In BriefLimited diabetes numeracy may be an important factor affecting diabetes care and treatment adherence. This study assessed the relationship between the Diabetes Numeracy Test (DNT-15 score) and patient and treatment variables. Patients who had type 1 diabetes and those who received care from specialty centers had higher levels of numeracy, but this did not translate into improved glucose control.

Various multiple-disciplinary terms and concepts (although most commonly “interdisciplinarity,” which is used herein) are used to frame education, scholarship, research, and interactions within and outside academia. In principle, the premise of interdisciplinarity may appear to have many strengths; yet, the extent to which interdisciplinarity is embraced by the current generation of academics, the benefits and risks for doing so, and the barriers and facilitators to achieving interdisciplinarity, represent inherent challenges. Much has been written on the topic of interdisciplinarity, but to our knowledge there have been few attempts to consider and present diverse perspectives from scholars, artists, and scientists in a cohesive manner. As a team of 57 members from the Canadian College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (the College) who self-identify as being engaged or interested in interdisciplinarity, we provide diverse intellectual, cultural, and social perspectives. The goal of this paper is to share our collective wisdom on this topic with the broader community and to stimulate discourse and debate on the merits and challenges associated with interdisciplinarity. Perhaps the clearest message emerging from this exercise is that working across established boundaries of scholarly communities is rewarding, necessary, and is more likely to result in impact. However, there are barriers that limit the ease with which this can occur (e.g., lack of institutional structures and funding to facilitate cross-disciplinary exploration). Occasionally, there can be significant risk associated with doing interdisciplinary work (e.g., lack of adequate measurement or recognition of work by disciplinary peers). Solving many of the world’s complex and pressing problems (e.g., climate change, sustainable agriculture, the burden of chronic disease, and aging populations) demands thinking and working across long-standing, but in some ways restrictive, academic boundaries. Academic institutions and key support structures, especially funding bodies, will play an important role in helping to realize what is readily apparent to all who contributed to this paper—that interdisciplinarity is essential for solving complex problems; it is the new norm. Failure to empower and encourage those doing this research will serve as a great impediment to training, knowledge, and addressing societal issues.

Karen Collins provides a practical guide to undertaking a patient satisfaction survey. She outlines the background to patient satisfaction research and highlights some of the main issues surrounding patient satisfaction measures.

The highest percentage of participants indicated the third year of medical school was the time that they made residency selection decisions regarding what specialty they were interested in entering. No shifts regarding the importance of specific primary care residency choice factors were found between training status of respondents.

The priority to ensure patient safety and use resources effectively, demands attention and innovation. Video enhanced reflective practice (VERP) provides training based upon analysis of film clips of one's professional practice to develop practical insight into the processes of communication, so that effective changes can be made to ongoing behaviour and practice.In this case the focus was on multi-disciplinary communication within daily board rounds on an acute medicine and care of the elderly ward.Baseline assessment and post intervention testing of perceptions of change by both full and core team were undertaken to establish the impact of VERP training. In addition pre and post focus group discussion and film analysis supplemented evaluation.The findings support the view that after VERP training of a core team, board rounds were seen as consistently easier to participate in, providing improved focus, were more efficient in goal setting and resulting in better care for patients as well as improved pathways to discharge. This suggests benefits to the communication "culture" of a multidisciplinary team resulting in increased benefits for the wider team.It is concluded that the use of tailored VERP training for personal, professional and team development is relevant, feasible, and worthy of further testing and investigation. ProblemA board round is a process which should improve communication among the multi-disciplinary team (MDT), enhancing team working and providing a more coordinated approach to discharge planning.In our pilot ward, an acute medical and care of the elderly ward, board rounds had been in place for around three years. For the board round all team members are expected to assemble at 11.10 am each morning in front of the white board at the nurses station.This board contains patient details including planned date of discharge, any risk factors to patient safety and input from physiotherapy,occupational therapy or social work. The board rounds are attended by the nurse in charge, consultant, middle grade and junior doctors, junior and senior nurses, social worker, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and ward clerk among others. There follows a twenty minute discussion of the thirty inpatients in the ward with an emphasis on facilitating early and safe discharge. This process requires efficient communication of all and input from different members of the team depending on the case discussed. An inefficient board round process leads to delays in discharging patients. In our pilot ward it was recognised that board rounds were often not as efficient and useful as they could be.Rarely was it possible to contain the discussion to its allocated time of twenty minutes, and there were frequent distractions and often not all staff were present. Some improvement work had already been undertaken as part of a breakthrough series improvement collaborative (OPAC) in NHS Tayside which set out to improve the experience of older people in our acute care hospital wards.Several PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) ...