The MHI-5 has comparable psychometric performance to the GHQ-12, and can be used to measure and compare mental health in defined populations. Operational advantages of the MHI-5 over the GHQ-12 are that it is in the public domain, is part of a general health measure (SF-36) and is shorter.

What nurses commonly describe as 'scraps' are defined as the personalized recordings of information that is routinely made on any available piece of paper (hence scraps) or in small notebooks. The use of scraps is common in practice and has been noted in research from across the globe. Drawing on an empirical study it is argued that scraps are a unique combination of personal and professional knowledge that informs the delivery of care. The overall aim of the study was to discover how nurses define and communicate information about patients and the delivery of care to each other on an elderly care unit. The processes by which information was constructed and the organizational structure and interactions that influenced this were also identified. The research design was an ethnographic one that involved: observations of formal nursing end of shift reports (23 handovers) and informal interactions between nurses (146 hours); interviews (n + 34) with registered nurses, student nurses and nursing auxiliaries; and analysis of written records. Data were collected from five acute elderly care wards at a district general hospital in the south of England. A grounded theory analysis was undertaken which revealed that scraps may have a significant role in the communication of information and the delivery of care. Therefore a categorization of scraps within three main themes was undertaken. First, the analysis revealed the processes involved in the construction of scraps. Second, the content and role of scraps in influencing the delivery of care was exposed. Finally, the potentially confidential nature of scraps and consequent problems of storage and disposal was recognized. The findings are discussed in relation to a suggested model of the interrelationship between paperwork, scraps, handovers and the delivery of nursing care. It is concluded that scraps are significant in facilitating nursing care and that this should be recognized in research, education and practice.

Objectives.To assess whether the 'big ve' personality traits are related to health behaviour among British older people.Design. The NEO Five Factor Inventory, together with questions on medical problems, perceived health status, positive health behaviours, and frequency of visits to general practitioners were administered to people aged between 75 and 84 years.Method. Fifty people (21 men and 29 women) were interviewed, drawn from four GP lists in Southampton. Results.Neuroticism was associated with a number of reported medical problems, negatively perceived health status and frequency of visits to the GP. Extraversion was associated with positive health behaviours. Openness to experience and agreeableness were associated with positive health perceptions. There were some striking differences between associations found within the male and female groups. Agreeable women reported fewer medical problems and less frequent visits to the GP than antagonistic women, whereas conscientious men reported more positive health perceptions and more visits to the GP than non-conscientious men. Conclusion.Since associations are evident for each of the personality traits, all of the 'big ve' personality traits should be included in research on health behaviour to investigate their relevance for clinical practice.

This paper explores the role of nursing interaction within the context of handovers and seeks to identify the clinical discourses used by registered nurses, student nurses and care assistants in acute elderly care wards, to determine their influence on the delivery of patient care. The study design involved an ethnographic approach to data collection which involved: observations of formal nursing end of shift reports (23 handovers) and informal interactions between nurses (146 hours); interviews (n = 34) with registered nurses, student nurses and care assistants; and analysis of written nursing records. A grounded theory analysis was undertaken. Data were collected from five acute elderly care wards at a district general hospital in the south of England. Results from this empirical study indicate that handovers were formulaic, partial, cryptic, given at high speed, used abbreviations and jargon, required socialized knowledge to interpret, prioritized biomedical accounts and emphasized physical aspects of care. Patients' resuscitation status was highly salient to all grades of nurse. Doing 'paperwork' was accorded less status and priority than patient care, and was regarded as excessively time consuming. Despite this, there was evidence of repetition in nursing documents. Moreover, the delivery of clinical nursing appeared to be guided by personal records rather than formal records.

Previous studies have identified that spiritual beliefs contribute to psychological well-being (PWB) in older people, but limited research has considered the effects of spirituality on PWB when physical health deteriorates and people become frail. We recruited 233 British participants from warden-controlled retirement housing to complete interviewer-administered questionnaires. Results showed that, after we controlled for marital status, age, education, other health problems, and gender, degree of frailty had a negative effect on PWB. Spirituality was also a significant predictor of PWB and moderated the negative effects of frailty on PWB. Therefore, this study suggests that spirituality is a resource in maintaining PWB, and that the use of this resource is more significant for individuals with greater levels of frailty.

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This study aimed to develop a religious coping measure for Iranians comparable to Pargament's RCOPE scale. A group of university students (N = 185) completed the research measures. The findings of this study demonstrated that the religious coping scale developed for use with Iranians had five factors comprising religious practice, benevolent reappraisal, negative feelings towards God, passive and active religious coping. The study also showed that the different scales of religious coping had good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and construct validity. The results indicated that Iranian students used positive religious coping methods more frequently than negative strategies. The present research also indicated a significant association between the dimensions of positive religious coping, such as religious practice and psychological well-being. The results suggest that this scale may be useful to the researchers interested in religious coping within Islamic context.

This paper reports a qualitative study that used narrative analysis to explore how social support helps many armed-services veterans cope with traumatic memories. The analysis was carried out on two levels, that of narrative form (level of narrative coherence), argued to be indicative of reconciliation, and narrative content (themes of social support), which allowed exploration of the types of social support experienced by veterans with coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Ten British male Second World War veterans were interviewed regarding their war experiences, presence of traumatic memories, and experiences of social support from comrades, family and society. Different patterns of support were qualitatively related to coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Veterans with coherent narratives were no less likely to have experienced traumatic events than those with reconciled or incoherent narratives, but they reported more positive perceptions of their war experience and of the war's outcomes, more positive experiences of communication with family in later life, and more positive perceptions of societal opinion. The results are discussed in relation to how veterans can be supported by family and friends to reconcile their traumatic memories, thus to lessen the burden in later life when vital support resources may be unavailable.