Postgraduate medical journal
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To examine the use of alcohol and other substances among medical and law students at a UK university. ⋯ Study participants had high levels of substance misuse and anxiety. Some students' fitness to practice may be impaired as a result of their substance misuse or symptoms of psychological distress. Further efforts are needed to reduce substance misuse and to improve the mental well-being of students.
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Use of the WHO surgical safety checklist is consistently recognised to reduce harm caused by human error during the perioperative period. Inconsistent engagement is considered to contribute to persistence of surgical Never Events in the National Health Service. Most medical and nursing graduates will join teams responsible for the perioperative care of patients, therefore appropriate undergraduate surgical safety training is needed. ⋯ Knowledge of perioperative patient safety systems and the ability to participate in safety protocols are important skills that should be formally taught at the undergraduate level. Results of this study show that UK undergraduate surgical safety checklist training does not meet the minimum standards set by the WHO.
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The transition from medical student to doctor is an important milestone. The discovery that their time is no longer their own and that the demands of their job are greater than the time they have available is extremely challenging. ⋯ We hope that awareness of these tips from the outset as against learning them through experience will greatly assist newly qualified doctors.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation on television: are we miseducating the public?
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates in the UK are poor, and non-medically trained individuals have been identified to perform substandard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Millions watch televised medical dramas and, for many, these comprise their only education on CPR. This study aims to investigate the quality of CPR portrayed on these programmes and whether this has an effect on public knowledge. ⋯ Televised medical dramas depict CPR inaccurately and laypersons may be less well informed about the correct technique the more they tune into these programmes. While there may be other confounding variables, given the popularity of television medical dramas, the poor depiction may be significantly contributing to poor public CPR knowledge and represent a potential new avenue of public education.
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Clinicians are increasingly using social media for professional development and education. In 2012, we developed the St.Emlyn's blog, an open access resource dedicated to providing free education in the field of emergency medicine. ⋯ This case study of an emergency medicine blog quantifies the reach and engagement of social-media-enabled learning in emergency medicine.