Preregistration house officers in the Thames regions: changes in quality of training after four years.

OBJECTIVE: To measure changes in the training and workload of preregistration house officers over four years. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire. SETTING: The Thames health regions. PARTICIPANTS: 1049 preregistration house officers. RESULTS: Response rate was 69% (725 replies). The proportion of house officers officially on duty > 83 hours a week fell from at least 42% to 21%, and the proportion officially on duty < or = 72 hours rose from no more than 9% to 40%. Adequate guidance in breaking bad news increased from 25% to 46% (p < 0.0001; 95% confidence interval for difference, 16.2% to 25.8%) and guidance in pain control increased from 36% to 46% (p < 0.01; 5.0% to 15.0%). The number of house officers attending an induction course increased from 61% to 94% (p < 0.001; 28.9% to 37.1%). There was no change in the proportion unable to attend formal educational sessions because of clinical commitments or in levels of satisfaction with consultants' educational supervision. The median number of inpatients under house officers' care fell from 20 to 17, but the numbers of patients clerked in an average week showed little change. House officers were less satisfied with the clinical experience their post provided (proportion dissatisfied rose from 30% to 39%; p < 0.01; 4.2% to 13.8%) and less enthusiastic about recommending their post to a friend (proportion neutral or not recommending rose from 30% to 42%, p < 0.0001; 7.9% to 16.9%). CONCLUSION: Despite progress in reducing hours of duty and providing induction courses, the training that hospitals and consultants provide for house officers is still unsatisfactory and inconsistent with the General Medical Council's recommendations.

Preregistration house officers in eight English regions: survey of quality of training.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of preregistration house officer training in eight English regions. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire. SETTING: Thames, East Anglian, Mersey, Northern, and Wessex regions. PARTICIPANTS: 1670 preregistration house officers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Education, hours of work, workload, conditions of work, and attitudes to job and medicine as a career. RESULTS: Response rate was 69% (1146 replies). Most house officers had attended induction courses (1036/1129 (92%)); 74% (757/1024) found them satisfactory. The proportions who had never received adequate guidance on how to break bad news and how to control pain were 59% (670/1135) and 56% (634/1136) respectively. There was much variation between regions. Overall, 65% (736/1138) reported confidence in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Most respondents (95% (1089/1142)) worked an on call rota, 3% (36) a partial shift, and 0.6% (seven) a full shift; 19% (202) were on duty for average weekly hours that exceeded the targets for 1 April 1993. House officers had a median of 20 patients under their care and clerked a median of 10 emergency cases, six routine cases, and two day cases a week. Over half (690/1128 (61%)) could not obtain hot food after 8 pm, 20% (223/1095) did not always have clean sheets available in their on call room, and 45% (462/1036) did not consider the protection of staff against violence to be adequate at their hospital. The most important problems with the preregistration year were inappropriate or non-medical tasks (ranked first by 360 respondents), hours of work (359), and pay for out of hours work (167). Overall 57% (646/1125) would encourage a friend to apply for their post, but only 24% (266/1112) would encourage a friend to take up medicine and 44% (494/1112) would discourage the idea. CONCLUSIONS: House officers' training is deficient in important respects, with inappropriate tasks and heavy clinical workloads impeding the provision of proper education.

Povidone-iodine bowel irrigation before resection of colorectal carcinoma.

Preoperative mechanical bowel preparation, peroperative topical antiseptic measures, and postoperative antibiotic therapy have all been shown to reduce infection after colorectal surgery. We report the results of a randomised trial of preoperative irrigation with a 10% aqueous solution of povidone-iodine (Betadine) versus water in patients undergoing major resection for large bowel carcinoma. All patients had mechanical bowel preparation, preoperative topical povidone-iodine and per and postoperative antibiotics. Of 22 study patients only one (4.6%) developed abdominal wound infection, whereas in 23 controls nine (39.1%) did so (P less than 0.01). In three of the study patients cultures of swabs taken at operation from the transected bowel ends showed no bacterial growth. Arguably the bacterial population would have been markedly reduced in other patients. These results suggest that povidone-iodine irrigation before large bowel resection reduces wound sepsis.

Tetanus associated with dental sepsis.

A case of tetanus is described in a 71-year-old female. Her initial presentation was trismus and dysphagia following a tongue laceration by grossly carious teeth. Subsequently, she developed muscular spasm which led to the diagnosis of tetanus. This paper discusses tetanus generally, and the management of the condition.