The facilities offered by Royal Oldham Hospital`s accident and emergency department are set to improve, after proposals from professionals working in A&E Doctors jobs and those in A&E Nursing jobs were given the green light.

As part of the plans, separate A&E facilities will be designed especially for young people, while it is hoped that waiting times will reduce once more space is created within the department.

Roughly 94,000 patients pass through the hospital`s A&E ward each year, while 70 under-16s are seen on average each day.

The latest investment project, worth £3.75 million, is part of the Healthy Futures and Making it Better scheme.

This has aimed to transfer, develop and centralise a range of specialist services at the hospital.

Commenting on the plans, Dr Nick Gili, A&E consultant and clinical director at the Royal Oldham Hospital, said: "The developments will also enable us to plan and deliver better urgent care in partnership with our local GPs, GP commissioners and other providers who we have strong local partnerships with."

Copyright Press Association 2012

An NHS boss has called for a shift of focus among people training for careers in nursing jobs .

Sir Keith Pearson, currently chair of the NHS Confederation, urged trainee nurses to recognise the shift from curative to palliative care.

Pearson is about to take up a new role as chair of Health Education England, with the responsibility of overseeing nurse education.

Speaking to Nursing Times, he urged new recruits to accept they were more likely to "care" rather than "cure".

He said that shifting focus in this way would help to boost standards on wards and cut student attrition rates.

His comments came ahead of a major speech to the Royal College of Nursing and in the wake of a major review into patient dignity.

Pearson said: "We must ensure that the workforce of tomorrow is trained to recognise the shift from curative to palliative care.

"Many people who go into medicine and nursing perhaps go in with real hope that they will be for the majority of their time involved in both caring and curing."

Copyright Press Association 2012

Up to 40 frontline nursing jobs are set to be created, and so care will be improved, thanks to a scheme which gives community nurse team leaders and ward sisters more time.

Some £800,000 will be invested by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust on training and recruitment, which will enable community nurse team leaders and ward sisters to spend more of their time supervising, leading and managing patient care and staff.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has got behind the move and praised the trust for being a leader in the area.

Acting Director of Nursing at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, Diane Murphy, said: "Investing in ward sisters and community nurse team leaders will enable them to concentrate on improving the high quality care we provide to our patients.

"They will achieve this by having more time to manage their staff and patients."

Regional Director for RCN Northern Region, Glenn Turp, said: "The ward sisters will have clear managerial and supervisory responsibilities for both the clinical teams and the patients they serve.

"This clear accountability will be welcomed by both patients and the clinical teams, because it will deliver better leadership, better care, and also means that when patients or staff have an issue, there is a clear "go-to" person to get it resolved."

Copyright Press Association 2012

An NHS respiratory physiotherapist has urged healthcare professionals working in nursing jobs to learn a breathing technique for asthma treatment.

Gillian Austin, specialist respiratory physiotherapist for Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, said the Buteyko breathing technique (BBT) could help ease the symptoms of asthma patients.

Austin is also president of the Buteyko Breathing Association, and uses the technique during her everyday work with the health service.

Nurses interested in learning the technique can book a place on a course run by the association. The courses are part of the organisation`s efforts to see wider NHS use of BBT.

However, Austin made sure to clarify the impact patients can expect from the treatment in a speech to the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists (ARNS) annual conference.

She said: "The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia wrongly mentions that proponents of the BBT believe it to be a cure for asthma. This is certainly not what practitioners trained by the UK-based BBA would say, who prefer to take a more pragmatic approach to how the technique has its effect on asthma symptoms."

The technique sees patients instructed to breathe slowly and deeply, encouraging them to breathe through their noses to aid airflow.

Copyright Press Association 2012