Multidisciplinary team meetings in primary care: could they help to attract the GPs of tomorrow?

The neuropalliative multidisciplinary team-Members and their roles

Neurodegenerative conditions are prominent contributors to both morbidity and mortality worldwide. They pose a significant challenge to health professionals, health systems, and the often unpaid, untrained family members and carers. The many and varied challenges encountered are best managed by a multidisciplinary neuropalliative team, as it is impossible for a single clinician to possess and deliver the wide range of skills and services required to optimally care for these patients. This chapter discusses the assembly, maintenance, and care of such a team, as well as potential difficulties and solutions in domains such as funding, training, geographical remoteness, as well as the potential lack of awareness and acceptance by colleagues. A comprehensive description of the role of all possible team members is discussed. The chapter outlines the concept, content, and potential benefits of a multidisciplinary team in neuropalliative care. Its thesis is twofold: that multidisciplinary care is vital and, second, that the sum of the whole of a team can be greater than the individual parts with respect to organization, planning, experience, and creativity of approach. With all these factors considered, and implemented wherever possible, we may all move closer to optimizing the comfort and care of our shared neuropalliative patients.

Twelve Tips for teaching clinical and communication skills online

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Teaching and learning online is a long-established pedagogical approach in medical education. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has escalated the use and development of online teaching and with it have come a number of benefits and challenges. In this article the authors consider these benefits and challenges in relation to the teaching and learning of clinical and communication skills, drawing on up-to-date evidence and their extensive experience of using online learning before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors have identified twelve tips to support others in constructing and developing online clinical and communication skills for medical students taking into account educational vision and curriculum, the educational multi-disciplinary team, feedback and evaluation, and what to do when things go wrong. This article provides a practical guide to teaching clinical and communication skills in a new learning environment, which is likely to be a much more prominent feature of medical education in the future.