The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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The expansion of the primary care workforce by employing a varied range of practitioners ('skill mix') is a key component of the General Practice Forward View (GPFV). The extent of skill mix change and where that has occurred has been examined using publicly available practice level workforce data. However, such data does not provide information regarding specific motivating factors behind employment decisions for individual practices nor future workforce plans. ⋯ Although data collection and analysis are ongoing, the results of the survey provide novel insights into the underlying motivating factors behind employment decisions, specifically for new roles such as pharmacists, PAs and paramedics.
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Electronic media are playing a negative role in people's lives and yet people are unaware of the hazardous effect. ⋯ Screen-time of ≤1 hour does not have any detrimental associations with poor school performance.
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Primary care records have traditionally served the needs and demands of clinicians rather than those of the patient. GP contracts in England state practices must promote and offer registered patients online access to their primary care record and research has shown benefits to both patients and clinicians of doing so. Despite this, we know little about patients' needs and expectations regarding online access. ⋯ Consultation with patients and carers about their experiences of accessing online records; support needs and preferred functions can provide useful insights to inform the future design of online record services.
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Palliative care is an important but often overlooked component of primary care. In Myanmar, early emergence of palliative care is being seen, however no formal community-based services yet exist. Present challenges include resource scarcity and inadequate education and training. ⋯ The greatest outcome from this workshop, by far, was the enthusiasm and awareness it generated, support was even gained from the President of the Myanmar Medical Association despite his initial reservations about developing this area. Ultimately, the workshop behaved as an advocate for the introduction of a regular palliative care lecture into the local Diploma in Family Medicine curriculum; it also spurred a group of GPs to further this work and turn the workshop into a regular teaching event.
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A considerable proportion of GPs' workload is dermatological. It is important to investigate what common skin conditions encountered in primary care can be self-managed, in an effort to alleviate the burden on primary care. ⋯ Certain dermatological conditions have more potential for self-management than others. Research into teledermatology as a means of addressing patient concern and providing clinical information is important in order to reduce unnecessary consultations.