TEAM

Following health secretary Jeremy Hunt's rejection of the NHS Pay Review Body's recommendations to give all nurses a 1 per cent pay rise in 2014/15, nearly 330,000 nurses will miss out on the pay award (News April 30). It will be given only to nurses at the top of their pay bands.

Enhance the reading experience for children by creating your very own story sack, writes Charlotte Baker.

To determine the effects of zilpaterol hydrochloride (ZH; 6.8 g/t on 90% DM basis) feeding duration (0, 20, 30, and 40 d) on Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) of longissimus lumborum (LL), triceps brachii (TB), and gluteus medius (GM) muscles, beef from feeding trials was collected and shipped to participating universities. Animals were slaughtered at commercial processing facilities across the United States. Strip loin, shoulder clod, and top sirloin butt subprimals (IMPS 180, 114, and 184, respectively) were obtained from a portion of USDA Choice and Select grade carcasses for WBSF using standardized procedures and equipment. Feeding ZH increased (P < 0.001) LL WBSF values of USDA Choice and Select steaks. A significant linear contrast existed for both quality grades, indicating increased WBSF values were associated with longer feeding durations. Increased postmortem aging decreased LL WBSF of control and treated steaks. Postmortem aging from 7 to 21 d decreased LL WBSF values by 17.6 and 16.4% for USDA Choice and Select steaks, respectively. The percentage of LL steaks from ZH-supplemented cattle with a WBSF value <4.5 kg was significantly less than control steaks for both quality grades. Postmortem aging from 7 to 21 d postmortem increased (P < 0.001) the percentage of LL Choice and Select steaks with WBSF <4.5 kg for all ZH feeding durations. Feeding ZH for 20, 30, or 40 d increased (P < 0.01) WBSF of USDA Choice TB and GM steaks compared with 0-d controls. Feeding ZH for 0, 20, and 40 d had a similar effect on WBSF of USDA Select GM steaks, and produced lesser values than steaks from cattle fed ZH for 30 d. Feeding ZH for 20, 30, and 40 d had no effect on WBSF values of USDA Select TB steaks. However, the 20-, 30-, and 40-d duration produced WBSF values greater (P < 0.05) than control (0 d) TB steaks. Postmortem aging decreased (P < 0.05) WBSF of USDA Choice and Select TB and GM steaks, but the percentage improvement in WBSF attributed to aging was less than observed for LL steaks. The results of this study indicate feeding ZH increased (P < 0.001) WBSF of LL, TB, and GM. The ZH feeding also decreased (P < 0.01) the percentage of steaks with WBSF <4.5 kg regardless of US quality grade, whereas postmortem aging increased (P < 0.01) the percentage of US Choice and Select steaks with WBSF <4.5 kg. Finally, postmortem aging reduced (P < 0.05) WBSF of steaks from ZH-supplemented beef cattle.

So nurses who nap on the job leave patients at risk (letters September 3)? In fact, nurses who do not nap on the job are more likely to leave patients at risk.

Have the unions thought about bringing travel expenses into the next round of pay negotiations?

Dear Editor,In the MHP Voices column (9, 8, 38), Phil Barker feels that the teaching of psychiatric diagnoses is perpetuating concepts which he calls ‘outmoded and wholly unscientific’. I have to disagree. Don’t get me wrong, when I trained as a nurse in the late 1980s, we were told by our lecturers that diagnosis was bad; it meant labelling people, and that wouldn’t do.

Thank you to Rebecca Guy for her article on how she feels as she comes to the end of her training (student life May 17). I can relate to every word she wrote. It was as if she knew me, and what I am going through. I am a third-year nursing student, soon to qualify. I am excited and terrified at the same time about the prospect of giving up student status for the responsibilities of qualification.

While I welcome Josie Irwin’s reply to your article on Agenda for Change (AfC) (letters November 2), she is not working in the field and perhaps needs more up-to-date information.

J. Clark Kent. Whig's Progress: Tom Wharton between Revolutions. Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004; distributed by Associated University Presses. Pp. 318. $55.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8386-3997-6. - Volume 44 Issue 3

In your article on pensions (news analysis January 19) it was stated: ‘The pension provision for the married spouse... would be extended to cover same-sex partners.’ I have seen only one reference to long-term heterosexual partners and would appreciate clarification. At the moment my partner and I feel pressured to get married simply for her to be eligible for my pension if I should die early.