Graduates' perceptions of the role and availability of career guidance at medical school.

Background: Very limited research has investigated the extent or the impact of career guidance provided to medical students.

Aims: We aimed to explore the perceptions of recent graduates of Irish medical schools of the availability, accessibility and utility of both formal and informal career advice resources during their university experience.

Methods: The study population was junior doctors in their first postgraduate year.

The association between physician staff numbers and mortality in English hospitals.

Background: Physician medical specialties place specific demands on medical staff. Often patients have multiple co-morbidities, frailty is common, and mortality rates are higher than other specialties such as surgery. The key intervention for patients admitted under physician subspecialties is the care provided on the ward.

The Great Gamble? A Mixed-Methods Study of Factors In˜fluencing Medical Students in Specialty Choice.

Career planning remains relatively unexplored as a domain of medical education. Our aim was to explore the career planning journey undertaken by medical students. Results Approximately one third of participants had decided their future specialty.

Cost-Utility Analysis of Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis Strategies for People Undergoing Elective Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement Surgeries in the English National Health Service.

Major orthopedic surgery, such as elective total hip replacement (eTHR) and elective total knee replacement (eTKR), are associated with a higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) than other surgical procedures. Little is known, however, about the cost-effectiveness of VTE prophylaxis strategies in people undergoing these procedures. The aim of this work was to assess the cost-effectiveness of these strategies from the English National Health Service perspective to inform NICE guideline (NG89) recommendations.

Ensuring a general medicine workforce for the future.

The acute hospital system in the NHS is in crisis, with the rising demands of treating elderly comorbid patients and limited financial and workforce resources. An increase in the workforce trained in and delivering general medical services seven days per week has been proposed as a solution to this crisis. The current trainee and consultant workforce is unable to provide this increase because of imbalances between training and service delivery, the different demands of large and small hospitals and the need to simultaneously provide high-quality specialised services.

Improving clinical practice in stroke through audit: results of three rounds of National Stroke Audit.

Background: The results of three rounds of National Stroke Audit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are compared.

Methods: Audit of the organization of stroke services and retrospective case-note audit of up to 40 consecutive cases admitted per hospital over a 3-month period was conducted in each of 1998, 1999 and 2001/02. The changes in the organizational, case-mix and process results of the hospitals that had participated in all three rounds were analysed.

Stroke unit care and outcome: results from the 2001 National Sentinel Audit of Stroke (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland).

Background And Purpose: Stroke unit care is one of the most powerful interventions available to help stroke patients. There are limited data available to assess the impact of stroke units in routine clinical practice outside randomized clinical trials. This article uses data from the 2001 to 2002 National Stroke Audit to assess the effectiveness of stroke unit care in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in delivering effective processes of care and in reducing case fatality and disability.