Identity construction in medical student stories about experiences of disgust in early nursing home placements: a dialogical narrative analysis.

Objectives: To explore medical students' reflective essays about encounters with residents during preclinical nursing home placements.

Design: Dialogical narrative analysis aiming at how students characterise residents and construct identities in relation to them.

Setting: Medical students' professional identity construction through storytelling has been demonstrated in contexts including hospitals and nursing homes.

Experience-based learning: junior medical students' reflections on end-of-life care.

Context: Experience-based learning may contribute to confidence, competence and professional identity; early experiences may be particularly formative. This study explored how pre-clinical students make sense of their participation in the provision of end-of-life care within community settings.

Methods: We performed dialogic narrative analysis on essays written by junior medical students in New Zealand.

Medical student stories of participation in patient care-related activities: the construction of relational identity.

Professional identity formation is acknowledged as one of the fundamental tasks of contemporary medical education. Identity is a social phenomenon, constructed through participation in everyday activities and an integral part of every learning interaction. In this paper we report from an Australian ethnographic study into how medical students and patients use narrative to construct their identities.

The role of emotions in health professional ethics teaching.

In this paper, we put forward the view that emotions have a legitimate and important role in health professional ethics education. This paper draws upon our experience of running a narrative ethics education programme for ethics educators from a range of healthcare disciplines. It describes the way in which emotions may be elicited in narrative ethics teaching and considers the appropriate role of emotions in ethics education for health professionals.

Assessing the predictive value of HIV indicator conditions in general practice: a case-control study using the THIN database.

Background: UK HIV guidelines identify 37 clinical indicator conditions for adult HIV infection that should prompt an HIV test. However, few data currently exist to show their predictive value in identifying undiagnosed HIV.

Aim: To identify symptoms and clinical diagnoses associated with HIV infection and assess their relative importance in identifying HIV cases, using data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) general practice database.

Practising engagement: Infusing communication with empathy and compassion in medical students' clinical encounters.

Patients commonly experience some physicians' ways of interacting with them as detached and indicating a lack of concern for their welfare. This is likely to add to the distress experienced by a person seeking healing, as well as interfering with the exchange of information required for good medical care. Despite contemporary medical schools' focus on clinical communication, and on training for 'patient-centred' practice, problems with the relations between doctors and patients are still widely acknowledged.

The prevalence of erectile dysfunction in post-treatment colorectal cancer patients and their interests in seeking treatment: a cross-sectional survey in the west-midlands.

Introduction: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a recognized complication of colorectal cancer treatment, particularly if surgery is below the recto-sigmoid junction (RSJ), and is an important quality-of-life issue. Previous studies have generated inconsistent prevalence estimates.

Aim: We aimed to establish the prevalence of ED in postsurgery colorectal cancer patients and to establish what proportion wished to seek treatment.

The use of herbal medicines by people with cancer: a qualitative study.

Background: Between 7% and 48% of cancer patients report taking herbal medicines after diagnosis. Because of the possibility of unwanted side effects or interactions with conventional treatments, people with cancer are generally advised to tell the professionals treating them if they are taking any form of medication, including herbal medicines and supplements. Studies suggest that only about half do so and that the professionals themselves have at best very limited knowledge and feel unable to give informed advice.

A prospective study to assess the value of MMP-9 in improving the appropriateness of urgent referrals for colorectal cancer.

Background: Bowel cancer is common and is a major cause of death. Most people with bowel symptoms who meet the criteria for urgent referral to secondary care will not be found to have bowel cancer, and some people who are found to have cancer will have been referred routinely rather than urgently. If general practitioners could better identify people who were likely to have bowel cancer or conditions that may lead to bowel cancer, the pressure on hospital clinics may be reduced, enabling these patients to be seen more quickly.