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While it is difficult to articulate succinctly what constitutes advancing nursing practice, defining the activities nurses engage in, the skills and competencies involved and the qualities and attributes required help reduce the ambiguities of the role.

There is much anxiety regarding the transfer of adolescents with chronic illness to adult services. Transfer of patients can be haphazard if the transition has not been planned. Problems and obstacles to transition have been identified and discussed by various authors. The purpose of this small study was to explore the views and needs of health care professionals from one National Health Service trust regarding the transition of care for adolescents with a chronic condition from children's to adult services and to identify possible ways to improve the current services for this particular group of young adults. The sample comprised 40 health care professionals, nurses from the children's department and adult ward, doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists and pharmacists currently working in the same hospital trust. A postal survey was conducted. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The main findings suggest that there is a need for a planned transition programme, supported by a clinical protocols and a specialist unit for adolescents. Health care professionals' views of patients and family/carers' needs and how such needs may be met were identified.

This article discusses the lessons learned from a small pilot study exploring the link between the working environment and occupational stress among groups of nursing students. A comparative descriptive design was adopted to examine, describe and compare the two variables (sources and frequency) in three groups of nursing students. The sample comprised 90 students from one large inner-city school of nursing in London. The Expanded Nursing Stress Scale questionnaires were used to collect the data. The main findings suggest that the adult, child and mental health branch students were similar with respect to overall frequency of occupational stress. Areas of commonality and variability in the sources of stress perceived by the three groups of students were identified. A pilot study is a crucial element of a good study design. Areas of concern, lessons learned and suggested refinements were identified.