Nurses' perspectives on technical skill requirements in primary and tertiary healthcare services.

Aim: To explore nurses' perspectives on technical skill requirements in primary and tertiary healthcare services and their perspectives on where students should learn these skills. Design: The study was conducted in Norway and had a cross-sectional, multicentre, descriptive design. Methods: We used a questionnaire to explore registered nurses and intellectual disability nurses' perspectives on technical skill requirements and learning (N = 437). Results: All the skills included in the university college curricula were reported to be required, and most skills should from the respondents' perspective be learned in the university college. There were significant differences between registered nurses and intellectual disability nurses about their perspectives on skill learning, but no significant differences between respondents in the interface between hospital and municipality wards. Conclusions: Results from this study indicate that nurses need extensive technical skills in both primary and tertiary health care. Findings also indicate a need to modify the university college curricula.

Biomarker investigations in adult female perch (Perca fluviatilis) from industrialised areas in northern Sweden in 2003.

Since the new millennium, a notion has developed in certain parts of society that environmental pollutants and their associated effects are under control. The primary objective of this investigation, performed in 2003, was to test whether this was actually the case in an industrialised region in the County of Västernorrland in northern Sweden with well-documented environmental pollution from past and present activities. This was performed by measuring a moderate battery of simple biomarkers in adult female perch at several stations. The point sources included sewage-treatment plants, pulp and paper mills, as well as other industries. The biomarkers included growth, somatic indices, gonad maturation status, gonad pigmentation, fin erosion, skin ulcers, and ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity in the liver. The results showed that the environmental pollutants and their associated effects were not under control. In fact, the health of the perch was impaired at all of the polluted stations. Many responses were unspecific with respect to underlying cause, whereas some effects on EROD activity and gonad maturation status were attributed to historical creosote pollution and current kraft pulp mill effluents, respectively. The data presented may also be used as reference values for future investigations of health effects in perch.