The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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The misuse of cognitive enhancers by medical students: a cross-sectional study using questionnaires.
The misuse of prescription psychostimulants (PPs) is growing among medical students, who are subject to high levels of stress, not least because of a demanding and competitive educational environment. ⋯ This study showed that more than one in ten final-year students have used PPs at least once during their studies, which can be explained mainly by challenging medical education context and personality traits. Tailored preventive strategies should be implemented.
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During the financial year 2021/2022, the PANORAMIC study utilised the primary care setting to provide vital research into oral antivirals for COVID-19, recruiting more than 26 000 participants. Alongside the relentless work conducted by practices in supporting vaccine research, the number of GPs recruiting to National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) portfolio studies in England remains consistently around 45% year on year despite the support offered by the NIHR. This figure varies across regions, falling to 23% in Greater Manchester, and rising to 95% in Northwest London, in 2022/2023. These figures suggest a regional inequality in access to potentially life-changing research from primary care providers. ⋯ Knowledge gained from these activities will help inform researchers and research organisations, such as the NIHR, to provide support and opportunities for GPs across England, ensuring that more of the population has access to clinical research opportunities through their GP.
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Rare diseases affect millions of people globally, with a lifetime incidence of 1 in 17. They are complex, multisystem, severe disease, and patients experience a diagnostic delay averaging 5.6 years with associated misdiagnoses, inappropriate treatments, and anxiety. MendelScan is a digital case-finding tool that uses structured primary care data to identify patients at risk of being affected by one of a series of rare diseases. This qualitative study explored primary healthcare professionals' experiences of implementing this technology. ⋯ This study provides a valuable insight into the experiences of primary care professionals using a novel tool to identify rare diseases. The potential of this tool is promising with benefits for skill development. Large-scale implementation faces challenges related to primary care capacity, data, and funding.
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To explore how to help make online consultation notes easier for patient audiences to understand. ⋯ Opening up online record access to include patient audiences necessitates a significant cultural shift in the way that consultation notes are written and used. To maximise NHS investment in this policy and avoid worsening health inequalities, it is essential to ensure that all patients can understand and access the benefits of online access to their notes. To do this, clinicians need to be supported to manage the challenges of writing for patient audiences, while continuing to maintain effective clinical care.
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Non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways were implemented in the UK in 2017 to address the needs of patients experiencing symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue, or GP 'gut feeling'. ⋯ The findings resulted in recommended messages for GPs to support patients on referral to NSS pathways, including the nature of the pathway, the team that will be responsible for their care, the multiple organ systems that will potentially be investigated, and what will happen if they don't find a cancer. Without this support, patients' difficulties in comprehending previous investigations and findings could result in delays, overtesting, or inadequately targeted investigations, hindering the effective use of their medical history.