From nurse education, clinical, or workforce issues through to healthy living, Nursing Review has it covered.

Does taking statins reduce the risk of dementia as well as cardiovascular disease? This edition’s Clinically Appraised Topic (CAT) looks at the evidence.

Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) looks at whether taking extra omega-3 makes a difference in slowing the progression of dementia.

As our population ages, more and more people are living into old age with multiple long-term conditions. A University of Otago nurse-led randomised controlled trial is looking at whether training in both healthy living and mindfulness can make a difference to these people’s lives.

Venous leg ulcers (VLU) are an ‘orphan disease’ in which nurse researcher Dr Andrew Jull has a longstanding interest. He talks to Nursing Review about his team’s latest VLU research project – Asprin4VLU – his first, and one of New Zealand’s first ever nurse-led, randomised, controlled trials of a drug treatment.

Loma-Linda Tasi got tired of teaching nursing students about Pacific people’s negative health statistics. The nursing lecturer, co-ordinator for year two of Whitireia Community Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Nursing (Pacific), decided she had to start somewhere to make a difference and a good place to begin was with herself and her students.

Is mindfulness clinically effective? Check out this edition’s Critically Appraised Topic (CAT)

Nursing Review talks to paediatrician Cameron Grant about some of the take-home messages around childhood immunisation in the longitudinal Growing Up in New Zealand study.

To glove or not to glove? Is it ‘nobler’ and safer for nurses to increasingly wear gloves when caring for patients? Fiona Cassie finds out the answer from British infection control researcher Dr Jennie Wilson.

Debridement can be simple and slow or quick and complex. FIONA CASSIE finds out from wound care nurse specialist Emil Schmidt some of the ‘whys’ ‘wheres’ and ‘hows’ of simple debridement – and when to call in the experts.

Attempts to have pressure injury data regularly collected and reported as a nationwide quality indicator have been unsuccessful to date. But four district health boards decided not to wait for the rest of the country. FIONA CASSIE finds out about the Northern Region’s successful campaign to reduce harm from pressure injuries. 

This edition's critically appraised topic (CAT) looks at research into a new addition to an established technique to restore a steady rhythm to a rapidly beating heart.

It’s cold season; your nose is running and your throat is sore. CYNTHIA WENSLEY looks at the evidence for zinc as a cold remedy.

The last edition of Nursing Review contained an article called ‘Fad diets: what do dietitians say about the latest crop?’ that looked at some of the latest dietary trends; in particular, the Paleo diet, the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet, the no-sugar approach and the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) approach.

Any diet that bans fruit has to raise eyebrows. The same goes for a diet that advocates lashings of cream and butter with every meal. The demonising of one food group as the source of all dietary evil, or the fixation on another as a saviour, is often the key selling point for the latest fashionable weight loss diet.

Counties Manukau District Health Board is entering its fifth year of successive campaigns to foster community answers to better self-management of long-term conditions (LTC) and fewer hospital admissions. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about the latest campaign, Manaaki Hauora, and about 'Huff and Puff'; just one of the 20 plus projects now underway.

This edition’s critically appraised topic (CAT) looks at how best to reduce the risk of delirium in elderly patients without turning to drugs.

Is one-off advice on pelvic floor exercises enough to keep urinary incontinence at bay? This edition’s critically appraised topic (CAT) looks at whether pelvic floor muscle training makes a difference.

Is a smartphone app more successful in increasing physical activity than setting goals? Step up and check out this edition's critically appraised topic (CAT). 

Fingers may be small but wounds to them can be disproportionately painful and debilitating. FIONA CASSIE seeks first aid advice for nurses from emergency NP Margaret Colligan on crushed fingers and other common finger wounds.

Every year, more than 20,000 claims are made to ACC for burn injuries. Burn clinical nurse specialists Deborah Murray and Jackie Beaumont see many of the worst of them. FIONA CASSIE gets advice from the pair about first aid and management of minor burns for nurses in the community and discovers there is no such thing as a ‘simple’ burn.

Returning Red Cross nurse Donna Collins says the true heroes of fighting Ebola are the national nurses who have lost colleagues, faced eviction by landlords, and have been ostracised by their villages, yet they keep turning up for work each day. Back safely from Sierra Leone, Donna talks to FIONA CASSSIE about the testing, sometimes fearful, but ultimately very satisfying mission to help the Ebola-stricken nation.

As Nursing Review went to press, three nurses in Western hospitals had acquired Ebola after caring for patients originally infected in West Africa. Though the chance of an Ebola victim arriving in New Zealand still remains very slim, both the Ministry of Health and the Infection Control Nurses’ College believe the devastating West African epidemic is a good wake-up call.

MARGARETH BROODKORN takes a look at the chequered history of hand washing and asks whether today's health professionals have progressed that much?

CYNTHIA WENSLEY in this Clinically Appraised Topic (CAT) looks at whether or not enriching tube feeding with immune-boosting nutrients reduces infection.

A free online learning programme to help primary health care nurses meet the growing demands for diabetes care is being offered on a newly launched website.

The effectiveness of a medication to help quit smoking is examined in this edition’s clinically-appraised topic. 

International guidelines aim to counter rise in pressure ulcers