Development of online cancer resources to support pre-registration nurses and allied health professionals.

Cancer rates are increasing, and more people are living with cancer and its consequences. Healthcare students will be caring for people affected by cancer in all clinical contexts. However, pre-registration programmes can include limited cancer education and not all students will have the opportunity for a clinical placement in a cancer setting. This can result in healthcare students feeling unprepared to care for people affected by cancer. To address this need, nine e-learning modules, collectively called The Foundations of Cancer Care, have been developed to support students' knowledge, understanding and confidence about cancer. This article outlines the development and peer review of The Foundations of Cancer Care. The resultant modules are freely available to all those with an Open Athens account or NHS or UK university email address via the NHS Learning Hub (https://learninghub.nhs.uk).

Randomised study of long term outcome after epidural versus non-epidural analgesia during labour.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether epidural analgesia during labour is associated with long term backache. DESIGN: Follow up after randomised controlled trial. Analysis by intention to treat. SETTING: Department of obstetrics and gynaecology at one NHS trust. PARTICIPANTS: 369 women: 184 randomised to epidural group (treatment as allocated received by 123) and 185 randomised to non-epidural group (treatment as allocated received by 133). In the follow up study 151 women were from the epidural group and 155 from the non-epidural group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self reported low back pain, disability, and limitation of movement assessed through one to one interviews with physiotherapist, questionnaire on back pain and disability, physical measurements of spinal mobility. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between groups in demographic details or other key characteristics. The mean time interval from delivery to interview was 26 months. There were no significant differences in the onset or duration of low back pain, with nearly a third of women in each group reporting pain in the week before interview. There were no differences in self reported measures of disability in activities of daily living and no significant differences in measurements of spinal mobility. CONCLUSIONS: After childbirth there are no differences in the incidence of long term low back pain, disability, or movement restriction between women who receive epidural pain relief and women who receive other forms of pain relief.