Posted 09 December 2019 - 16:35
Posted 09 December 2019 - 16:35
Features
Top 10: The most popular clinical articles of 2019
Reliable and high-quality evidence and practice resources remain essential for safe and effective nursing care. Below are the top ten peer-reviewed evidence and practice articles we published across RCNi journals in 2019.
It is reassuring that those most commonly accessed continue to demonstrate the core elements that cement together high-quality nursing care – leadership, intercultural communication, addressing health inequalities, and clinical skills applied to a broad range of patients and clients, such as skin care.
As we head into the World Health Organization's International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, and commemorate 200 years since Florence Nightingale's birth, these are exactly the key elements we need to showcase and celebrate as fundamental to evolving nursing care.
1. Developing effective nurse leadership skills
This article examines the importance of effective leadership for nurses, patients and healthcare organisations, and outlines some of the theories of leadership such as transformational leadership.
2. Developing the personal qualities required for effective nurse leadership
This article explores four ‘leadership intelligences’ – spiritual, emotional, business or practice, and political – and discusses how understanding these can assist nurses to enhance their leadership skills.
3. Effective intercultural communication in nursing
Nurses are caring for patients in increasingly diverse cultural and linguistic settings. This article provides a guide to effective intercultural communication by discussing three main areas: cultural knowledge, attitudes and feelings, and communication skills.
4. Prevention and management of moisture-associated skin damage
4. Prevention and management of moisture-associated skin damageThis article describes the aetiologies of each of the different types of moisture-associated skin damage, and outlines the nursing interventions required for their prevention and management.
5. Relationship between communication skills and emotional intelligence among nurses
5. Relationship between communication skills and emotional intelligence among nursesNurses’ emotional intelligence affects many of their behavioural skills. Given the importance of communication skills, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and the communication skills of emergency department nurses.
6. Legal implications of pressure injuries: experience of a tissue viability nurse expert
This article describes the processes involved in assessing tissue viability clinical negligence claims, providing examples of evidence that guided decisions and advice on how nurses can protect their organisation from costly litigation.
7. Drug-induced dysphagia and the high-risk effect on people with intellectual disabilities
This article highlights the need for health professionals and care providers to reduce the potential risks and side effects that prescription medications can have in relation to swallowing dysfunction in people with intellectual disabilities.
8. Role of the nurse in identifying and addressing health inequalities
This article aims to improve nurses’ knowledge and understanding of health inequalities. It raises awareness of the important aspect of care, so that nurses can successfully identify and address the health inequalities that they encounter in their practice, thus enabling a holistic approach to patient care.
9. Exploring the implementation of family-witnessed resuscitation in children and young people
This article explores the evidence for and against the practice of family-witnessed resuscitation in children and young people and provides recommendations for healthcare practitioners who are implementing this practice.
10. Development of a hospital early warning score to end ‘escalation fatigue’
The Antrim Area Hospital Early Warning Score is an innovative method of assessing the level of pressure on an acute hospital site. This article explains why it was developed and the issues it sought to address, including ‘escalation fatigue’ among staff because of the normalisation of high alert status
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