News items that focus on evidence based practice
This theme explores what it means to practise in line with best available evidence. It highlights evidence based practice guidelines, research and other tools and updates on evidence based techniques and processes from across the UK. International content from credible resources is also included.
Cochrane Library
This study aimed to determine the efficacy of antibiotics in treating children with prolonged wet cough (excluding children with bronchiectasis or other known underlying respiratory illness) and to assess risk of harm due to adverse events.
Cochrane Library
Researchers have suggested that omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids from oily fish benefit cardiovascular health. This study finds that there is evidence that taking omega‐3 capsules does not reduce heart disease, stroke or death.
Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin
This review notes a lack of robust evidence on benefit of long-term opioids in management of chronic pain. The risk of harm from opioids increases significantly above a dose equivalent to 120 mg/day of oral morphine highlighting the need for regular reviews of the effect of opioid treatment.
NHS Choices
The study was carried out by researchers from University of Tsukuba in Japan. 36 healthy young adults and asked them to do 10 minutes of gentle exercise on an exercise bike. They then gave the participants a memory test. The study was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PNAS.
NHS Choices
Canadian researchers investigated the links between alcohol and cannabis use and performance on various tests of brain function in 3,826 school pupils over 4 years, starting at age 12 to 13. They found teens who used cannabis performed less well, especially in tests of memory and impulse control.
NICE guideline
This guideline covers decision-making in people 16 years and over who may lack capacity now or in the future. It aims to help health and social care practitioners support people to make their own decisions where they have the capacity to do so. It also helps practitioners to keep people who lack capacity at the centre of the decision-making process.
NICE guideline
This guideline covers renal replacement therapy (dialysis and transplantation) and conservative management for people with chronic kidney disease stages 4 and 5. It aims to improve quality of life by making recommendations on planning, starting and switching treatments, and coordinating care.
NIHR Signal
Less than half of NHS staff surveyed said they were routinely informed that a child has learning disabilities through a dedicated flagging system on admission. This research shows the frequent lack of well-embedded local policies to support children with learning disabilities in general hospitals and the current variation in practice.
NIHR signal
Adults aged 16 to 44 years are more likely to attend emergency departments for non-urgent presentations than older adults. They were more than three times more likely to present for non-urgent reasons than those over 65 years.
NIHR signal
Negative pressure wound dressings are neither more nor less effective than standard wound dressings for severe open fractures of the lower leg. Any difference between groups was neither clinically important nor statistically significant.
SIGN guideline
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is associated with many cardiac arrhythmias, with wide-ranging clinical consequences. This guideline provides evidence-based recommendations for the management of cardiac arrest and the arrhythmias associated with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), chronic CHD and cardiac surgery.
