Discontinuity of care at end of life: a qualitative exploration of OOH end of life care.

Objective: This study aimed to understand the experiences of palliative care patients when accessing or making decisions about out of hours (OOH) services. It also aimed to illuminate barriers and enablers to accessing appropriate and timely care following the introduction of the 2004 New General Medical Services Contract.

Method: Longitudinal prospective qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and telephone interviews over 6 months and analysed for thematic content.

Can sharing stories change practice? A qualitative study of an interprofessional narrative-based palliative care course.

A series of six interprofessional palliative care meetings used narrative, with participants sharing stories from their professional experience in facilitated small groups. The course was attended by doctors, nurses, social workers and emergency care practitioners. The course was evaluated by telephone interview with 19 of the 28 participants.

Learning in interprofessional teams: AMEE Guide no 38.

This guide is for health and social care professionals who teach or guide others' learning before and after qualification, in formal courses or the workplace. It clarifies the understanding of interprofessional learning and explores the concept of teams and team working. Illustrated by examples from practice, the practicalities of effective interprofessional learning are described, and the underlying concepts of patient-centred care, excellent communication, development of capacity and clarity of roles that underpin this explored.

Parents' difficulties with decisions about childhood immunisation.

Uptake of childhood immunisation fluctuates in the UK. Convenience, access and parents' relationships with professionals influence uptake. This study explores the decision-making by parents about their children's immunisation through focus groups with analysis to identify categories of concern.

The effect of patient self-completion agenda forms on prescribing and adherence in general practice: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: What the patient wants from a general practice consultation and what the doctor believes they want are not always the same thing. This mismatch may lead to unwanted and unnecessary prescribing.

Aim: To study the effect of a one-page form completed by patients before their consultation and given to the doctor at the start of the consultation, in terms of a reduction in prescribing, satisfaction with the consultation and adherence with prescribed medication.

"You feel so hopeless": a qualitative study of GP management of acute back pain.

Background: Biopsychosocial management of non-specific back pain in general practice has been problematical, with frequent inappropriate referral for imaging and secondary care interventions and lack of self-confidence in the ability to provide evidence-based care.

Aims: To examine GP attitudes to managing back pain as a biopsychosocial problem in order to inform future educational strategies that may improve practice.

Methods: Twenty-one GPs from separate practices within the Dorset and Somerset Strategic Health Authority area (UK) participated in telephone interviews leading to the development of vignettes to refine the theoretical framework for subsequent focus group interviews about evidence-based back pain management.

The Dorset Seedcorn Project: interprofessional learning and continuous quality improvement in primary care.

There is a need to develop models of practice-based learning that are effective in bringing about improvement in the quality of care that patients receive. This paper describes a facilitated practice-based project where five general practices in Dorset formed interprofessional teams that worked over a six-month period using a continuous quality improvement (CQI) approach to make a change in areas of importance to them. All the teams completed the project and planned and implemented demonstrable changes.

One Dorset practice's experience of using a quality improvement approach to practice professional development planning.

There has been considerable discussion on and recommendation of the idea that Practice Professional Development Plans (PPDPs) should develop the whole practice as a healthcare resource, integrating and improving the educational process. In this study the PPDP concept was launched in a practice in Dorset, following the Bournemouth PPDP framework. The practice linked the educational activities of individuals, small working groups and the whole team to meeting the needs of the patients using a continuous quality improvement approach.