How we developed an emergency psychiatry training course for new residents using principles of high-fidelity simulation.

New psychiatry residents must rapidly acquire new clinical skills and learn to work effectively with new colleagues. In medical and surgical specialties, high-fidelity simulation with structured debriefing is widely used, but so far this has not been applied to psychiatry. We have developed a one-day simulation-based training course for emergency psychiatry which incorporates clinical and team-working skills training.

Simulation training for improving the quality of care for older people: an independent evaluation of an innovative programme for inter-professional education.

Introduction: This paper describes the evaluation of a 2-day simulation training programme for staff designed to improve teamwork and inpatient care and compassion in an older persons' unit.

Objective: The programme was designed to improve inpatient care for older people by using mixed modality simulation exercises to enhance teamwork and empathetic and compassionate care.

Methods: Healthcare professionals took part in: (a) a 1-day human patient simulation course with six scenarios and (b) a 1-day ward-based simulation course involving five 1-h exercises with integrated debriefing.

Acute rupture of a fibromuscular dysplasia related renal artery aneurysm: emergency treatment with a covered stent.

We report the successful exclusion of a ruptured left renal artery aneurysm as a first presentation of fibromuscular dysplasia in a haemodynamically unstable 57-year-old man. The aneurysm was repaired in an emergency setting by deployment of a covered stent with a satisfactory result. Follow-up computed tomography confirmed successful exclusion of the aneurysm.

Genetically modified plants and human health.

Genetically modified (or GM) plants have attracted a large amount of media attention in recent years and continue to do so. Despite this, the general public remains largely unaware of what a GM plant actually is or what advantages and disadvantages the technology has to offer, particularly with regard to the range of applications for which they can be used. From the first generation of GM crops, two main areas of concern have emerged, namely risk to the environment and risk to human health.