This Is My Unit, Guidelines for Authors

The purpose of this type of article is to provide a forum for nurses working throughout the world to discuss their day-to-day working lives and activities. It will allow you to showcase your unit, the roles and activities of staff members and describe any new developments and/or special features.

Your unit does not have to be large and we are interested equally to hear from those of you who work in smaller units.

We would also encourage colleagues who work in difficult circumstances to share their experiences with us. It is always useful to reflect on the activities of nurses working in different countries, however, we are also aware that nurses in different countries work in different ways, and within different healthcare systems. So, if you see a unit featured in Connect from your country, please do not let this put you off writing about your unit.

If you would like to discuss submitting an article of this nature please contact one of the editors: Lynne Harrison Lharrison2@uclan.ac.uk or Paul Fulbrook p.fulbrook@mcauley.acu.edu.au for an informal discussion.

In general, your article should:

• be approximately 2000 words in length,
• use photographs or pictures to illustrate the text. Please remember to obtain permission before submitting photographs (you must provide a written statement that you have obtained permission, with your article), and please do not use photographs that show patients’ faces.

In relation to the profile guidelines below (Table 1):

• describe what your unit does and discuss some of the things you are most proud of,· discuss problems or issues that your unit has faced (or is facing now) and how you have overcome them,
• discuss any plans your unit has for the future,
• provide the name and e-mail contact details of someone from your unit who can be contacted for further information

Unit profile

Table 1 (below) offers suggestions to help you structure your article. You do not have to follow this format exactly. However, your article will be more interesting to readers if you manage to write something about most of these areas.

Note 1

The ethical principles and copyright issues are as those stated in the general Guidelines for Authors of this journal.

Note 2

Tables, figures, and photographs should be presented on a separate page. Each should have a title and you should indicate where in the text you would like it to be placed, using a phase such as: Insert Photograph 1 here.

Table 1: Profile guidelines

Location	Tell us the about the location of you unit in terms of the country and region. Describe the type of hospital and the facilities it offers. For example, microsurgery, trauma, cardiothoracic surgery. Is it a public or private hospital? Is it linked to a university? How large is the hospital? You may wish to describe its size in terms of the number of beds it has. You may also like to include some information about the population it serves and how this unit/hospital relates to others in the area.
The unit	What type of unit is it? For example, paediatric ICU or adult coronary care unit. Describe the layout and facilities the unit has. What type of equipment is available on the unit? Does your unit have any special features or facilities? Does your unit have any high dependency beds or is there a separate high dependency unit in the hospital? How is the unit managed; what is the management structure? What education support do you have?
Patient profile	Include a section that describes the profile of patients that are admitted to your unit. You may like to identify the number of patients admitted, describing their reasons for admission. For example, 90% of patients may be admitted following surgery. What is the average length of stay of patients? Describe the criteria for admission to the unit. Describe a typical day in the life of a patient on your unit. Do patients move to a high dependency unit before being transferred back to a ward?
Nurses	How many nurses do you have working in the unit? What qualifications and experience do nurses need to be able to work in this area? What is the profile of nurses in terms of skill-mix (grade/experience)? Describe the role of nurses working in your unit; explain the types of activities they undertake. Do you have students? Do you provide practice experience for nurses undertaking critical care courses? Describe the post registration education opportunities that are available for nurses working in this area. How many hours per week do nurses work and what are the times of the shifts?
Nursing care and management	How is nursing care organised. For example, do you use primary nursing or patient allocation? Do you use a nursing model? What are nurses expected to do, what roles and responsibilities do they have in terms of direct patient management?
Multi-disciplinary team members	How does other staff work within your unit? Do you have support staff, if so what sort of activities do they undertake? How is communication between team members managed?
Research and development activity	What sort of development activities you have in your unit? Do you have special interest groups? Is their any research going on at the moment? Is your unit a training area for doctors or nurses?

Last updated 26 October, 2006 TOP | DISCLAIMER | FEEDBACK