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Objective: Interprofessional education (IPE) is when two or more students from different professions learn with, from, and about each other to improve collaboration and quality of healthcare. In October 2019, a first interprofessional education (IPE) day was held in the canton of Zurich with the aim of teaching interprofessional skills to participating students. Methodology: The IPE day was developed by an interprofessional team of students. After a short introduction, the roles and tasks of the professional groups involved were discussed. This was followed by two case studies with simulation persons and reflection rounds. For the evaluation of the day, 15 semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers were conducted and qualitatively evaluated by means of thematic analysis. Results: The students and lecturers had a very positive experience of the IPE day. Especially the participation of medical and pharmacy students, the practical case studies with simulation persons and the informal exchange during the breaks were appreciated. There was room for improvement in the development of role models. Through an open attitude and good communication, the students learned to know and appreciate the competencies of the other professional groups. All those interviewed wished for more interprofessional teaching opportunities and the students felt encouraged to apply what they had learned in their later professional practice. Conclusion: The IPE day could be carried out successfully and the didactic concept worked largely well. The evaluation provided subjective evidence that the students were able to improve the interprofessional competencies of teamwork, communication, openness, appreciation and reflectiveness. In the future, the IPE day should be anchored in the curricula.

In Swiss primary care, general practitioner (GP) home visits have decreased due to impending GP shortages particularly in rural areas. Nurse practitioners (NP) are newly introduced in family practices and could potentially offer home visits to the increasing number of multimorbid elderly. We analysed consultation data from two pilot projects (Practice A and Practice B) with the goal to measure the frequency and patient characteristics of NP consultations both in the practice and on home visits, and to determine the NPs' autonomy based on the required GP supervision. In Practice A, 17% of all NP consultations were home visits, in Practice B 51%. In both practices, the NPs saw older patients and reported higher autonomy on home visits compared to consultations in the practice. In Practice A, the NP encountered a higher share of multimorbid patients on home visits than in the practice, and the NP's proportion of autonomously conducted consultations increased from 0% in the first month to 19% after 13 months of GP supervision. In Practice B, the NP was autonomous in about three-quarters of consultations after 2 years on the job. These first cases provide some evidence that NPs could reach a relatively high degree of autonomy and might pose a potential solution for the decreasing numbers of GP home visits to multimorbid elderly in Swiss primary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Itch is the commonest skin‐related symptom and can be influenced by visual cues as exemplified by the phenomenon of "contagious itch." Colors are visual cues able to modify somatosensory inputs. We explored the relationship of colors and itch and the impact of color viewing on itch intensity. In this cross‐sectional study, patients suffering from itch with a mean intensity of ≥2 on a Numerical Rating Scale during the last 7 days were evaluated. The study consisted of a questionnaire‐based part using The Manchester Color Wheel and the ItchyQoL, followed by an interventional part. All 72 itch patients were able to match their itchy sensation with a color: In 68 patients (94.4%) this "pruritic" basic color was red. Likewise, all patients were able to define a subjective "antipruritic" color: The leading basic color choice was blue (31/72, 43.0%) followed by green (21/72, 29.1%), yellow (7/72,9.7%) and others. The impairment of the itch‐related quality of life (as measured by the ItchyQoL) correlated with the brightness and saturation of the pruritic and antipruritic colors. Ten patients were visually exposed to their subjective antipruritic and pruritic color during 10 minutes resulting in a significant decrease and increase of itch intensity compared to baseline (5.1 ± 1.52 vs. 2.8 ± 1.47 [0‐10 Numerical Rating Scale, NRS], p=0.0004 and 4.9 ± 1.66 vs. 6.8± 2.09 NRS, p=0.0009). These results indicate that itch can be modified by color viewing and colors matter when treating itch patients. However, further investigations are required to elucidate the therapeutic potential of colors in itch patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint Medical Master University of Lucerne and University of Zurich Abstract. The medical education in Switzerland is changing. On the one hand, the new, competence-based catalogue of learning objectives PROFILES has to be implemented. On the other hand, new training locations and cooperations have been created within the context of the special program 'Increasing the number of degrees in human medicine'. One of these cooperations is the Joint Medical Master of the Universities of Lucerne and Zurich. Since 2017, students have had the opportunity to complete their Bachelor's degree at the University of Zurich in the 'Lucerne Track'. In the subsequent joint Master's program (start fall semester 2020), the approximately 40 students are primarily enrolled at the University of Lucerne, which together with its partner institutions in the health care region of Central Switzerland offers about two thirds of the courses. At the University of Lucerne, which has a strong emphasis on social and human sciences, the Department of Medicine is part of the Department of Health Sciences and Medicine and focuses on a holistic, interdisciplinary understanding of health, illness and human functioning. In the training of medical students, the Joint Medical Master primarily offers interactive, practice-oriented courses in small groups, based on the new catalogue of learning objectives, and uses innovative didactic concepts and digital learning programs. The Lucerne curriculum focuses on interprofessional education, especially with health science students, as well as basic medical care and the interface between in- and outpatient care, respectively. In the last year of the course, which is currently in its final development phase, the topics of emergency medicine and patient safety will be a particular focus. Due to the manageable cohort size, the Joint Medical Master in Lucerne offers a family environment and a close exchange between students and lecturers. The students are involved in the further development of the curriculum as well as in the evaluation of the courses, and the lecturers are prepared as well as possible for their teaching duties by continuing medical education events. In the medium term, the University of Lucerne would also like to focus more on the continuum of pre- and postgraduate training, and to network nationally and internationally in the medical education landscape.