Empathy, well-being and stressful experiences in the clinical learning environment.

Objective: This study examines whether students in the clinical phase show reduced well-being and lower empathy scores compared to preclinical students. Furthermore, it explores students' most stressful experiences.

Methods: A cross-sectional mixed-methods study was conducted among medical students of the revised patient- and student-centred curriculum at Witten/Herdecke University (Germany).

Reflective practice and its role in facilitating creative responses to dilemmas within clinical communication - a qualitative analysis.

Background: Good communication is a major factor in delivering high quality in care. Research indicates that current communication skills training alone might not sufficiently enable students to find context-specific creative solutions to individual complex personal and interpersonal challenges in the clinical context. This study explores medical students' experiences with real communication dilemmas in a facilitated group setting.

Cost-utility analysis of a preventive home visit program for older adults in Germany.

Background: Most older adults want to live independently in a familiar environment instead of moving to a nursing home. Preventive home visits based on multidimensional geriatric assessment can be one strategy to support this preference and might additionally reduce health care costs, due to the avoidance of costly nursing home admissions. The purpose of this study was to analyse the cost-effectiveness of preventive home visits from a societal perspective in Germany.

Clinical practice and self-awareness as determinants of empathy in undergraduate education: a qualitative short survey at three medical schools in Germany.

Study Aim: Physician empathy constitutes an outcome-relevant aim of medical education. Yet, the factors promoting and inhibiting physician empathy have not yet been extensively researched, especially in Germany. In this study, we explored German medical students' views of the factors promoting and inhibiting their empathy and how their experiences were related to their curricula.

Effectiveness of preventive home visits in reducing the risk of falls in old age: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Falls in older people are a major public health issue, but the underlying causes are complex. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive home visits as a multifactorial, individualized strategy to reduce falls in community-dwelling older people.

Methods: Data were derived from a prospective randomized controlled trial with follow-up examination after 18 months.

Growing old at home - a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of preventive home visits to reduce nursing home admissions: study protocol [NCT00644826].

Background: Regarding demographic changes in Germany it can be assumed that the number of elderly and the resulting need for long term care is increasing in the near future. It is not only an individual's interest but also of public concern to avoid a nursing home admission. Current evidence indicates that preventive home visits can be an effective way to reduce the admission rate in this way making it possible for elderly people to stay longer at home than without home visits.