Confused by NHS jargon and medical terminology?

If you need help in understanding the many acronyms used in the NHS or are new to medical terminology the following resources might be of interest:

NHS acronym buster

The NHS Acronym Buster gives you the definition over 500 commonly used acronyms in the NHS. Find an A-Z of acronyms on their webpage or download the app. Aimed primarily at anyone working with or in NHS management the app has been developed from the acronym buster in The NHS Handbook published by the NHS Confederation.

If you have an OpenAthens password you can access:

Dorland's Dictionary of Medical Acronyms and Abbreviations, 7th ed. Elsevier, 2016 as an ebook via our subscription to Clinical Key

 

Abbreviations and acronyms should be used with care and caution as this list shows:

List of error prone abbreviations

Finally this tutorial may be helpful in understanding the Greek and Roman origins and formation of medical terminology:

Understanding medical words tutorial (US)

Clinical Decision Support Tools available to support your practice

Due to low usage we have now ended our subscription to Dynamed. However some great alternative resources are still available to you. 

BMJ Best Practice

This is a clinical decision support tool very similar to Dynamed. BMJ Best Practice uses the latest evidence-based research, guidelines and expert opinion to offer step-by-step guidance on diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and prevention.

Watch the video about BMJ Best Practice here 

How to Access

1. Go to https://bestpractice.bmj.com/
2. Enter your OpenAthens username and password and click ‘Sign in’
3. If you are a new user, you will need to now register for a BMJ Best Practice personal account. If prompted for an institution enter "NHS in England". Use your personal account to download the app for access anywhere, anytime, even offline.

We also have a subscription to Clinical Key:

 Clinical Key

Clinical search engine with access to many full-text journal articles, topic summaries and ebooks. It has information on conditions, procedures, drugs, guidelines, patient information and more.  Take a look at our guides to Clinical Key here so you can get the best out of this resource: https://www.keele.ac.uk/healthlibrary/training/onlineguidesandsupport/clinicalkey/

Clinical Knowledge Summaries can be found on the NICE website:

Clinical Knowledge Summaries

Clinical Knowledge Summaries aim to provide primary care practitioners with a readily accessible summary of the current evidence base and practical guidance on best practice 

Over 370 topic summaries are arranged both alphabetically by health topic with focus on the most common and significant presentations in primary care, and by specialty.

People who are active on the day of hip surgery, or the day after, are twice as likely to be home within a month

 

This latest alert from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) summarises evidence relating to the recovery of patients who have had hip surgery:

 People over 60 who need surgery after breaking a hip are discharged from hospital sooner if they get moving quickly.  The largest study of its kind found that those who get out of bed on the day of hip surgery, or the day after, were twice as likely to leave hospital within 30 days. 

The benefit of early mobilisation is so striking that targets should be introduced to support hospital staff in getting more hip fracture patients out of bed soon after surgery, the study authors suggest.
At present, about one in five patients are still in bed two or more days after their surgery. As well as prolonging their stay in hospital, such delays in mobilisation might increase the risk of pneumonia, and loss of muscle strength. These complications may in turn reduce survival.  

Read the full article on the NIHR alerts webpage here.

Published 11 May 2021

 

Dying Matters

  

One of our library assistants created a display in support of Dying Matters Awareness Week this week. This is to show staff the resources we have to assist them in delivering the best end of life care. A palliative care current awareness page can be found at https://www.protopage.com/pgmclibrary#Palliative_Care  and staff can also request literature searches from the library on aspects of palliative care.

New Books

 

The library has taken delivery of some new books this week. These are on display just inside the chapel entrance and are available for loan. Reserve your copy online via your library account for collection at either of the UHNM Health Libraries or pop in and collect your copy. (Please note that our new self issue machine is not up and running yet so if the library is unstaffed please fill out a paper slip available next to the machine).