The New Zealand medical journal
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This study aimed to update our understanding of how general practitioners view and use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). ⋯ The number of GPs practising CAM therapies has decreased over the past 15 years, although the number referring patients to CAM has increased. The finding 'that GPs feel information about CAM should be included in medical education' is consistent with earlier research and should be taken into account when developing the medical curriculum.
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To characterise doctors' responses to complaints. ⋯ The complaints process in New Zealand has the potential to improve healthcare delivery at a systemic level and to reinforce appropriate standards of professional behaviour, but it may cause individual doctors to practice defensively. Unless an appropriate educational process is allied to the complaints process, defensive medicine may compromise patient care and constrain potential improvements in healthcare delivery overall.
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During overwhelming demand for resources, such as during an influenza pandemic, clinicians may be required to deny some patients access to a resource (for example ventilation, or hospital admission). However, no pragmatic guidance exists to help clinicians do this. This paper presents criteria for the prioritisation of access to resources during overwhelming demand. The criteria are in the form of eight questions related to the resource and the patients competing for it and are intended to be sufficiently comprehensive and sufficiently succinct to be useful to clinicians who might be required to make such decisions.
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Research looking at the effect of complaints on senior medical staff has shown that while there is important information to be gained from patient criticisms of medical care, they are often not well received by doctors. There is no information on the effects of complaints on junior medical staff and those undergoing vocational training in New Zealand. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of complaints on trainees in general surgery. ⋯ Trainees receiving complaints find them difficult to deal with; they incur an emotional cost on the doctor and possible future doctor patient relationships. Thus it is important that trainee doctors receive support and guidance throughout this difficult and stressful event.