University of Dundee – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

‘Fighting fire with a water pistol’ – study shows soaring mental health challenges for frontline Covid nurses

CANDID study surveyed hundreds of health workers

Nurses who worked in critical care during the COVID pandemic are at an increased risk of mental health problems according to a study, which has found three quarters showed signs of psychological distress, while a third reported clinically significant symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

The project, named CANDID, was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and co-led by academics at Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Dundee.

They surveyed more than 400 critical care nurses (CCNs), as well as 200 who were redeployed to critical care (RDNs), across units in Scotland, England and Wales. 45 were also interviewed in depth, with one describing working shifts amid the crisis as being ‘like fighting a fire with a water pistol’.

The survey found growing levels of burnout among staff, compared to a similar study carried out before the pandemic by members of the team (Dr Louise McCallum), with a quarter of nurses planning to leave their role in the next year. Respondents expressed concerns about the quality of patient care and reduced attention to staff wellbeing and development during the pandemic.

Chief Investigator Professor Diane Dixon of Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Applied Sciences said: “The challenges thrown at nurses during the COVID-19 crisis have clearly left lasting concerns not just for their own wellbeing, but for the health service itself.

“They are likely to endure well beyond the end of the pandemic.”

Chief Investigator Dr Janice Rattray of the University of Dundee’s School of Health Sciences said: “These results are concerning as burnout is contagious, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress do not always resolve on their own. The NHS needs to prioritise the well-being of these nurses.

“Failure to address staff wellbeing is likely to have negative consequences for staff recruitment and retention, patient safety and quality of care.”

CANDID was carried out between January 2021 and June 2022, comparing its survey results directly with those from previous research in 2018. The percentage of nurses self-reporting levels of psychological distress and burnout through emotional exhaustion that would likely have a psychological diagnosis if interviewed clinically more than doubled in that time.

The study, which will now go through a peer-reviewing process, also measured the impact on organisational outcomes. Each of these worsened. Nurses reported reduced job satisfaction, less certainty about their future working for the NHS and were more likely to be planning to leave their role. Nurses also reported that both quality of care and patient safety had declined.

Although it was not recorded in the 2018 survey, a third of the nurses who responded reported clinically concerning symptoms of posttraumatic stress. During interviews, some spoke about the stress of dealing with relatives unable to see their loved ones in hospitals, as well as a feeling of isolation among RDNs separated from their usual teams.

The study recommends the NHS prioritises the welfare of CCNs and RDNs, implements workplace planning, supports them to recover from the pandemic, and creates an environment that will allow them to thrive in future.

Stop and search research leads to policy change

Police Scotland has changed the way it carries out stop and search following a series of recommendations made by researchers at the University of Dundee and Edinburgh Napier University. Continue reading Stop and search research leads to policy change

Meet the ancestors!

REVEALING THE FACES OF LEITHERS PAST

Alas poor Leither ... — Alas poor Leither …

A five-year project to analyse bodies discovered during an archaeological dig by the City of Edinburgh Council and Headland Archaeology has shed new light on Leithers of the past. Forensic artists have now unveiled what the Medieval residents of the former burgh might have looked like some 500 years ago.

A team of experts from the University of Dundee carried out a painstaking process to reconstruct the faces of the 14th to 17th century remains, discovered near Constitution Street.

The bodies of almost 400 men, women and children dating as far back as the 14th century were found on the site of a previously unknown section of the South Leith Parish Church’s graveyard during preparation work for Edinburgh Trams in 2009.

Identified as a particularly sensitive archaeological zone, the Constitution Street location was considered important due to its proximity to the early Medieval core of Leith and the later 16th and 17th century town defences.

The subsequent unearthing of graveyard burials are thought to be amongst some of the most significant Medieval finds in Scottish history. They could provide the first archaeological evidence for the Medieval Hospital of St Anthony’s, destroyed in the 16th century.

Now detailed analysis by the City of Edinburgh Council’s Archaeology Service and Headland Archaeology, in partnership with the University of Aberdeen, has revealed the age, sex, build and pathology of the individuals.

Artists from the University of Dundee have also been able to provide a glimpse of the faces of Leithers past using hi-tech reconstruction techniques, revealing strikingly modern-looking results.

By using forensic modelling to determine the shape and depth of facial muscles and soft tissues, isotopic analysis to ascertain individuals’ origins and state-of-the-art computer programming, researchers were able to build up lifelike facial representations for the 400 to 600-year-old remains.

Amongst the reconstructions was that of a boy, aged between 13 and 17, who was thought to have lived around Leith and Edinburgh and to have died in the late 14th or early 15th century, an adult male aged 25 to 35 who lived in the mid 16th to 17th century and a woman also aged between 25 and 35, who died in the late 14th and early 15th century.

Richard Lewis, City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture Convener, said: “The unearthing of such important remains was a major discovery five years ago, but to be able to gain an even closer insight into Leith’s medieval past is incredibly exciting.

“Edinburgh has an undeniably rich and interesting history, but work like this means the whole city can truly appreciate our heritage.”

John Lawson, City Archaeologist, said: “This is one of the largest and most important urban excavations of human remains undertaken in Edinburgh and Scotland in recent years. The results have shed new light on the lives of the Medieval population in one of Scotland’s largest and most important ports.

“It has allowed us to highlight the lives of the ordinary person in Leith, by putting a face to these individuals and showing how they lived and died. The forensic reconstructions have really helped to identify these remains as those of members of the public, rather than merely deeming them as archaeological remains, and how alike they are to modern day inhabitants of Leith and Edinburgh.

“Additionally, the project has allowed us to develop important partnerships with the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen, which is already leading on to possible further areas of collaborative research into the former inhabitants of Edinburgh.”

Professor Caroline Wilkinson from the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, University of Dundee, said: “The MSc Forensic Art course has been running for eight years at the University of Dundee, and over the last few years a fruitful partnership has been built with the City of Edinburgh Council and the Museum of Edinburgh.

“Postgraduate students have been using forensic techniques to analyse the burials unearthed by the Edinburgh Tram project and through these internships and research projects this has developed into a productive and stimulating collaboration. Through craniofacial analysis it is now possible to exhibit the faces of local people from Edinburgh’s past and gain insight into the lives of our ancestors.”