Breaking bad news: evaluation study on self-perceived competences and views of medical and nursing students taking part in a collaborative workshop

Goals of the work To identify possible effects of an interprofessional breaking bad news course for medical and nursing students on perceived key communication skills and to elicit the views of participants on interprofessional aspects of breaking bad news.Participants and methods Medical and nursing students attending an optional course on breaking bad news received a structured questionnaire on self-perceived communication skills and views on interprofessional aspects at the beginning and end of the course.Main results Forty-seven out of 54 students completed the evaluation questionnaires (response rate=87%). Medical students and nursing students rated their key communication skills after the course as significantly better compared with the beginning of the course. Medical students and nursing students disagreed with the statement that a course format for only one of the professional groups would have been more effective than the interprofessional course concept.Conclusions Students valued the concept of the interprofessional course positively. The improvement of self-perceived communication skills may be interpreted as a positive effect of the teaching session. Further research is necessary to develop strategies to implement a collaborative approach in breaking bad news in clinical practice.     

Evaluating educational preparation for a health education role in practice: the case of medication education

Current health care policy and practice contexts in the UK point to the importance of nurses' ability to make an effective contribution to educating patients about medication, as part of their role in health education and health promotion. Nurses' potential contribution to this important activity will inevitably be dependent on knowledge and skills acquired during preregistration and postregistration programmes of education. Against this backdrop, changes in pre and postregistration nurse education in the UK in the past decade highlight the importance and timeliness of evaluating the adequacy of educational preparation for a medication role. This paper reports on the findings from an evaluation of UK educational preparation for a medication education role in practice. A case study design was used to investigate current educational preparation at three education institutions. Multiple methods of data collection at each site involved focus group discussions with lecturers and practitioners, individual interviews with key personnel, nonparticipant observation of teaching sessions, postobservation interviews with students and curriculum analysis. Findings highlighted the importance of a number of dimensions of preparation for practice of such a role: the need for sufficient taught pharmacology; opportunities for application and integration of prerequisite knowledge and skills; the importance of practice-based learning; the need for an evidence-based curriculum, and the importance of clarifying outcomes and competencies required for a medication education role within pre and postregistration curricula. The paper concludes with a discussion and implications of the findings.     

‘The group was the only therapy which supported my needs,because it helped me feel normal and I was able to speak out with a voice’: A qualitative study of an integrated group treatment for dual diagnosis service users within a community mental health setting

Whilst the evidence for the efficacy of treatment interventions for individuals with dual diagnosis has been developing in recent decades, little is known about individual perceptions and the personal benefits of attending integrated treatment programmes within this population group. A qualitative methodology, Interpretive phenomenological analysis, was used to investigate the experiences of individuals with a range of complex mental health and coexisting substance misuse problems who took part in a psychoeducational group (PEG) programme. This comprised of social support and therapeutic peer group relationship facilitation. Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with 15 service users who successfully participated in this treatment programme. Findings identify the complexity of the therapeutic process and understanding of the treatment from the service users perspective. This included the importance of forming meaningful therapeutic relationships as an influential factor in countering a range of distressing and incompatible environmental and situational stressors, such as self‐regulatory control, self‐awareness of a need for change and the importance of integrated treatment in reducing the sense of stigma and exclusion linked with using mental health services. The study findings support the use of integrated treatment programmes in mental health services with a dual diagnosis population group.