There is no shortage of issues to be addressed in healthcare, and no shortage of good ideas. What is often lacking is an approach to influencing change that has genuine integrity and trust built in from the start. And integrity is not just a word or a vaguely held value. It has to be demonstrated practically through the way managers and clinicians engage with their colleagues. From the Preface This highly practical book provides clinicians and managers with the knowledge and tools that will enable them to successfully influence their staff and colleagues. Built on the conviction that the way to influence others is through respect and understanding - not threat or manipulation - it promotes an optimistic, confident approach to leadership where trust and respect is fostered.

Health professionals often take on managerial roles at short notice and with little or no preparation. Although they may be highly clinically qualified and accomplished, the practicalities and relationships involved in management - helping staff to feel motivated and valued, building and leading teams, managing meetings and presentations, writing reports and managing change, to name but a few - present new challenges and pitfalls for which they are unprepared. This book is for managers and prospective managers who want to approach their new responsibilities professionally from the very beginning. Based on the authors' successful "Vital Signs" education programme, it identifies the critical skills needed to hit the ground running as a manager. It is an accessible, easily comprehensible guide to gaining the self-confidence and the respect of staff, and to creating a steady platform for acquiring and mastering a wide range of skills in the future. 'This book is dedicated to helping leaders and managers prepare for people responsibilities. It also addresses three areas which usually make leaders and managers uncomfortable - running meetings successfully, making presentations and writing reports. [It] gives accessible and practical examples and I have no hesitation in commending it to a wide readership.' - From the Foreword by John Edmonstone

The development of a brain from its simple beginnings in the embryo to the extraordinarily complex fully-functional adult structure is a truly remarkable process. Understanding how it occurs remains a formidable challenge despite enormous advances over the last century and current intense world-wide scientific research. A greater knowledge of how nervous systems construct themselves will bring huge benefits for human health and future technologies. Unravelling the mechanisms that lead to the development of healthy brains should help scientists tackle currently incurable diseases of the nervous system such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia (to name but a few), discover more about the processes that cause the uncontrolled growth associated with cancer and develop possible treatments. Building Brains provides a highly visual and readily accessible introduction to the main events that occur during neural development and the mechanisms by which they occur. Aimed at undergraduate students and postgraduates new to the field, who may not have a background in neuroscience and/or molecular genetics, it explains how cells in the early embryo first become neural, how their proliferation is controlled, what regulates the types of neural cells they become, how neurons connect to each other, how these connections are later refined under the influence of neural activity including that arising from experience, and why some neurons normally die. Key Features: * A concise illustrated guide focusing on the core elements of current understanding of neural development, emphasising common principles underlying developmental mechanisms and supplemented by suggestions for further reading. * Text boxes throughout provide further detail on selected major advances, issues of particular uncertainty or controversy and examples of human diseases that result from abnormal development. * A balanced mammalian/non-mammalian perspective, drawing on examples from model organisms including the fruit fly, nematode worm, frog, zebrafish, chick, mouse, ferret, cat, monkey and human, and emphasising mechanisms that are conserved across species. * Introduces the methods for studying neural development including genetics, transgenic technologies, advanced microscopy and computational modeling, allowing the reader to understand the main evidence underlying research advances. * Student-friendly, full colour artwork reinforces important concepts; an extensive glossary and definitions in page margins help readers from different backgrounds; chapter summaries stress important points and aid revision. * Associated Website includes a complete set of figures from the textbook.