Background:Increasing awareness around patient safety and efforts to reduce medical errors has become a priority in the modern health care system. Losing needles during laparoscopic procedures is an uncommon occurrence; however, it poses a significant dilemma for the operating surgeon because retrieval can be a major challenge even for highly skilled and experienced operators.Objective:The objective of this paper was to review the current literature and highlight this potentially serious issue and suggest a method of dealing with this uncommon occurrence.Methods:A comprehensive literature search was conducted using several Internet search engines including PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect.Conclusions:The risks associated with retained small foreign bodies remains unknown, and there are few reports and little consensus on how surgeons should manage retained needles or other small foreign bodies during laparoscopic surgery. We propose an algorithm that may be implemented as a standard operating procedure in surgical theatres when a surgeon is faced with such a dilemma.

BackgroundThere is increasing pressure on emergency services within the NHS requiring efficient, rapid assessment and management of patients. A subsequent reduction in hospital admissions reduces overall costs with an aim to improve quality of care. At the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital we run a one stop emergency surgical clinic. With strict criteria for admission to this clinic we have established a care pathway for those patients requiring urgent surgical review but not necessarily hospital admission.Materials and methodsWe reviewed our initial referral pathway to the emergency surgical assessment clinic. New guidelines were distributed to the local Care Coordination Centre (CCC) through which GP referrals to the clinic were made. A re-audit carried out 6 weeks later assessed change in clinical practice.ResultsWith the introduction of guidelines for referral we significantly increased the percentage of appropriate referrals to the one stop emergency surgical clinic (42.9%–79.4%, p = 0.000017). The majority (75.8%) of appropriate referrals can be successfully managed on an urgent outpatient basis. Appropriate referrals unsuitable for discharge from clinic had genuine reasons for admission such as abnormal results on assessment, or a need for surgery. 97.8% of referrals not deemed appropriate for the clinic were admitted for inpatient management.ConclusionBy providing suitable guidance for referring practitioners we have optimised our clinic use significantly and improved our acute ambulatory surgical care. We have reduced admissions, provided rapid treatment and have established a service that helps address the ever increasing demand on acute services within the NHS.

This project explored the experiences of a small sample ( N = 6) of Australian academics with the use of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool in higher education contexts. This article describes two case studies of academic uses of digital storytelling, along with interpretive analysis of six semi-structured interviews of academics working within media and communication studies and their reflections on the potential of digital storytelling to enhance student learning and the student experience. Three consistent themes emerged, based around issues of definition, the need for ‘constructive alignment’, and resource and planning requirements. Academics regarded digital storytelling as a complement to, not a substitute for, conventional methods of learning and assessment such as the critical research essay. Overall, reservations exist regarding the promise of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool that some academics have recently claimed for it.

This article provides an account of a collaborative teaching and learning project conducted in the English programme at the University of Tasmania in 2015. The project, Blended English, involved the development, implementation, and evaluation of learning and teaching activities using online and mobile technologies for undergraduate English units. The authors draw on the project’s findings from survey and focus group data, and staff reflective practice and peer review, to make the case for increasing technology-enhanced teaching and learning in English literary studies. The blended approach described in this article has the capacity to enhance disciplinary learning; increase accessibility for students in remote and regional areas; facilitate deeper scholarly enquiry; and encourage staff to develop innovative, collaborative, and flexible teaching and learning practices. Appendix 1 presents examples of the project’s practical outcomes, as well as outlines of and reflections on three of the activities developed during the project.

Online education is an increasingly important element of contemporary higher education, but many argue its potential has not been fully realised. Attempts to analyse the limits on educators' uptake or effective implementation of online education emphasise individual and institutional adaptation to technology, at the expense of understanding the context of its introduction and use. In contrast, we apply Biesta's (2006) and Connell's (2013) conceptualisation of the education encounter as a tool for analysing educators' engagement with online education technologies. We argue that educators' uses of these technologies must be contextualised within the ideologies and practices of neo-liberal universities. Educators' sometimes tentative uptake of online education reflects their attempts to manage the ideals of the education encounter with new managerialist demands. We conclude that understanding how and why educators use online education necessitates accounting for the importance of relationships between educators and students, and educators and their institutions.