Occupational stress, anxiety and coping strategies in police officers.

BACKGROUND: Studies on occupational stress have shown that police officers are exposed to stressful events more often than other workers and this can result in impaired psychosocial well-being and physical health. AIMS: To measure the level of stress experienced, the consequences in terms of anxiety and the coping strategies adopted in a sample of police officers working in a large city in northern Italy. METHODS: We used the Police Stress Questionnaire and the Distress Thermometer to measure occupational stress, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety and the Brief COPE questionnaire to measure coping strategies. RESULTS: Six hundred seventeen police officers completed the questionnaire, a response rate of 34%. Differences between genders, sectors and roles emerged, but overall the study population generally demonstrated good use of positive coping strategies. Women in all operational service roles were more vulnerable to both organizational and operational stressors than men (P < 0.001), while in the interior department, men were more vulnerable to organizational stressors (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that for Italian police officers, training courses and support in dealing with occupational stress should take into account gender, role and type of work. Tailored training courses and support programmes could be useful and effective tools for preventing stress before it becomes chronic.

Developing a distance learning honours degree in health promotion for delivery using the Internet.

Designing this programme for distance learning delivery, especially for the Internet has been a major learning experience for all the staff involved. However, addressing and resolving these issues has now provided us with a template for developing other programmes in distance learning mode. This was an endeavour that all our market research indicated we had to undertake since institutions of higher education, especially schools of healthcare are no different to commercial companies. Like commercial organizations, higher education institutions, too, are consumer facing and are in direct competition with other educational 'suppliers', i.e. other universities and colleges. If a university is to compete and to 'sell' its products well, it too must consider the Internet as a way of advertising its wares, streamlining its business model and eventually conducting its business. In our case, this means delivery of educational programmes. However, as Internet technologies are primarily designed for research and business, there is currently a lag in the development of tools that enable effective social learning. Our next programme via the Internet will be even better for the experiences we've undergone and the lessons we've learnt during this initiative.

Using technology for distance.

Internet-based distance education is in its infancy. As technology continues to develop and accessibility to the Internet grows, so, too, will delivery of educational materials via the Internet. In the meantime, the Wolfson Institute is taking the opportunity to learn how to harness this technology for educational purposes and to prepare for a future where education and technology move even closer together.

Zinc metabolism and immune function in healthy elderly people.

Changes in immune function have been described in the elderly, and zinc is known to influence immune parameters. Zinc supplementation has, however, produced contradictory results. We evaluated zinc metabolism and immunity in 15 healthy non-institutionalised elderly people on a self-selected diet and compared the results with those obtained from 10 young healthy subjects. The elderly subjects had reduced serum zinc levels and their zinc absorption values were lower than in the young subjects. Circulating immune parameters were within the normal range, while delayed immune response was altered in 8 of the 15 elderly subjects. Zinc supplementation (25 mg/day) did not result in a significant improvement in dermal hypersensitivity responses although some effect was seen in 5 cases. It is concluded that zinc supplementation is unnecessary in elderly healthy subjects even if they present zinc metabolism alterations, but may be indicated in the presence of disease.

Preliminary study to identify cancer patients at high risk of venous thrombosis following major surgery.

This study investigated whether the pre-surgical plasma levels of TAT and F1 + 2 of patients undergoing major surgery for localized tumours could identify patients at higher risk of thrombosis, and how heparin prophylaxis affected in vivo coagulation after cancer surgery. We measured the pre- and post-operative levels of TAT, F1 + 2, total factor VII (FVIIt) and zymogen FVII (FVIIz) in 117 cancer patients, with and without heparin prophylaxis. The end points of this study were DVT, initially detected by 125I-fibrinogen uptake test and confirmed by ascending venography. Pre-operative [TAT] and [F1 + 2] of the cancer patients were significantly higher than those of age-matched control subjects (n = 50) (P < 0.005 and P < 0.05, respectively); pre-operative [FVII] was not significantly different. One of the 83 patients receiving prophylaxis, and 8/34 not receiving prophylaxis developed post-operative DVT. Of the parameters evaluated, only the pre-operative [TAT] > 3.5 ng/ml identified patients at higher risk for post-operative DVT. Heparin reduced plasma TAT levels and FVII consumption following surgery, suggesting that heparin modulates coagulation associated with cancer surgery. The results of this study also suggest that the pre-operative [TAT] may identify patients with higher risk for post-operative DVT.

Learning that adds to your professional development. Academic accreditation of Professional Nurse Study Days.

Keeping up-to-date with clinical practice and ensuring practice is research-based are vital to nursing. A joint initiative between Professional Nurse and Queen Charlotte's College means delegates to Professional Nurse Study Days and Seminars can gain credits to contribute to academic study programmes.