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The applied knowledge test (AKT) is a computer-delivered multiple choice test offered three times a year. It forms part of the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) examination, which licenses doctors for UK general practice. This paper investigates the effect of current quality assurance processes in the AKT on the reliability of questions which are not pretested. Test questions in the AKT are based on the RCGP curriculum blueprint, referenced to current evidence, peer-reviewed and critically appraised before they are added to the question bank. There is a standardised process for question selection and test construction. Standard setting for the AKT follows a modified Angoff process where a panel of experts make individual judgements on each question of the test estimating the likelihood of the 'just-passing candidate' answering correctly. In the three examinations delivered in 2011 (AKT 11 (January), 12 (May) and 13 (October)) Cronbach's alpha was 0.88, 0.92, 0.91, respectively. For pretested questions, the predicted alpha was 0.90, 0.93, 0.92 and for non-pretested questions 0.84, 0.91, 0.92, respectively adjusting for test length using the Spearman-Brown formula. Pretesting of questions is unnecessary provided there is a systematic process of question and test construction which quality assures the AKT. This ensures that pretesting does not delay the use of questions to examine current knowledge and guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports a study which was conducted to identify the organisational cultural dimensions in two general practices and their relationship to the development of Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF) competencies. The two practices studied demonstrated features of rational outcomes-based culture; and a developmental culture, characterized as adaptive, flexible, and with an external focus. General practices need to take account of existing culture(s) before implementing the MLCF.

This study aimed to investigate the performance of a sample of general practitioner (GP) trainers in the multiple choice paper (MCP) of the Membership Examination of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) and to obtain their views of the content of the paper and its relevance to general practice using a written knowledge test and self-administered questionnaire. The participants were volunteer GP trainers in the Northern, Wessex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) and Northwest deaneries of the UK. The trainers completed a shortened version of an MRCGP MCP paper under examination conditions and provided feedback immediately afterwards. Of 191 trainers invited to participate, 86 (45%) sat the paper and of these, 81 completed the questionnaire. Most trainers believed that the paper assessed knowledge of common or important topics relevant to general practice, that the majority of questions were appropriate, clear and unambiguous and that time pressure was not a problem. Trainers performed significantly better compared to registrars overall, and in questions on medicine related to general practice and practice administration but not research methodology or critical appraisal. They did so without making prior preparation. The findings from this group of trainers lend support to the face validity and content validity of the MRCGP MCP examination as an assessment of applied knowledge of general practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, the word 'safety' has become silently but increasingly pervasive in educational policies and debates, gaining a new momentum with the pandemic. Our intention in this article is to problematise what is done in schools in the name of safety by delving into the safety policy discourses of a New Zealand school and the narratives of resistance employed by a group of female Pasifika students during the Covid-19 crisis. This critical ethnographic inquiry explores how safety at schools operates as a mechanism to oppress their fights and reproduce inequalities in an era of apparent 'racism without racists'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional logics of Western academic research often conflict with the epistemologies and goals of Indigenous peoples. Research sovereignty is a right but still an aspiration for many Indigenous peoples. National funding agencies and Western universities have sought to resolve these conflicts through various institutional and organizational settlements. We combined a systematic literature search with critical content analysis and synthesis to compare the prospect for Indigenous research sovereignty in Australia, Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Our comparison of the strategies used to resolve conflicts between competing institutional logics highlights the limitations of segmentation and segregation as well as other barriers to truly blended, or reconciled, institutional logics in colonial government and Western university research institutions and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kinds of states are financed by illicit monies? Does the source of state revenue matter for state formation? This article examines these questions in the context of democratizing Indonesia by analyzing licit and illicit sources of Indonesian police financing and the ways in which illicit practices of extraction and accumulation reshape the structure of the state. Budgetary revenues are both deficient and poorly organized by the Indonesian police (POLRI), continuing practices of fiscal maladministration and rent seeking that defined Suharto's New Order. This article demonstrates how this legacy continues within today's police by illustrating how on- and off-budget financing both resources police work and feeds centralized patron-clientalism through an ethics of “dirty-money” that ultimately sees rents flow upwards to police leadership. However, as Indonesia's neoliberal style democratization fragments centralized patronage into a shifting and unstable patron-clientalism, established patterns of rent accumulation and circulation and the moral-legal regimes that support them break down. In an uncertain environment, officers of all ranks canvass the political system, forming increasingly diverse networks that they hope will secure rents and their political future. Reworking Jean François Bayart's original use of the term, this, the author argues, is “the rhizome state.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a list of the reviewers for the periodical "Medical Teacher" in 2017.

Kaupapa Māori was once, and still is for some, ordinary in the context of Aotearoa. Active processes of colonisation and assimilation led by the settler government in New Zealand have served to significantly displace Māori to the marginalised position of exotic and other. Te Ara Tika powerfully reaffirms Māori experience as ordinary, and embeds Te Tiriti o Waitangi and core Western ethical principles into a framework uniquely of this land. Within this paper I share my application of this framework as an exemplar for others to benchmark against and critique. I conclude by advocating for the uptake of the Te Ara Tika framework by Tauiwi (non-Māori) researchers as a response to the challenge from Māori to do acceptable, accountable and responsible research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite older people representing a significant majority of victims of abuse in the UK and Europe, evidence about its characteristics and management is limited. This article reports on an analysis of adult protection referrals for older people over an eight year period in two English local authorities. It extends understanding of the characteristics of elder abuse and identifies lessons for its effective management. Findings suggest that older people are at particular risk of multiple and physical abuse. Those living alone are especially vulnerable to financial abuse and those living in a care home to multiple abuse. The most common sites of abuse were the person's own home or a care home. Just two fifths of abuse referrals were confirmed, with the vast majority involving multi-agency consultation and most resulting in ongoing monitoring. Findings also suggest that risk is a product of the intersection of dependency and setting and that information about user and carer need—especially the nature of disability—could enhance the quality of adult protection data and safeguarding responses. The study underscores the need for adult protection legislation and of committing professional resources to the prevention, identification, assessment and management of elder abuse across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First order logic does not distinguish between different forms of universal generalization; in this paper I argue that lawlike and accidental generalizations (broadly construed) have a different logical form, and that this distinction is syntactically marked in English. I then consider the relevance of this broader conception of lawlikeness to the philosophy of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]