Background: Ageism among health professionals is increasingly recognized, but few studies investigated hospital doctors' attitudes towards older people. The aims of this study were to investigate hospital doctors' attitudes towards older people and to determine whether factors, which were identified in studies on other health professionals, influence hospital doctors' attitudes. ...

To test the hypothesis that a 20-h communication skills course based on the Four Habits model can improve doctor-patient communication among hospital employed doctors across specialties. Crossover randomized controlled trial in a 500-bed hospital with interventions at different time points in the two arms. Assessments were video-based and blinded. Intervention ...

Every public hospital, especially a rural one, needs a skonkwane or anchor person who shoulders responsibility, leads by example, initiates or maintains efficient systems and motivates staff. Yet few have one, let alone one who is black, female and a role model. So when Dr Mmabatho Kekana, 52 years old, ...

I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1999 when I was 27 years of age. I was lucky in some ways - my diagnosis took place in the emergency department of my local hospital. I had presented there with intense pain, swelling and tenderness in my left hand; less ...

Golitsynsky Hospital is one of the oldest Moscow clinics founded by the Russian Aristocrat Count Golitsyn in 1802. A prominent Russian surgeon and Professor at Moscow University, Efrem Mukhin became the first senior medical doctor at this hospital and played a crucial role in its development. Six hundred and eighty-eight ...

The objective of this survey is to explore junior doctors' understanding of vulvodynia using a questionnaire. Fifty-six copies of the questionnaire were handed out at three hospitals: Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Colchester University Hospital, and Royal Free Hospital in London. The questionnaire was anonymous, containing 11 questions asking about ...

PURPOSE: In using an emergency medical service helicopter with an emergency medicine doctor on board (doctor-helicopter), transporting all patients to the University Hospital (base hospital for the helicopter) could cause a chronic bed shortage at the University Hospital. It is also disadvantageous for patients from distant areas. We investigated whether ...

The aim of this paper is to analyze psychosocial stress in the workplace among hospital doctors working in surgical fields in Germany with the aid of the demand-control model, the effort-reward imbalance model, and selected additional indicators. A written questionnaire was answered by a stratified random sample consisting of 1311 ...

Despite a lack of evidence the UK's Department of Health introduced a policy of 'bare below the elbows' attire in order to try to reduce the incidence of nosocomial infection. This study investigates the link between this state of dress and hand contamination. A prospective observational study of doctors working ...

These tech-savvy physicians will play a big role as meaningful use requirements put more emphasis on integrating IT and quality. Just asking doctors to volunteer some time to serve on a committee "just doesn't fly anymore".

OBJECTIVES: This study analyses and discusses recent changes in young Japanese doctors' career paths, in terms of their distribution in different types of facilities and specialties, following changes to the postgraduate clinical training system in 2004. METHODS: Data from the National Survey of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists conducted by Japan's ...

In South Africa, nurses and doctors are emigrating in significant numbers. Job satisfaction, safety and ensuring career progression are important in retaining doctors to make a career in Republic of South Africa (RSA). Due to budgetary constraints many hospitals have not been upgraded. Coming home after overseas training seems difficult. ...

One year after the stimulus law was signed, hospitals and doctors have yet to see much of the health IT cash it holds for them. Now they're worried the rules attached to the funds will keep the money out of reach. And states are prepaling to adapt without the Medicaid ...

Part 1 of this article (see Vol 17, pp. 168-172) described the early life of Harvey Cushing and his encounters with Australian doctors, mostly in various military hospitals, in France, in World War 1. As none of the doctors he met at that time became neurosurgeons, and hence did not ...

To assess the impact of an information poster on rate and accuracy of referrals of abnormal red reflex from general practioners (GP) and hospital doctors involved in the care of children. A retrospective audit of all referrals for abnormal red reflex received between the periods September 2005 to September 2006 ...

OBJECTIVES: Prescribing is not always driven by therapeutic motives alone; social and intrinsic factors also play a part in the decision. However, most research into prescribing influences has been conducted in general practice, with very little conducted within hospitals. One potential influence is the hospital multidisciplinary team, yet little attention ...

CONTEXT: Non-exercise physical activity thermogenesis (NEAT) has been shown to differ in obese and non-obese subjects. OBJECTIVE: To explore whether NEAT is determined by the body mass index (BMI) even within the normal range, we hypothesized that the daily walking distance of young doctors in training at a teaching hospital ...

Predicting whether the nation faces a serious shortage of doctors is difficult, relying in part on assumptions about demand, demographics and distribution. This foldout offers a statistical snapshot of current and future physician demographics.

To assess the efficacy and preparedness of the pre-hospital and hospital emergency medical systems and post graduate trainees in the city to deal with a massive terrorist strike. A cross-sectional survey of postgraduate trainees was conducted at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center and Civil Hospital Karachi from 21st July 2007 to ...

Medical doctors leaving less developed countries are now part of a global labour market. This doctor migration has been extensively studied from economic and health systems perspectives. Seldom, however has the specific role of the conflict or the collapsing state been considered as a cause of migration. Using hospital staffing ...

BACKGROUND: Many doctors are dissatisfied with their jobs, which is due to long working hours and overwork. This can affect patient care and reduce quality of care. OBJECTIVES: To study job satisfaction among doctors in a tertiary hospital in Delhi and the various factors related with it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the quality of out-of-hours ENT on-call cover by junior doctors, in view of the European Working Time Directive and the recent changes in the National Health Service workforce due to the 'Modernising Medical Careers' initiative, in England. METHODS: We performed a national survey of first-on-call doctors for ...

Becoming a physician is a lifelong journey, not merely the completion of medical school and postgraduate training. For those pedagogues that wish to train doctors as technicians the notion that there is something heroic and romantic in a physician's life is quaint, old fashioned, and out of date! In today's ...

Doctor ties are often contaminated with bacteria, and it has been suggested that they should not be worn. We have compared bacterial counts from the ties and shirt pockets of 50 doctors. Counts were higher (P = .002) from ties that were rarely, if ever, cleaned than from shirts that ...

Adam Zamenhof was greatly influenced by his father, Ludwik Zamenhof, who designed the international language Esperanto. Like his father, he became an ophthalmologist and joined the Esperanto movement. He published in the field of ophthalmology and was soon chosen as head of an ophthalmology department. He subsequently became Chief of ...

The Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa), as it was formerly known, came into being in 1978 following an Act of Parliament that motivated for the establishment of a medical university to rectify the dire underrepresentation of the black community in the South African health system. The main aim was ...

An electronic survey on substance-induced epileptic crisis was conducted in order to investigate whether doctors, who recognise their own prescription errors, increase their therapeutic aggressiveness, resulting in a so-called "iatrogenicity cascade". Two pairs of clinical vignettes were constructed, in which a patient suffers from iatrogenic (original version) or non-iatrogenic (control ...

OBJECTIVE: Greek poets from the archaic and early classical periods frequently depicted doctors alongside political and military leaders and victorious sportsmen. The mythology of ancient physicians found in such sources may give us clues as to how doctors could be viewed and represented by other segments of society, then and ...

CONTEXT: Despite the crucial role that autopsy plays in the development of the science and practice of medicine, autopsy rates have been declining throughout the world in recent decades. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors influencing the acceptance of autopsies in Nigeria. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of the knowledge, attitude, and perceptions of ...

Despite the murder of three-fourths of Croatia's Jews, Croatian doctors, representatives of the Ministry of Health, and other government figures saved 142 Jewish physicians by mobilizing them for a mission to alleviate endemic syphilis in Bosnia. Twenty-seven others were recruited into the Home Guard. Along with members of their families, ...

BACKGROUND: Spirometry is a cost-effective diagnostic tool for evaluation of lung function and for case-finding in a resource-limited setting. The acceptance of this test depends on the awareness of its indications and the ability to interpret the results. No studies have assessed the knowledge of spirometry among Nigerian doctors. The ...

INTRODUCTION: Implementing foundation and specialty training programmes within emergency medicine raised concerns about the potential work productivity and effectiveness of new junior doctors. Between August 2006 and July 2007 senior house officers (SHO) on 6-month posts and foundation year 2 (FY2) doctors on 4-month placements worked on the same roster, ...

When I began medical school in 1956, physicians were always referred to as doctors and sick persons were always referred to as patients. In recent times, those of us who are physicians are often referred to as caregivers or providers by administrative staff, and the sick individuals we treat are ...

Monitoring documentation procedures closely, and providing a financial incentive for your physicians to improve their documentation practices, literally can save your hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here are some keys to establishing such a program: Have coders review charts, determine what the doctor should have documented, and how much ...

AIM: Workplace bullying is a growing concern amongst health professionals. Our aim was to explore the frequency, nature, and extent of workplace bullying in an Auckland Hospital (Auckland, New Zealand). METHOD: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of house officers and registrars at a tertiary hospital was conducted. RESULTS: There was an ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate completeness and accuracy of record keeping by comparison of documentation and actual events, recorded on video and through a force-monitoring device, during simulated shoulder dystocia. DESIGN: An observational study. SETTING: Six maternity units in South West of England. POPULATION: Seventy-one midwives and 39 doctors. METHODS: Doctors and ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can reduce performance. The association between PTSD and other psychopathologies among hospital doctors was examined using self-report questionnaires during a wave of suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Thirty-three doctors with PTSD symptoms and 155 without were compared on coping, burnout and acceptance of treatment. Doctors with PTSD ...

There is growing consensus that multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs) are the optimal means of arriving at a comprehensive treatment plan for cancer patients. However, if a patient was grieved by a decision made by an MDM and wished to recover damages, the courts would find all involved consultants responsible for decisions ...

A 36 year old laborer was pronounced dead by the casualty doctor on arrival to the hospital. To avoid blame, witnesses and fellow workers fabricated a scenario that resulted in the doctor certify death as due to myocardial infarction. The body was then taken to the mortuary of the Department ...

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 was partially implemented in April 2007. Doctors should be aware of the Act and what implications it has on their clinical practice. This survey looked at the knowledge of physicians and psychiatrists regarding assessing capacity within the Act by means of a questionnaire. The results ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine perceived preparedness of Australian hospital-based prevocational doctors for resuscitation skills and management of emergencies, and to identify differences between doctors who perceive themselves well prepared and those who perceive themselves poorly prepared for emergencies, in demographics and exposure to desired learning methods. METHODS: Questionnaire consisting of a ...

BACKGROUND: In paediatric inpatients, medication errors occur as frequently as 1 in 4.2 drug orders, with up to 80% of these being prescribing errors. CONTEXT: The children's unit of a district general hospital in West Yorkshire, UK. KEY MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT: Prescribing errors and preventable adverse drug events STRATEGIES FOR ...

This study explores novel characterizations of turn taking structure and its interaction and evaluative correlates. The Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) was applied to videotapes of 51 physicians with a simulated patient (SP) to create a variety of novel turn taking measures including turn frequency, rate of interactivity, density, duration, ...

BACKGROUND: Echocardiography is one of the cornerstones of cardiovascular investigation. The escalating demands on echocardiography services necessitate close examination of how we organize our departments on a day-to-day basis, in order to provide a consistent, high-quality service. AIM: To evaluate current transthoracic echocardiography practice in the UK. DESIGN: National postal ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between computerization of physician orders and prescribing medication errors. Data Sources. Studies published in English language were identified through MEDLINE (1990 through December 2005), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and bibliographies of retrieved articles. Of 252 identified in the search, 12 (4.8 percent) original ...

AIMS: To describe alcohol use, and the prevalence and predictors of hazardous drinking, among hospital doctors. METHODS: Data were collected by anonymous mail survey in 2006, from a representative national sample of 1917 (58% response rate) hospital doctors in Germany. Alcohol use was measured using the AUDIT-C, scores of 5 ...

Henry Norman Bethune was a physician and surgeon from Canada. He had a highly impressive medical career in Montreal but did his most important work in China where he cared for soldiers on the battlefield. He died in 1939 and was recognized as a hero, but only much later received ...

Richard von Volkmann (1830-1889), one of the most important surgeons of the 19(th) century, is regarded as one of the fathers of orthopaedic surgery. He was a contemporary of Langenbeck, Esmarch, Lister, Billroth, Kocher, and Trendelenburg. He was head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Halle, Germany ...

Indian healthcare is in the process of offering a plethora of services to customers hailing largely from India and from neighboring countries. The Indian hospital sector consists of private "nursing homes" and government and charitable missionary hospitals. Government and missionary hospitals determine their charges according to patients' income levels and ...

While computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is still in its infancy as far as adoption goes (<10% of North American hospitals have implemented CPOE), most organizations are planning to utilize CPOE in the future. However, one of the major questions on most hospitals' minds is, "Will physicians accept and use ...