ALLEYNE G., HANCOCK C. & HUGHES P. (2011) Chronic and non‐communicable diseases: a critical challenge for nurses globally. International Nursing Review58, 328–331 Background:  Chronic and non‐communicable diseases (NCDs) are a growing and enormous challenge that faces countries across the world. Low‐ and middle‐income countries are disproportionately affected. Contributory factors:  Three risk factors – tobacco use, poor diet (including excessive alcohol intake) and lack of physical activity – contribute to four major chronic diseases – cardiovascular, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and some cancers, which are responsible for over 50% of deaths worldwide. Potential solutions:  International governmental and non‐governmental agencies are becoming increasingly concerned and active. Nurses across the world are well positioned to play a significant role and work with a wide range of people involved in the prevention and management of these chronic diseases.

The preparation, agreement and dissemination of the ENS4Care guidelines will enable European Union leaders to diagnose the organizational changes needed and prescribe the development of new skills and roles in the workforce to meet the challenge of eHealth. Nurses and social care workers, with the right knowledge and skills will add considerable value and form an important link between technological innovation, health promotion and disease prevention.

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Migration is an important ecological trait that allows animals to exploit resources in different habitats, obtaining extra energy for growth and reproduction. The phenology (or timing) of migration is a highly heritable trait, but is also controlled by environmental factors. Numerous studies have reported the advancement of species life-events with climate change, but the rate and significance of such advancement is likely to be species specific, spatially variable and dependent on interactions with population and ecosystem changes. This is particularly true for diadromous fishes which are sentinels of change in both freshwater and marine domains, and are subject to considerable multiple stressors including overfishing and habitat degradation. Here, we describe trends in the migration phenology of three native Irish migratory fishes over half a century, Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brown trout (Salmo trutta) and European eel (Anguilla anguilla). The trends were derived from daily counts of 745,263 fish moving upstream and downstream through the fish traps of the Burrishoole catchment, an internationally important monitoring infrastructure allowing a full census of migrating fish. We found that the start of the seaward migration of eel has advanced by one month since 1970. The commencement of the salmon smolt migration has advanced by one week, although the rest of the migration, and the entirety of the trout smolt run has remained stable. The beginning of the upstream migration of trout to freshwater has advanced by 20 days, while the end of the run is more than one month later than in the 1970’s. The greatest phenological shift has been in the upstream migration of adult salmon, with at least half of migrating fish returning between one and two months earlier from the marine environment compared to the 1970’s. The earlier return of these salmon is coincident with reduced marine survival and decreasing body size, indicating considerable oceanic challenges for this species. Our results demonstrate that the impacts of climate change on the phenology of diadromous fish are context-dependent and may interact with other factors. The mobilization of long-term datasets are crucial to parse the ecological impacts of climate change from other anthropogenic stresses.

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