Clin Med
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Comparative Study
Insulin, hospitals and harm: a review of patient safety incidents reported to the National Patient Safety Agency.
Patient safety incidents involving insulin are frequent and cause considerable distress to people with diabetes and anxieties to their families and carers. This article describes an analysis of the National Reporting and Learning System database of patient safety incidents concerning insulin reported from NHS providers in England and Wales over six years. The main causes are discussed and the ongoing developments by the National Patient Safety Agency and partner organisations to reduce insulin errors are described.
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Review
Content validity of a clinical problem solving test for use in recruitment to the acute specialties.
Clinical problem solving tests (CPSTs) have been shown to be reliable and valid for recruitment to general practice (GP) training programmes. This article presents the results from a Department of Health-funded pilot into the use of a CPST designed for recruitment to the acute specialties (AS). The pilot paper consisted of 99 items from the validated GP question bank and 40 new items aimed specifically at topics of relevance to AS training. ⋯ The overall test and the GP section showed high internal reliability, whereas the AS pilot section performed less well. A detailed item analysis revealed that the AS pilot items were, on average, more difficult and of poorer quality than the GP items. Important issues that need to be addressed in the early development phase of a test used for high stakes selection to specialty training programmes are discussed.