Clin Med
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In the context of professionalism being viewed increasingly as a social contract, a survey was conducted to investigate the importance placed by the general public on doctors' professional attributes. A quota sample of 953 responded to a 55-item online inventory of professional attributes. The quotas closely represented the national census. ⋯ The general public did not equate professionalism with social standing, wealth production, physique or appearance. They recognised doctors as professionals by their good behaviour, high values and positive attitudes as clinicians, workmen and citizens. Although, their preference of professional attributes varied with the setting, eg patient consultation, working with others and behaving in society, they expected doctors to be confident, reliable, dependable, composed, accountable and dedicated across all settings.
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This article describes the establishment of a web-based training programme for postgraduate respiratory trainees. A pilot survey assessed trainees' experiences of online learning. All trainees had used the internet for work-related purposes with commonly used resources being Google, national society websites and specialty journals. ⋯ Trainees found that topics covered were appropriate, contained novel information and subjectively impacted on practice. Common problems were technical difficulties accessing the site (37%) and journal articles (74%), ambiguity of MCQs and difficulty finding time during normal working hours to complete modules. Trainees felt that feedback from MCQs and discussion with colleagues and their educational supervisor were useful methods to support their learning, but did not find the self-reflection exercise helpful.
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The management of heart failure has evolved to become a multidisciplinary affair. Constraints of time and resources limit the amount of counselling that is given to heart failure patients in hospital and, with the advent of community heart failure specialist nurses, there is a trend to move more of these services into the community. ⋯ In this study, patients' perspectives of a diagnosis of heart failure, their understanding of the diagnosis as well as what being diagnosed with heart failure means to them were recorded. Patients were questioned on whether the news of the heart failure diagnosis was broken to them in a sympathetic manner and how they felt about the information provided at diagnosis.