Developing a Social, Cultural and Economic Report Card for a Regional Industrial Harbour.

Report cards are increasingly used to provide ongoing snap-shots of progress towards specific ecosystem health goals, particularly in coastal regions where planners need to balance competing demands for coastal resources from a range of industries. While most previous report cards focus on the biophysical components of the system, there is a growing interest in including the social and economic implications of ecosystem management to provide a greater social-ecological system understanding. Such a report card was requested on the Gladstone Harbour area in central Queensland, Australia. Gladstone Harbour adjoins the southern Great Barrier Reef, and is also a major industrial and shipping port. Balancing social, economic and environmental interests is therefore of great concern to the regional managers. While environmental benchmarking procedures are well established within Australia (and elsewhere), a method for assessing social and economic performance of coastal management is generally lacking. The key aim of this study was to develop and pilot a system for the development of a report card relating to appropriate cultural, social and economic objectives. The approach developed uses a range of multicriteria decision analysis methods to assess and combine different qualitative and quantitative measures, including the use of Bayesian Belief Networks to combine the different measures and provide an overall quantitative score for each of the key management objectives. The approach developed is readily transferable for purposes of similar assessments in other regions.

Effects of advanced practitioners' learning in one hospital.

A master of science degree course in advanced practice (health and social care) was launched at the University of Salford in 2005 to prepare students for advanced practice roles as part of a workforce modernisation strategy for the north west of England. The development needs of qualified advanced practitioners (APs) and the effects of their roles on service outcomes are difficult to capture; therefore, a study was undertaken to evaluate the longer term effects of the programme and address some of these gaps in knowledge. This article reports the results of the study, which focused on the effects of education in the workplace and found that APs apply their learning in the workplace and can demonstrate its impact on services. Results also suggest that APs are more effective when they have supportive managers with a clear vision for the role in a service area and who develop the roles based on skill and service need.

Board's eye view.

At this year's RCN Emergency Care Association annual conference, a range of events helped firmly establish the faculty of emergency nursing (FEN).

What is the future of the lecturer practitioner role-a decade on?

Collaboration between the Greater Manchester Workforce Development Confederation, the University of Salford and nine NHS Trusts, in the implementation of the Fitness for Practice and Making a Difference recommendations, identified the need for a wider co nsultation on the future of education and practice links. Lessons learned from this initiative included a realization of the importance of partnering arrangements between higher education and practice. To achieve a collaborative model for the future a wo rking party was established to determine how effective partnership and collaboration between the NHS Trusts, Confederation and Higher Education could be developed, maintained and disseminated for the future. Five sub groups were formed from the main work ing party all charged with examining education and practice links. Each sub group reported back and presented evidence to the main working party. It was recognized that a whole repertoire of roles spanning education and practice would be required, includ ing the role of lecturer practitioner and joint appointments. The aim of this paper is to report on the work of the lecturer practitioner and joint appointment roles sub group, its evaluation of the evidence to support the role within the collaborative m odel and offer proposed actions for future practice.