There is an absence of high quality published studies investigating interventions to protect nurses from musculoskeletal injuries and pain. Further research (including randomised controlled trials) is needed to identify interventions that may reduce the high rates of injury and pain among nurses.

Opportunities for injury prevention might include promoting injury-prevention measures more vigorously among players of Pacific Island ethnicity, ensuring injured players are fully rehabilitated before returning to play, reducing the effects of ground hardness through ground preparation and stricter enforcement of the laws relating to foul play.

A large amount of quality of life (QoL) information has been and is being collected in the oncology setting but it is unclear how such data influence decisions about the management of individual patients. A questionnaire designed specifically for the study was mailed to 260 senior oncologists to investigate how QoL data are being used outside the context of cancer clinical trials; replies were received from 154 (59%). Approximately 80% believed QoL information should be collected prior to the commencement of treatment, but less than 50% actually did so. Similarly, less than 50% assessed QoL as a method of monitoring the responses to treatment even when the treatment goal was palliation. The barriers to collecting such data were time and resource constraints, perceived lack of an appropriate instrument and a belief that QoL assessments were unnecessary. Other than making a subjective assessment based on examination and history, 73 (47%) used either standardized questionnaires or a system derived in their unit to assess the QoL of their patients. Given an appropriate instrument the majority believed that QoL data could be collected on a routine basis. The main barriers to collecting QoL data are logistic and the challenge remains to develop a method of collecting and analysing QoL information in a manner which enhances decision making.

BackgroundIssues related to renal replacement therapy in elderly people with end stage kidney disease (ESKD) are complex. There is inadequate empirical data related to: decision-making by older populations, treatment experiences, implications of dialysis treatment and treatment modality on quality of life, and how these link to expectations of ageing.Study populationParticipants for this study were selected from a larger quantitative study of dialysis and predialysis patients aged 65 years or older recruited from three nephrology services across New Zealand. All participants had reached chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 5 and had undergone dialysis education but had not started dialysis or recently started dialysis within the past 6 months.MethodologySerial qualitative interviews were undertaken to explore the decision-making processes and subsequent treatment experiences of patients with ESKD.Analytical approach: A framework method guided the iterative process of analysis. Decision-making codes were generated within NVivo software and then compared with the body of the interviews.ResultsInterviews were undertaken with 17 participants. We observed that decision-making was often a fluid process, rather than occurring at a single point in time, and was heavily influenced by perceptions of oneself as becoming old, social circumstances, life events and health status.LimitationsThis study focuses on participants' experiences of decision-making about treatment and does not include perspectives of their nephrologists or other members of the nephrology team.ConclusionsOlder patients often delay dialysis as an act of self-efficacy. They often do not commit to a dialysis decision following predialysis education. Delaying decision-making and initiating dialysis were common. This was not seen by participants as a final decision about therapy. Predialysis care and education should be different for older patients, who will delay decision-making until the time of facing obvious uraemic symptoms, threatening blood tests or paternalistic guidance from their nephrologist.Trial registration numberAustralasian Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN 12611000024943; results.

BackgroundThe number of elderly people over the age of 65 commencing dialysis in NZ has increased by almost 400% in the past decade. Few data are available about health related outcomes and survival on dialysis in the elderly to help the individual, their family, clinicians and health planners with decision-making.Methods/designThis study will provide the first comprehensive longitudinal survey of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and other patient centred outcomes for individuals aged ≥65 years on, or eligible for, dialysis therapy and will link these data to survival outcomes. Data collected by yearly structured interviews with participants will be linked to co-morbidity data, health service use, and laboratory information collected from health records, and analysed with respect to HRQOL and survival. The information obtained will inform the delivery of dialysis services in New Zealand and facilitate improved decision-making by individuals, their family and clinicians, about the appropriateness and impact of dialysis therapy on subsequent health and survival.DiscussionResults from this study will make possible more informed decision-making by future elderly patients and their families as they contemplate renal replacement therapy. Results will also allow health professionals to more accurately describe the impact of dialysis therapy on quality of life and outcomes for patients.Trial registrationACTRN12611000024943.