Minerva: June 2001

Minerva wonders if there is a conspiracy afoot to phase out doctors altogether. Readers of the Postgraduate Medical Journal (2001; 77:337–9) are reminded this month about the chief nursing officer's 10 key roles for nurses in the NHS Plan. It seems that in future nurses will be required to order diagnostic tests, to make and receive referrals to particular specialists, to admit and discharge patients with specified conditions, and to run clinics. Minerva wonders if the PMJ will be renamed the PNJ in future.

We hear and read a lot about violence among children and teenagers in the United States but far less about bullying. When almost 16 000 children completed the World Health Organization's health behaviour in school aged children survey in 1998 a shocking 30% admitted that they been involved in moderate or frequent bullying (JAMA 2001;285:2094–100). A fifth described themselves as bullies, while 17% claimed they had been the victims of bullying. Not surprisingly, both perpetrating and experiencing bullying was associated with poor psychosocial adjustment.

The most common …