Escape to the country: Lessons from interviews with rural general practice interns.

METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 rural general practice interns. RESULTS: Six main themes emerged: the social experience of rural/remote placements, the intern role, skill acquisition, challenges experienced by interns, placements reinforcing ideas of rural general practice and advice to future interns. Rural interns were positive about the program, reporting intensive learning experiences from a range of clinical environments. There were some challenges initially implementing the wave consulting model. The main difficulty faced by interns was isolation from peers/social support. DISCUSSION: Rural general practice intern terms support rural career pathways. Practice staff need to be mindful of the integration of interns into the practice environment, and programs need to provide training and support for the role.

Lost in translation: maximizing handover effectiveness between paramedics and receiving staff in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study is to investigate perceptions by paramedics and hospital receiving staff about what enables and constrains handover in the ED. METHODS: This is a qualitative study of interviews with 19 paramedics, 15 nurses and 16 doctors (n = 50) from ambulance services and ED in two states of Australia. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged that were evident at both sites and in the three professional groups. These were: difficulties in creating a shared cognitive picture, tensions between 'doing' and 'listening' and fragmenting communication. CONCLUSION: Recommendations arising from the present study as to how handover could be improved are the need for a common language between paramedics and staff in the ED, for shared experiences and understanding between the members of the team and for the development of a standardized approach to handover from paramedics to ED receiving staff.