A regional teaching fellow community of practice.

BACKGROUND: Increasing numbers of clinical teaching fellows are responsible for a significant proportion of undergraduate teaching nationally. Developing a regional community of practice can help overcome the isolation of these posts, with potential benefits for all involved. CONTEXT: A community of practice relies on the mutual engagement of people in a similar situation working towards a common goal. Working together and sharing resources enables teaching fellows to make the most of their post, which ultimately benefits those that they are teaching. INNOVATION: We developed a regional clinical teaching fellow community of practice in Bristol in 2010/11. Our community has continued to develop since completing our posts as clinical teaching fellows, and has provided a platform for new communities to develop amongst the groups of subsequent teaching fellows coming through. We encourage all regions who have clinical teaching fellows to develop a regional community of practice IMPLICATIONS: We encourage all regions who have clinical teaching fellows to develop a regional community of practice. We also encourage trainees to join TASME (Trainees in the Association for the Study of Medical Education), a new national community of practice for trainees involved in medical education.

The experiences of patients undergoing blood transfusion in a day hospice.

AIM: To explore patients' views on living with anaemia and undergoing blood transfusions in a day hospice. METHODS: This was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Ten patients who between them had received 90 transfusions were purposively sampled from the hospice day unit. The interviews were digitially recorded, transcribed anonymously, and the transcripts analysed using a phenomenological analysis framework. FINDINGS: Tiredness was the most common symptom of anaemia. Participants liked attending the day hospice instead of hospital for their transfusions owing to differences in transport, parking, waiting time, and space to ask questions. The majority had no concerns about hospice transfusion and would be happy to return for further treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Haematology patients can have a good experience when undergoing blood transfusion at a day hospice. Hospices should perhaps offer this procedure more widely.