Management of hiccups in palliative care patients.

Persistent hiccups are a frustrating experience for palliative care patients, and can have a profound impact on their quality of life. This article provides an evidence-based approach overview of the causes and treatment of this not infrequently debilitating condition for such patients, with a management algorithm. In situations where no readily reversible cause is identified, or where simple physical manoeuvres, such as breath holding have failed, a systematic approach is required.

Outcomes and opportunities: a nurse-led model of chronic disease management in Australian general practice.

The Australian government's commitment to health service reform has placed general practice at the centre of its agenda to manage chronic disease. Concerns about the capacity of GPs to meet the growing chronic disease burden has stimulated the implementation and testing of new models of care that better utilise practice nurses (PN). This paper reports on a mixed-methods study nested within a larger study that trialled the feasibility and acceptability of a new model of nurse-led chronic disease management in three general practices.

A decade of Australian Rural Clinical School graduates--where are they and why?

Introduction: The Australian Rural Clinical School (RCS) initiative has been addressing the rural medical workforce shortage at the medical education level for over a decade. A major expectation of this initiative is that it will improve rural medical workforce recruitment and subsequent retention through a rurally based undergraduate clinical training experience. The longitudinal nature of these workforce initiatives means that definitive evidence of its impact on the shortage of rural doctors is yet to be provided; however, to date cross-sectional studies are accumulating a measure of efficacy for these initiatives by monitoring early career factors such as internship location choice and speciality choice of RCS graduates.

A nurse led model of chronic disease care - an interim report.

Background: Chronic condition management in general practice is projected to account for 50% of all consultations by 2051. General practices under present workforce conditions will be unable to meet this demand. Nurse led collaborative care models of chronic disease management have been successful overseas and are proposed as one solution.

Coping with increasing numbers of medical students in rural clinical schools: options and opportunities.

The critical shortage of the rural medical workforce in Australia continues. There is pressure on medical schools to produce not only more doctors, but to supply them in geographical areas of need. The latest policy to tackle these problems will increase medical student numbers while the supply of clinical teachers and patients for teaching remains static.

Rural and remote health research: key issues for health providers in southern Queensland.

Objective: To determine what community health service providers in rural southern Queensland considered were major issues affecting their efficacy. Results will inform the future research strategy of the Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health with the aim of addressing specific regional needs.

Design: Interactive research workshops.

Will Australian rural clinical schools be an effective workforce strategy? Early indications of their positive effect on intern choice and rural career interest.

Objective: To use short-term indicators (hospital internship choice, and interest in a future rural career) to assess how the University of Queensland rural clinical school is meeting its program objectives.

Design: Cross-sectional quantitative data collected through self-report questionnaires.

Setting: University of Queensland rural clinical school (UQRCS).

Tradition and technology: teaching rural medicine using an internet discussion board.

Introduction: The aim of the Rural Medicine Rotation (RMR) at the University of Queensland is to give all third year medical students exposure to, and an understanding of, clinical practice in Australian rural or remote locations. Because the primary role of the Rural Clinical School is to improve medical recruitment and retention in rural areas, the provision of positive student learning experiences and subsequent ability to make adequately informed rural career choices is of fundamental importance. A difficulty in achieving this is the relatively short period of student clinical placements, in only one or two rural or remote locations.