H., 1988. Communication and empathy as precursors to burnout among human service workers. Communication Monographs 55 (9), 336-341] or simply the cost of caring (Figley, 1995). However, in the mental health field such as psychology and counselling, there is terminology used to captivate this impact, vicarious traumatisation. Vicarious traumatisation is a process through which the therapist's inner experience is negatively transformed through empathic engagement with client's traumatic material [Pearlman, L.A., Saakvitne, K.W., 1995a. Treating therapists with vicarious traumatization and secondary traumatic stress disorders. In: Figley, C.R. (Ed.), Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized. Brunner/Mazel, New York, pp. 150-177]. Trauma not only affects individuals who are primarily present, but also those with whom they discuss their experience. If an individual has been traumatised as a result of a cancer diagnosis and shares this impact with oncology nurses, there could be a risk of vicarious traumatisation in this population. However, although Thompson [2003. Vicarious traumatisation: do we adequately support traumatised staff? The Journal of Cognitive Rehabilitation 24-25] suggests that vicarious traumatisation is a broad term used for workers from any profession, it has not yet been empirically determined if oncology nurses experience vicarious traumatisation. This purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of vicarious traumatisation and argue that it should be explored in oncology nursing. The review will highlight that empirical research in vicarious traumatisation is largely limited to the mental health professions, with a strong recommendation for the need to empirically determine whether this concept exists in oncology nursing.