Summer recess / the silly season when nothing much of import seems to happen and when we should all probably adopt the French tradition of loosing ourselves with the entire family in some quiet little spot in Provence. No such luck however - some of us have to battle on in particularly hot and humid units and look forward to a fresh start in September. Well this year - having been freshly inspired and reinvigorated by our 17th Annual Conference - I shall not let the silly season pass and go to waste without quietly planning for our next years activities. Melanie is writing up the conference report and I do not want to steal her thunder - but I will say how delighted I was with the conference. We tried for a ‘new look’ and I believe we largely succeeded. It was wonderful to share the platform with our friends from ASPAN and welcome the nurse leaders from IARNA and SSARN. We had an excellent timeand taking them all to the Shepherd and Dog via narrow country lanes that the bus could hardly navigate was a definite master stroke.

Current practice in the United Kingdom (UK) dictates that the administration of a general anaesthetic is undertaken by a physician. However, for several years now the controversial question has been raised as to whether other practitioners, primarily nurse anaesthetists, should also be allowed administer general anaesthetics. The ensuing debate has been refueled in recent times resulting from the trend towards providing cost-effective health care delivery combined with concerns over current and anticipated further shortages in anaesthetic manpower. This paper discusses some of the arguments both for and against the introduction non-physician anaesthetists in the UK, also drawing on the debate in other parts of the world, concluding with a call for more research to address the controversy. First though, because there appears to be some confusion over the difference between the meaning of the titles ‘Anaesthetic Nurse’ and ‘Nurse Anaesthetist’, it will be helpful to provide brief definitions of these terms.

The Changing Workforce Programme (CWP) has established a national pilot that is focusing on roles within anaesthesia, in the context of new ways of working. The pilot is building on the joint evaluation work undertaken by the Changing Workforce Programme, Department of Health and the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCA) visits to the USA, Sweden and Holland, which looked at the role of nonmedical staff in the delivery of anaesthesia services. The document The Role of Non - Medical Staff in the Delivery of Anaesthesia Services is available on the RCA website www.rcoa.ac.uk.

This article on the assessment and management of ventricular arrhythmias is the third in a series exploring cardiac monitoring in the perioperative care setting. Ventricular arrhythmias, which arise within the ventricular myocardium, can be potentially lifethreatening. Many of the causes of these arrhythmias can be found in the peri-operative setting and thus it is essential that practitioners are able to differentiate the rhythms and respond appropriately.