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This preliminary investigation aims to examine the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients and staff within a high secure service.

To discern the connection between COVID-19-related distress and multiple factors, the study involved 31 patients and 34 staff who completed assessments evaluating coping strategies, resilience, emotional reactivity, ward atmosphere and work-related aspects.

Results demonstrated that around a third of staff (31.2%) experienced COVID-19-related distress levels that met the clinical cut-off for possible post-traumatic stress disorder. Emotional reactivity, staff shortages, secondary traumatic stress and coping strategies were all positively correlated with COVID-19-related-distress. Resilience was negatively associated with distress, thus acting as a potential mitigating factor. In comparison, the prevalence of distress among patients was low (3.2%).

The authors postulate that increased staff burdens during the pandemic may have led to long-term distress, while their efforts to maintain minimal service disruption potentially shielded patients from psychological impacts, possibly lead to staff “problem-focused coping burnout”. This highlights the need for in-depth research on the enduring impacts of pandemics, focusing on mechanisms that intensify or alleviate distress. Future studies should focus on identifying effective coping strategies for crisis situations, such as staff shortages, and strategies for post-crisis staff support.

The authors postulate that the added burdens on staff during the pandemic might have contributed to their distress. Nonetheless, staff might have inadvertently safeguarded patients from the pandemic’s psychological ramifications by providing a “service of little disruption”, potentially leading to “problem-focused coping burnout”. These findings underscore the imperative for further research capturing the enduring impacts of pandemics, particularly scrutinising factors that illuminate the mechanisms through which distress is either intensified or alleviated across different groups. An avenue worth exploring is identifying effective coping styles for pandemics.

During the academic session 1991/92, a project was carried out to review the strategic and operational management of the staffed public information points in the Library and Information Services at Aston University. Three main methods were used: an analysis of enquiries; a staff attitudes survey; and a customer survey. The main results which emerged were that staff perceived that there was no‐one with overall management responsibility for the service that an on‐going training programme for information point staff should be introduced; and that most customers were satisfied with the existing quality of service and approachability of the staff. Consequently, the Head of Information Services has assumed strategic and operational responsibility for the service; a rolling training programme for staff has been introduced; and a Quality Circle has been established to formulate a Customer Care Policy, and to produce recommendations for continuous improvement of the service.

This paper aims to focus on staff injuries arising from incidents involving physical intervention (PI) with service users in a forensic, learning disability hospital.

Incident reports and individual electronic patient records were analysed to review all incidents in which staff were injured from January‐September 2011.

Injury rates for staff were consistently higher than those for service users over the nine month period. The majority of staff injuries happen as a result of an assault on staff by the service user either before PI is used (36.3 per cent) or during the PI process (47.6 per cent). The remaining 16.1 per cent of staff injuries occur as a result of accidents during PI (12.9 per cent) or re‐escalation of aggression after the incident (3.2 per cent). Very few (4.8 per cent) staff injuries are reported as “serious”. Most serious injuries are caused by kicks from service users. Kicks from service users are the highest cause of all staff injury.

This review is a retrospective analysis of incident reports and as such does not capture the richness of data which would be available in the planned qualitative piece of research.

The findings of this review can be used to inform aspects of physical intervention training which may be tailored to specifically address areas where staff are at increased risk of injury.

This review is unique in the available literature in highlighting the point at which the injury occurs during the PI process.

The general knowledge and skills of staff working with people with learning disabilities have been of interest for a number of years, and Valuing People (DH, 2001) highlighted them as a significant issue. Research has shown that there are further deficits in the knowledge and skills of staff concerning the mental health of people with learning disabilities. This paper gives a general overview of some of the factors involved in the training and knowledge of learning disabilities staff relating to mental health. Early indications from research have shown that training may be effective as a way of addressing these problems, but further research and clear guidance on best practice in implementing staff training are needed in this important area.

A principal should expect to get no more out of his staff than he puts into it. Recent leadership theory stresses the importance of involving the staff group in decision making and action taking. The involvement of a staff group in an Australian rural high school was investigated and it was found that little communication took place on school matters, that there was little involvement in decision making, that the goals of the group were confused. Although the power of the group was not being released there was a considerable interest by the staff in the possibility of their being given a share in decision making. There appear to be strong arguments, in the interests of the education of children and of staff morale, for the maximum involvement of staff members in all phases of the operation of the school.

A preliminary investigation and discussion of effective methods of staff development as identified by a sample of teachers from international schools. Discusses the nature and purpose of staff development, and the views of teachers on the most effective methods of staff development. Identifies the importance of staff development by colleagues from within a school as one of the most effective methods, and also the development of local school groups as a means of enhancing development for both the individual and the institution. Develops a list of questions that both teachers and administrators may wish to address when evaluating the role and effectiveness of staff development within their own schools.

All personnel in libraries are key to good service. The visibility of library support staff and their important positions of initial contact with library users make their efforts especially crucial. Training programs for support staff often include discussion of the library mission, how library resources connect with users, how to communicate with library users, and how library service can be enjoyable. When managers plan staff training and continuing education programs for support staff, readers' advisory is a very good topic.

The authors wanted to find out if hiring temporary staff at busy A&E departments had a negative impact on the work of permanent staff.

They did semi-structured interviews with managers and permanent staff at two London NHS hospitals with different policies for hiring temps. Hospital A prioritized the use of NHS professions for its bank and agency nurses, as well as doctors and locums. Hospital B focused more on using its own internal bank staff as temps.

The findings showed the generally negative effect of using temporary staff on permanent staff. But the reaction of permanent staff depended on the type of temporary staff. More experienced temps could generally be trusted to get on with the job, whereas the inexperienced ones required more supervision.

The authors proposed an approach to improved practice beginning with “macro-level managers” who could maintain service quality as a higher priority than contracting costs. They could also encourage permanent staff to do occasional temporary shifts. The co-authors also felt that “meso-level managers” could be given the role of hiring “preferred temps” where possible.

Suggests that the task of ensuring a high level of staff motivation requires from library managers a range of managerial, sociological and psychological skills for which they have had very little training, if any at all. These include effective communication with staff, the encouragement of good workplace relationships, the involvement of staff in the decision making process, helping staff to come to terms with change, promoting job rotation, recognising and rewarding initiative and providing relevant training for staff.

Individuals with an autism spectrum condition (ASC) represent a small proportion of patients detained in high-secure psychiatric care (HSPC) with specific difficulties and needs. To date there has been little exploration of how these needs are viewed by staff or if staff have unmet needs with regard to working with ASCs. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A questionnaire examining specific views (on vulnerability, benefits from therapy and making adjustments to practise), knowledge and training needs linked to ASC was distributed to staff who directly worked with patients.

In total, 206 questionnaires were returned (approximately 60 per cent distributed). Most staff reported making adjustments in their practise and believed patients with an ASC were more vulnerable than other patient groups. Half of staff expressed the view, that whilst patients with an ASC benefited from therapies, they were unaware if an individual’s difficulties were considered in their care. Half of staff believed individuals with an ASC should be managed in a different way. Most staff reported not having adequate skills to work with ASC, a wish for more training and that such training should be mandatory. Other than psychiatrists most staff were unaware of the Autism Act (2009). The need for a specialist ASC ward within HSPC was also highlighted by several staff.

The survey highlights differences in staff experiences of patients with an ASC and view that autism training should be mandatory.

Whilst progress has been made with implementing the government’s Autism Strategy (2010) within HSPC, more awareness training is required in promoting staff confidence to work with this group of patients.