Although the UK is a multicultural society, racially minoritised populations are often under-represented in healthcare research owing to the significant barriers to participation they experience.1 Under-representation of racially minoritised groups in research impacts the quality of evidence and applicability of findings to these groups. This, in part, explains why these communities are more likely to report poorer health and poorer experiences of using healthcare services than their White counterparts,2 given that their cultural and spiritual preferences are often ignored.3 This commentary will explore some of the persistent multifaceted barriers and the role of research ethics committees (RECs) in enabling inclusive healthcare research among racially minoritised communities, given their key responsibility in building public confidence, ensuring ethical conduct and safeguarding research participants. In addition, patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) can complement the roles of RECs in embracing diversity in healthcare...

Vital signs are essential markers of a patient’s physiological state, and these include heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiration rate and level of consciousness. Consequently, accurate assessment, documentation and interpretation of these markers are vital for early detection of patients’ deterioration and timely intervention.1 2

Take home messages

A pilot creative health placement for undergraduate student nurses at a UK...

Stroke nursing is widely recognised for its significant role across the whole multidisciplinary stroke care pathway.1 Ensuring that stroke nurses are equipped with the latest stroke specialist knowledge and skills is fundamental in providing high-quality and safe stroke care.1 2 However, in spite of the provision of nationally-recognised, quality-assured training and education programmes, for example, the Stroke-Specific Education Framework in the...

Sepsis is a life-threatening response to infection and remains a critical challenge with high morbidity and mortality rates. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines serve as a cornerstone for sepsis management and are pivotal in standardising care. Taylor et al’s article1 scrutinises the real-world implications of updated SSC antibiotic timing recommendations2 and offers critical insights into the practical effects of the revised antibiotic timing guidelines.

Climate change is increasingly harming human health. Extreme weather events cause devastation, low crop yields and failure, contributing to food insecurity, economic hardship and resource shortages. Rising temperatures also increase the spread of infectious diseases and epidemics. Globally, countries are using healthcare services as an initial method of addressing these challenges.2 However, healthcare systems are major...

Although care for low-risk births in the Netherlands is primarily conducted by midwives, the use of consultant-led care has been increasing for a variety of indications, leading to a high patient burden for consultants. The induction of labour (IOL) of late-term pregnancies has historically been an indication for consultant-led care. This study by Velthuijs et...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a significant public health issue, with diet playing a crucial role in its management.1 Food insecurity, defined as the lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life, exacerbates this condition, making effective dietary interventions critical.2 Food-as-medicine programmes, which provide medically tailored meals and nutritional education, aim to improve health outcomes for individuals with chronic diseases.2 The study...

People living with Long Covid often find the complexity of navigating health services difficult. The nurse’s role is to support patients in this context. This includes ensuring they are sufficiently informed about what Long Covid is. The specialist nurses recommended the British Heart Foundation’s online resource - Long Covid: Symptoms, tests and treatments: https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/coronavirus-and-your-health/long-covid%23whatdoesfatiguefeel.

Information about Long Covid is also available via Long Covid Physio: https://longcovid.physio/

Every person...

As a result of the mass scale of production of plastics since the 1950s, microplastics, defined as particles 1 Microplastics have been linked to reproductive toxicity in both cell culture...

This qualitative study explores the experiences of healthcare staff in creating safer cancer care environments for ethnic minority patients. People from ethnic minority groups, who face an increased risk of safety events, often encounter barriers such as language and cultural differences.1 The research highlights the diverse backgrounds of ethnic communities involved, emphasising the critical need for culturally competent care within global healthcare systems....

A previous study1 found a correlation between participation in social networks and positive outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities, including increased self-esteem, self-confidence and mental well-being. However, individuals with intellectual disabilities have been found to experience high rates of loneliness and severe difficulties in forming and maintaining friendships.2 Previous research has explored the subjective experiences of people with intellectual disabilities in both romantic and friendship relationships. However, it is crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding of...

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a widely recognised and well-established method of qualitative inquiry designed to explore personal experience in detail, focusing on participants’ understandings and sense-making.1 In this article, we explain what distinguishes an IPA case study from a typical IPA study and highlight the strengths and limitations of this approach. While IPA is frequently used with small samples, single-participant IPA case studies can offer unique insights into deeply personal or rare experiences.

Patients with colorectal cancer face treatments that can bring significant financial burden, physical strain and relationship changes which can affect quality of life. These stressors may be mitigated by coping ability, particularly resourcefulness, which reflects the ability of the patient to independently perform daily tasks and seek help when needed. The patient experience and need for care can affect caregivers as well, leading to caregiver burden: an accumulation of the negative responses to the caregiver that result from providing care, including disrupted schedules, financial and...

The rate of impaired metabolic regulation is rising among premenopausal women, characterised by decreased insulin sensitivity, increased fasting blood sugar levels and abnormal lipid profiles.1 This metabolic dysfunction is linked to the...

Long Covid is an emerging long-term condition resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterised by a wide array of persistent symptoms, it is heterogenous in nature with fluctuations and experiences of relapse.2 As a relatively...

Tobacco consumption is a significant preventable cause of death worldwide. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of tobacco consumption among Cambodian individuals aged 15–49, utilising data from the 2021–2022 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS).

Cross-sectional study based on secondary analysis of the 2021–2022 CDHS.

Nationwide household survey conducted across urban and rural areas of Cambodia.

A total of 28 321 respondents aged 15–49 years were included in the analysis.

Tobacco consumption categorised as no use, smoking tobacco, smokeless tobacco and dual use. Descriptive statistics, ² tests and multinomial logistic regression were used to assess associations between background characteristics and tobacco consumption, with ‘no consumption’ as the reference category. Statistical significance was set at p

Among the 28 321 respondents (68.8% female), 91.8% were non-users of tobacco (reference group), while 6.9% reported smoking (predominantly males; adjusted relative risk ratios (ARRR)=39.29, 95% CI 29.70 to 51.96, p

While Cambodia has made notable progress in reducing tobacco consumption, the persistent challenges highlighted by the prevalence of smoking, particularly among specific demographics, indicate the need for targeted public health interventions.

To assess the association between the maternal continuum of healthcare and child immunisation in East Africa using propensity score matching (PSM).

Cross-sectional study using Demographic and Health Survey data.

This study was conducted in East African countries.

This study included a weighted sample of 13 488 women with children aged 12–23 months.

Child immunisation was the outcome variable of this study.

The PSM estimates indicate that the average treatment effect on the treated for complete child immunisation was 0.0583, meaning that children of mothers who received a complete maternal continuum of care had a 5.83% higher probability of being fully immunised compared with children of mothers with incomplete care. Expressed relative to the treated group’s mean, this corresponds to a 7.48% increase. Additionally, our results indicated that the population average treatment effect was 0.0629. This means that, on average, a complete continuum of maternal healthcare increases the probability of full child immunisation by approximately 6.29% across the entire population.

The study highlights that children whose mothers receive comprehensive maternal healthcare are more likely to complete their childhood immunisations. This finding underscores the need to integrate immunisation services into maternal healthcare programmes to enhance vaccination coverage and promote better child health. To maximise this connection, improving access to maternal healthcare, especially in underserved regions, is crucial, along with ensuring that immunisation is a regular part of maternal care.

The ‘time-limited trial’ for patients with critical illness is a collaborative plan made by clinicians, patients and families to use life-sustaining therapies for a defined duration. After this period, the patient’s response to therapy informs decisions about continuing recovery-focused care or transitioning to comfort-focused care. The promise of time-limited trials to help navigate the uncertain limits and benefits of life-sustaining therapies has been extensively discussed in the palliative and critical care literature, leading to their dissemination into clinical practice. However, we have little evidence to guide clinicians in how to conduct time-limited trials, leading to substantial variation in how and why they are currently used. The overall purpose of this study is to characterise the features of an optimal time-limited trial through a rich understanding of how they are currently shaping critical care delivery.

We are conducting an observational, multicentre, focused ethnography of time-limited trials in patients with acute respiratory failure receiving invasive mechanical ventilation in six intensive care units (ICUs) within five hospitals across the US. Study participants include patients, their surrogate decision makers and ICU clinicians. We are pursuing two complementary analyses of this rich data set using the open-ended, inductive approach of constructivist grounded theory and, in parallel, the structured, deductive methods of systems engineering. This cross-disciplinary, tailored approach intentionally preserves the tension between time-limited trials’ conceptual formulation and their heterogeneous, real-world use.

This study has been reviewed and approved by the University of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board (IRB) as the single IRB (ID: 2022-1681; initial approval date 23 January 2023). Our findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentations, and summaries for the public.

NCT06042621.