This is the first in a short series that presents case study examples of the positive work achieved by trusts who participated in the Royal College of Nursing's development programme to improve dementia care in acute hospitals. When a person with dementia is in hospital, poor understanding of individual needs and preferences can contribute to a lack of person-centred care. Similarly, the needs of family carers can often be overlooked and staff do not always appreciate these needs at such a stressful time. This article illustrates how three NHS trusts have addressed these issues. To help staff get to know patients with dementia, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has implemented a patient passport. Similarly, The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has implemented a carer passport that overcomes the restrictions imposed by hospital visiting hours. Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust also focused on carers, holding a workshop to elicit feedback on what was important to them. This was a useful means of engaging with carers and helped staff to realise that even simple changes can have a significant effect.

The various techniques which constitute the Deep Mixing Method (DMM) are being used to treat, improve, and retain a variety of soil types on an international basis. A recent U.S. Federal research program has generated a detailed review of technology worldwide, and the broad findings of the research are presented in this paper. Major areas of focus are application, technology, and QA/QC and verification.

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With growing numbers of people dying with, and from, dementia there is a need for professionals and health-care organisations to review the access to and provision of palliative care. This literature review has identified several key themes in relation to the person dying with dementia including: diagnosis of the dying phase, appropriate timing of referral to specialist palliative care services; ethical decisions in relation to medication and nutrition; the environment; undertreatment especially, for pain relief; over and burdensome treatment interventions; carer involvement; collaborative working and advance decision making.

Peer review This article has been subject to double-blind review and has been checked using antiplagiarism software Author guidelines journals.rcni.com/r/ nop-author-guidelines