OBJECTIVE Wristbands are recommended in the UK as a means of verifying patient identity but have been little studied. We aimed to document how wristbands are used in practice. DESIGN and participants Task analysis of wristband application and use, drawing on qualitative analysis of workplace observation of, and interviews with, clinical and non-clinical staff. SETTING Two acute district gen...

CONTEXT Current evidence suggests many clinical trial participants have incomplete understanding of research objectives and methods. OBJECTIVE Determine consent standards compliance, satisfaction with facility and study staff, and research subject understanding of clinical trials. DESIGN Retrospective review of responses gathered when subjects were interviewed at the inception of clinical t...

BACKGROUND Peer teaching is now used in medical education with its value increasingly being recognised. It is not yet established whether students differ in their satisfaction with teaching by peer-teachers compared to those taught by academic or clinical staff. This study aimed to establish satisfaction with communication skills teaching between these three teaching groups. METHODS Students ...

Despite the existence of effective psychological interventions for people diagnosed with schizophrenia, these continue to be underutilized. This problem is most critical in the case of so called " treatment-refractory " patients, where, paradoxically, effective interventions with among the strongest evidence base in psychiatry exist – namely – inpatient social-learning-based rehabilitation prog...

INTRODUCTION During 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the US Gulf Coast, displacing approximately two million people. With >250,000 evacuees in shelters, volunteers from the American Red Cross (ARC) and other nongovernmental and faith-based organizations provided services. The objective of this study was to evaluate the composition, pre-deployment training, and recognition of scenarios w...

OBJECTIVE The study aimed to establish current levels of overseas volunteering and placement activity across all staff grades within the National Health Service (NHS) in the North West of England. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. INSTRUMENT Descriptive statistics. SETTING 4 main regional hospitals in the North West of England, and additional NHS staff training events. PARTICIPANTS Conveni...

BACKGROUND Trial research has predominantly focused on patient and staff understandings of trial concepts and/or motivations for taking part, rather than why treatment recommendations may or may not be followed during trial delivery. This study sought to understand why there was limited attainment of the glycaemic target (HbA(1c) ≤6.5%) among patients who participated in the Treating to Target ...

BACKGROUND Ensuring safe and appropriate service delivery is central to a high quality maternity service. With this in mind, over recent years much attention has been given to the development of evidence-based clinical guidelines, staff education and risk reporting systems. Less attention has been given to assessing staff perceptions of a service's safety and quality and what factors may influe...