www.ums.ac.uk components of the curriculum are, little clinically applied consent teaching takes place2. As a result when junior medical staff hit the ward they are often silently overwhelmed by the task of consenting patients when they have little experience in the proposed procedure. This may cause increased levels of stress for both the patient and junior doctor and may lead to the provision...

Increasing numbers of people in the community have long-term urinary catheters, but catheterisation is not a risk free option and it can be associated with increased morbidity1. It is an invasive procedure that is sometimes unjustifi ed and can be neglected when in place2. When used appropriately though, it can add to a patient’s quality of life. In this article, Linda Nazarko discusses the ris...

Hydrolytic cleavage of large, inert proteins into smaller, active products is a common event in biology. The active products usually enjoy brief useful lifespans before they themselves are cleaved into inactive fragments. Prototypic participants in this process include clotting factors, complement, and digestive enzymes. Angiotensin II (Ang II) was the first polypeptide hormone recognized as th...