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The purpose of this article is to clarify the distinction between research and audit, and propose appropriate regulatory arrangements for audit and related activities.

The methods used were literature reviews and conceptual analysis.

Research and audit overlap in various ways, but differ in terms of their purposes and the risks likely to be encountered and distinguished, along with a third related category of activities called quality improvement.

Appropriate regulatory arrangements are proposed for audit and quality improvement activities. Using these should ensure appropriate ethical standards and risk management, while avoiding the time‐consuming over‐regulation that occurs when projects are unnecessarily submitted to the ethical scrutiny appropriate for research projects.

Gives suggestions and information that could be of great value in spreading service improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to report an evaluation of a leading-with-compassion recognition scheme and to present a new framework for compassion derived from the data.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews, a focus group and thematic data analysis. Content analysis of 1,500 nominations of compassionate acts.

The scheme highlighted that compassion towards staff and patients was important. Links to the wider well-being strategies of some of the ten organisations involved were unclear. Awareness of the scheme varied and it was introduced in different ways. Tensions included the extent to which compassion should be expected as part of normal practice and whether recognition was required, association of the scheme with the term leadership, and the risk of portraying compassion as something separate, rather than an integral part of the culture. A novel model of compassion was developed from the analysis of 1,500 nominations.

The number of respondents in the evaluation phase was relatively low. The model of compassion contributes to the developing knowledge base in this area.

The model of compassion can be used to demonstrate what compassion “looks like”, and what is expected of staff to work compassionately.

A unique model of compassion derived directly from descriptions of compassionate acts which identifies the impact of compassion on staff.

The purpose of this paper is to examine attitudes towards prisoner-to-prisoner bullying, further considering the association between attitudes and characteristics of the prison environment thought to promote prisoner bullying.

Questionnaires were administered to 423 adult male prisoners and 195 correctional officers from three prisons in Canada. Participants completed the Prison Bullying Scale and the Prison Environmental Scale.

Convergence in attitudes between prisoners and officers were noted although staff were more likely to consider bullies to be skilled, whereas prisoners were more likely than officers to feel that victims of bullying should be supported. Associations between attitudes supportive of bullying and environmental characteristics likely to promote prison bullying were found primarily among prisoners; the strongest predictors of such attitudes were poor relationships (e.g. prisoner to officer; prisoner-to-prisoner).

The study highlights the importance of the social aspect of the prison environment. It further provides an outline of two measures that could have utility in evaluating interventions designed to reduce prisoner-to-prisoner bullying.

Interventions into prisoner-to-prisoner bullying should attend to the wider environment and not focus solely on individual pathology approaches. A “whole prison” approach to intervention should be adopted, with recognition that officers and prisoners are part of the community. A focus on the perceived relationships between all those in this community requires consideration, with a community centred approach recommended for intervention. A concentrated effort is needed on evaluating and publishing interventions into prisoner-to-prisoner bullying.

The study is the first to examine attitudes in a combined sample of prisoners and officers and focuses on the role of the wider prison environment. It also utilises a sample from three prisons as opposed to focusing on a single establishment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of brokerage as a vehicle for integrating research and practice within the mentor role in the Practitioner Research: Older People Programme.

The main component is a reflective analysis of the experience of mentoring three practitioners working within an NHS acute hospital environment.

Mentors played a key role integrating research into the practitioner ' s work environment as well as supporting achievement of the programme objectives. Personal reflection highlighted four components: being a research advisor; supporting the practitioner; quality assuring the process; and championing practitioner-research. A key element linking each of these components was that of being a knowledge broker, which accorded with the concept of “boundary-spanning”, whereby the practitioners fulfilled a new role of being both practitioners and researchers. Mentors adopted different approaches, which were partly influenced by geographical proximity and their relative position in the partner organisation.

Mentors fulfil a crucial role brokering the worlds of research and practice and need to be able to tailor their support to individual needs.

The notion of brokerage as a way of integrating the practitioner-researcher role is a useful way to conceptualise the mentor role.

Reports on a study comparing the performance of four digital reference services: Ask Bob; Ask a Librarian; Ask Zach and IPL Youth Ask a Question. Posing as a primary seven pupil in a Scottish school (aged 10 to 11), ten questions were submitted to each of the four services. Findings show a varying degree of quality in the services used. The results certainly suggest that improvements in the design of the question form and services geared towards certain sections of society, such as children in particular, would improve the nature of the service offered. Enhancements would exploit the potential to provide instruction in information searching as well as encourage greater use of the Web.

WHY ARE THEY neglected or forgotten, those minor (sometimes nearly major) novelists of the first two decades of this century? They have far more than period interest; some of the novels are, in fact, historical, with a theme shaped by historical events. The novelists were all sound craftswomen, scrupulous and professional, having three excellent, even essential talents: that of telling a tale, that of creating character and presenting it in action and dialogue, and that of indicating background. They none of them wrote to order or in a set pattern to be repeated in the next novel.

The literature tends to use ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’ interchangeably, creating uncertainty about the mental health of asylum seekers. However, asylum seekers occupy a unique position in British society which differentiates them from people with refugee status and which may have implications for their mental health. For example, ‘asylum seekers’ are supported and accommodated in dispersal areas under the National Asylum Support Service and they are not entitled to work. This mixed‐methods study investigated asylum seekers' symptoms of psychological distress, using mental health screening questionnaires (N = 29) and asylum seekers' subjective experiences of the asylum process, its potential impacts on their mental health, and participants' suggestions for tackling mental health needs, using in‐depth interviews (N = 8). Asylum seekers, refugees and practitioners working with asylum seekers were consulted from the outset regarding the cultural sensitivity of the measures used. Given the potential limitations of using ‘idioms of distress’ across cultures, interview data provided rich descriptive accounts which helped locate the mental health needs that the asylum seekers experienced in the specificities of each participant's social context. Asylum seekers originated from 13 countries. The results revealed that psychological distress is common among asylum seekers (for example anxiety and post‐traumatic stress), but so are post‐migratory living difficulties (for example accommodation, discrimination, worry about family back home, not being allowed to work). They also report mixed experiences of health and social care services. These results suggest that asylum seekers' unique social position may affect their mental health. Implications for practice are presented and potential limitations highlighted.

WHILE there is no doubt that the system of issuing books at “net” prices is of great benefit to booksellers, there is also no doubt that, unless care is taken, it is a serious drain upon a limited book‐purchasing income. A few years ago the position had become so serious that conferences were held with a view to securing the exemption of Public Libraries from the “net” price. The attempt, as was perhaps to be expected, failed. Since that time, the system has been growing until, at the present time, practically every non‐fictional book worth buying is issued at a “net price.”