Continuing professional development

Let us help with your continuing professional development (CPD)

You can complete our prize draw CPD questionnaire to be in with the chance of winning a £50 book token, and you can also write a practice profile based on a CPD article in Nursing Standard. The practice profiles are offered to the Royal College of Nursing for assessment, and a successful submission will receive a certificate of learning to add to your professional portfolio.

Prize draw questionnaire

Every week in Nursing Standard there is a new CPD 'Learning Zone' article on which our multiple choice prize draw is based. You can test yourself and submit your answers online for entry into the weekly prize draw. Go straight to this week's questionnaire

Write a Practice Profile

Learning Zone (CPD) articles in Nursing Standard are designed to test and update your knowledge. We invite you to read and reflect on one of these articles, and then write a practice profile based upon that article, and how it helped improve your professional development. You do not have to be a member of the Royal College of Nursing for your profile to be accepted for assessment.

Read more and submit online

One from the Archive: Learning Zone article	One from the Archive: Art & Science article
NS507 Bakody E (2009) Orthopaedic plaster casting: nurse and patient education. Nursing Standard. 23, 51, 49-56. Date of acceptance: August 7 2008. Summary Orthopaedic casts are used in the management of fractures and to support and correct deformities. The application and removal of plaster casts is a skill requiring knowledge, judgement and sensitivity. Nurses need to have a good working knowledge of the main principles of plaster casting to ensure safety and provide patients with appropriate advice and information about how to care for casts and how to recognise possible complications. Author Eszter Bakody, orthopaedic nurse practitioner and pre-assessment sister, Parkside Hospital, Wimbledon. Keywords Fractures, health and safety, orthopaedic care, plaster casting Want to read more? View the Learning Zone PDF file	Pritchard MJ (2009) Identifying and assessing anxiety in pre-operative patients. Nursing Standard. 23, 51, 35-40. Date of acceptance: July 1 2009. Summary Increasing demands for hospitals to be more efficient mean that patients attending for an operation are generally admitted on the day of surgery. As a result, healthcare professionals have little time to talk to the patient to ascertain his or her wellbeing, to check for any signs of anxiety and ask whether the patient requires further information about the forthcoming procedure. Healthcare professionals should be encouraged to use appropriate interventions to identify and assess anxious patients. Author Michael John Pritchard, advanced nurse practitioner, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Clatterbridge Hospital, Wirral, Merseyside. Keywords Anxiety, assessment tools, interventions, patient information, pre-operative care, surgery Want to read more? View the Art & Science PDF file

One from the Archive: Learning Zone article

One from the Archive: Art & Science article

NS507 Bakody E (2009) Orthopaedic plaster casting: nurse and patient education. Nursing Standard. 23, 51, 49-56. Date of acceptance: August 7 2008.

Summary
Orthopaedic casts are used in the management of fractures and to support and correct deformities. The application and removal of plaster casts is a skill requiring knowledge, judgement and sensitivity. Nurses need to have a good working knowledge of the main principles of plaster casting to ensure safety and provide patients with appropriate advice and information about how to care for casts and how to recognise possible complications.

Author
Eszter Bakody, orthopaedic nurse practitioner and pre-assessment sister, Parkside Hospital, Wimbledon.

Keywords
Fractures, health and safety, orthopaedic care, plaster casting

Want to read more?
View the Learning Zone PDF file

Pritchard MJ (2009) Identifying and assessing anxiety in pre-operative patients. Nursing Standard. 23, 51, 35-40. Date of acceptance: July 1 2009.

Summary
Increasing demands for hospitals to be more efficient mean that patients attending for an operation are generally admitted on the day of surgery. As a result, healthcare professionals have little time to talk to the patient to ascertain his or her wellbeing, to check for any signs of anxiety and ask whether the patient requires further information about the forthcoming procedure. Healthcare professionals should be encouraged to use appropriate interventions to identify and assess anxious patients.

Author
Michael John Pritchard, advanced nurse practitioner, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Clatterbridge Hospital, Wirral, Merseyside.

Keywords
Anxiety, assessment tools, interventions, patient information, pre-operative care, surgery

Want to read more?
View the Art & Science PDF file