Doctors as leaders and governors.

Doctors working in healthcare are operating in complex adaptive systems that are unpredictable and have complex problems requiring new and unique skills. The Medical Council of New Zealand has specified a scope of practice for doctors involved in health system leadership, and there are several programmes of study that exist in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa NZ) to gain skills in this domain. It is crucial at this time of change that we understand why doctors as leaders and governors improve outcomes, the importance of training future medical leaders and how we validate these skills as well as the environment in which they operate.

Leadership and governance-what is needed to deliver the Aotearoa New Zealand health reforms.

Nil.

Exploring the role of communications in quality improvement: A case study of the 1000 Lives Campaign in NHS Wales.

Introduction: Effective communication is critical to successful large-scale change. Yet, in our experience, communications strategies are not formally incorporated into quality improvement (QI) frameworks. The 1000 Lives Campaign ('Campaign') was a large-scale national QI collaborative that aimed to save an additional 1000 lives and prevent 50 000 episodes of harm in Welsh health care over a 2-year period.

Enhancement of medical interns' levels of clinical skills competence and self-confidence levels via video iPods: pilot randomized controlled trial.

Background: Designing and delivering evidence-based medical practice for students requires careful consideration from medical science educators. Social Web (Web 2.0) applications are a part of today's educational technology milieu; however, empirical research is lacking to support the impact of interactive Web 2.

Female medical students may accrue less student loan debt than their male colleagues in New Zealand.

Aims: To quantify the current level of actual student loan debt in New Zealand (NZ) medical students at the time of graduation, and to investigate how debt burden relates to gender and ethnicity.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to all graduating students from The University of Auckland's School of Medicine in November 2006. This study looked specifically at debt attributable to a New Zealand Government Student Loan (NZGSL).

Passing the buck: clinical handovers at a tertiary hospital.

Aims: To survey house officers and nurses regarding timing, structure and content of clinical handover and compare these results. Secondary aims included the development of an 'on-call' sheet and the development of guidelines for handovers from the results collated.

Methods: 60 house officers (post graduate years 1-3) and 60 nurses working at Auckland City Hospital were asked to complete a survey covering various aspects of clinical handover in their current department.