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Large numbers of nursing students and the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to relieve the pressure on UK hospitals to host clinical placements. One hospital innovated by providing a virtual placement online, immediately before an in-person placement. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the participant responses to the online virtual placement.

This was a pilot study evaluated after the placement, including a student survey (25 responses), four semi-structured interviews with students and four with staff in spring 2021.

High levels of approval of the innovation were recorded among both students and staff. Students were pleased to be taught by clinical experts, though some found it difficult to study at home and some found the hours long. High satisfaction levels may reflect the pandemic context: the placement reduced social isolation and the sense of education being interrupted. Participating students were in their final year of study, and the placement took place in the second year of the pandemic, so mutual familiarity and well-developed information technology skills may have made the innovation more acceptable.

The innovation has value and should be maintained post-pandemic to increase mental health in-person placement capacity and scaffold student learning.

This study added new knowledge to understanding about the utility of virtual placements in mental health nursing education.

Although only 12 pages in total length, this latest publication of Aims represents a major achievement, even some sort of milestone. Over the past two years there has been a spate of legislation, a lot of it insisted upon by the trade unions as the price of their support for the Labour Government, which has significantly changed the balance of power in society in general and in industry in particular. There is a large body of opinion which holds that this change in the balance of power has gone so far as to militate against the public interest, even, in some cases, against the interests of the trade union members themselves.

Medical and nursing students are often anxious about communicating with patients with mental health problems, even when they have received general communication skills training. Communication is particularly challenging when patients are compulsorily admitted to hospital. The study reported here sought to explore medical and nursing students' attitudes to this challenge, stimulated by watching a DVD illustrating professional‐patient communications in this situation. Facilitated discussions of the DVD were recorded and the transcripts were thematically analysed. A strong commitment to three underlying principles of patient‐centred care emerged.1. A preference for egalitarian over authoritarian relationships between patients and professionals.2. A preference for empathetic over bureaucratic approaches to patients.3. Respect for patients as autonomous beings.Students seemed less aware of the need for clear and effective communication of information, and some appear confused about patient‐professional boundaries.

Total purchasing in primary care (TPPC) was piloted in the mid‐1990s, first by four “pioneer sites”, and later by over 80 first and second waves of “pilot sites”. Separate evaluations of three of the pioneers show that they faced challenges similar to those experienced by the pilot sites, namely: the need to develop organisations which were effective both internally and, in their relationships with other health‐care agencies, externally; and the difficulties encountered when attempting to change the behaviour of local acute care providers. Although GP fund holding and/or TPPC have had some successes in influencing the pattern of delivery for some elective and community services, the challenge of reducing hospital admissions and lengths of stay remains formidable.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the variety of mechanisms applied since 1991 to engage English and Welsh general practitioners (GPs) in local health services planning and implementation.

Three qualitative case studies.

The paper identifies three types of mechanism: separation, alliance and integration. “Separation” characterises the relationship between most GPs and health authorities during the 1990s; alliance refers to the cooperative arrangements between groups of GPs and health authorities such as GP commissioning pilots, total purchasing, primary care groups and local health groups; integration refers to the integration of most health authority functions with primary care organisations (primary care trusts – PCTs and local health boards). Alliance models appear to have been most successful in promoting GP engagement in local planning and implementation; the necessarily bureaucratic nature of PCTs an local health board has alienated many.

As yet, the National Health Service (NHS) lacks organisational arrangements which permit GPs a primarily clinical focus while ensuring that their knowledge and advice is available to those carrying out administrative functions. Practice‐based commissioning may provide a means of improving such arrangements.

The paper combines a number of features in health services and policy research. Few studies of primary health care organisations in the mid‐2000s have been undertaken; the Welsh NHS is very under‐researched; organisational analysis of the NHS is more often based on analysis from the outside rather than grounded in the felt experience of NHS personnel; and the historical perspective is often neglected.

This paper seeks to summarize the development of a systematic approach to assessing executive potential by studying a major medical device manufacturer that aimed at substantially increasing its pipeline of candidates for top executive positions through programs designed to identify and assess high potential leaders.

The study illustrates a range of issues pertinent to developing integrated approaches to succession planning, including identification of criteria suitable to the culture of the organization and its strategic challenges, sound assessment of candidates and integration of program efforts with development needs of high potential managers. The approach developed in the case provided consistent criteria for assessing leadership potential in a global corporation and relied on methods derived from assessment centers.

Events of the case led to the development of systematic and integrated processes promoting succession planning and executive development. The program has been well received by high potential managers and seems to have yielded benefits in retention of top executive talent.

Since program development, 64 percent of candidates nominated with high degrees of confidence have been promoted and 70 percent have experienced either functional or cross‐business‐unit moves – compared with a 20 percent promotion rate and a 38 percent attrition rate for individuals not participating in the process.

The paper discusses the events that led to the development of systematic and integrated processes promoting succession planning and executive development.

Disproportionately high numbers of young people in the British criminal justice system also have mental health problems. Relevant services often struggle to meet such complex needs, particularly as children become adults. The purpose of this paper is to discover the qualities of services valued by such young offenders.

Semi-structured interviews with 15 young offenders with mental health problems.

The young people valued continuity and sufficient time to develop trust in staff. From staff who showed concern and respect, and whose approach was informal, young people could accept help, advice and, when necessary, confrontation. They gained insight into themselves and how to modify their behaviour; knowledge about opportunities for work and education; and help with life skills.

The sample was small and likely to have been skewed towards those who are readiest to engage with services. Young people's views were not compared with their histories or actual service use.

Other research indicates that helping relationships that demonstrate the qualities that client's value have more successful outcomes than those primarily reflecting professionals’ values. In a time of resource constraints, it seems unlikely that staff will be able to provide more contact and continuity than at present. This would be a precondition of working in accordance with the values of the young people reported here, especially when bridging the discontinuities between children's and adult services.

Young offenders with mental health problems are rarely given a voice, particularly their views of what helps them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine perceptions of local service change and concepts of change amongst participants in a UK nationwide randomised controlled trial of informal, structured, reciprocated, multidisciplinary peer review with feedback to promote quality improvement: the National Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Resources and Outcomes Project (NCROP).

The paper takes the form of a qualitative study, involving semi‐structured interviews with 43 hospital respiratory consultants, nurses and general managers at 24 intervention and 11 control NCROP sites. Thematic analysis resulted in adoption of Joss and Kogan's quality indicators as an analytic framework.

The paper finds that peer review was associated with positive changes, which may lead to sustained service improvement. Differences existed in perceptions of change among clinicians and between clinicians and managers. “Generic changes” (e.g. changes in interpersonal relations or cultural changes), were often not perceived as change.

The study highlights the significance of generic change in evaluations of change processes. Most participants were clinicians limiting inter‐professional comparisons. Some clinical staff failed to recognise changes they accomplished or their significance, perceiving change differently to others within their professional group. These findings have implications for policy and research. They should be considered when developing frameworks for assessing quality improvements and staff engagement with change.

This is the first qualitative study exploring participants' experience of peer review for quality improvement in healthcare. The study adds to previous research into UK health service improvement, which has had a more restricted focus on inter‐professional differences.

ONE area of business to which Work Study could profitably devote some attention is that of planned printing. Even in the second half of the twentieth‐century it is a subject of which many people seem quite unaware, although efficiency‐conscious companies could well find it to be a source of productivity and profit.