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Providing family updates is a common clinical task for medical trainees and practitioners working in hospital settings. Good clinical communication skills are essential in clinical care as it is associated with improved patient satisfaction, understanding of condition, treatment adherence, and better overall clinical outcomes. Moreover, poor communications are often the source of medical complaints. However, while patient-centred communication skills training has generally been incorporated into clinical education, there hitherto remains inadequate training on clinical communications with patients' families, which carry different nuances. In recent years, it is increasingly recognized that familial involvement in the care of hospitalized patients leads to better clinical and psychological outcomes. In fact, in Asian populations with more collectivistic cultures, families are generally highly involved in patient care and decision-making. Therefore, effective clinical communications and regular provision of family updates are essential to build therapeutic rapport, facilitate familial involvement in patient care, and also provide a more holistic understanding of the patient's background and psychosocial set-up. In this article, we herein describe a seven-step understand the clinical context, gather perspectives , deliver medical information, address questions, concerns and expectations, provide tentative plans, demonstrate empathy , postcommunication reflections model as a practical guide for medical trainees and practitioners in provision of structured and effective family updates in their clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'insight' is generically defined in English language as the ability to perceive deeper truths about people and situations. In clinical practice, patient insight is known to have important implications in treatment compliance and clinical outcomes, and can be assessed clinically by looking for the presence of illness awareness, correct attribution of symptoms to underlying condition, and acceptance of treatment. In this article, we suggest that cultivating insight is actually a highly important, yet often overlooked, component of medical training, which may explain why some consistently learn well, communicate effectively, and quickly attain clinical competency, while others struggle throughout their clinical training and may even be difficult to remediate. We herein define 'insight' in the context of medical training as having an astute perception of personal cognitive processes, motivations, emotions, and ability (strengths, weaknesses, and limitations) that should drive self-improvement and effective behavioural regulation. We then describe the utility of cultivating 'insight' in medical training through three lenses of (i) promoting self-regulated, lifelong clinical learning, (ii) improving clinical competencies and person-centred care, and (iii) enhancing physician mental health and well-being. In addition, we review educational pedagogies that are helpful to create a medical eco-system that promotes the cultivation of insight among its trainees and practitioners. Finally, we highlight several tell-tale signs of poor insight and discuss psychological and non-psychological interventions that may help those severely lacking in insight to become more amenable to change and remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Collegiality' comes from the Latin term 'Collegium', which essentially refers to a community of individuals bounded by their collective pursuit of a common goal. The concept has historical roots in both organised religion and academia, with its use subsequently extended to various industrial and corporate settings including healthcare. Nowadays, 'collegiality' has become a common buzzword adopted by the medical fraternity – often deemed as having a polite and respectful demeanour, maintaining cordial work relationships and being a team player who demonstrates willingness to help others and avoid speaking ill of fellow colleagues. While it is true that workplace incivility, aggression, bullying and verbal abuse are not uncommonly reported in highly stressful healthcare settings, which are concerning phenomena that should be addressed and prevented, the concept of 'medical collegiality' is, in reality, a rich and multi-faceted concept that is not limited to behavioural attributes, but extends to larger cultural principles and organisational constructs. In this article, we herein define 'medical collegiality' as 'a collective manifestation of respect, empathy and solidarity within the medical fraternity, driven by a common pursuit of clinical excellence in patient care, demonstrated through interpersonal/work relationships and organisational culture', by referencing historical origins of 'collegiality' in organised religion and academia. We further review the concept of 'medical collegiality' through three core lenses of cultural, behavioural and structural collegiality. Finally, we discuss the importance of medical collegiality for physician mental health and well-being, and quality of clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

See related editorial by Moody et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dentistry requires high manual dexterity, and few studies have investigated the challenges and impact on dental students of attaining manual dexterity skills. This study aimed to investigate dental students' perceptions of manual dexterity, including their awareness of manual dexterity requirements in dentistry, self‐perceptions of manual dexterity competency, and whether manual dexterity should be part of admission to dentistry training. A link to a 12‐item online Qualtrics survey was sent out to students in either their 2nd or 5th year of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The anonymous survey collected basic demographic data and included closed and open‐ended questions about manual dexterity. Descriptive statistics were calculated for quantitative variables and a general inductive approach was used to analyze free‐text responses. Those were later grouped into a theoretical domain framework. The overall response rate was 53%. All participants acknowledged the importance of manual dexterity in dentistry. Most participants thought that manual dexterity can be improved with practice and that including a manual dexterity test in the admission criteria may cause unnecessary stress for students. Striving to achieve manual dexterity impacted participants' performance in the BDS course. However, most participants viewed it as a challenge that can be overcome with practice and improvement, and that current BDS admission requirements are sufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has impacted nursing home care and activities in profound ways. We sought to understand whether the COVID‐19 pandemic had any impact on hospital admissions of nursing home residents. Methods: A retrospective analysis of hospital admissions of nursing home residents to a tertiary general hospital in Singapore during the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 was conducted and compared to admissions in the preceding year. Patients' demographics, length of stay, primary diagnosis on admission, death and causes of death were recorded. Results: Our study found reduced number of hospital admissions of nursing home residents to a tertiary hospital in Singapore. There was a significant decrease in pneumonia (p < 0.001) and fall (p = 0.001) as a primary diagnosis on admission and a decrease in pneumonia as the cause of death (p < 0.001) for nursing home residents admitted to hospital during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Conclusions: This suggests that measures implemented during the pandemic may have impacted outcomes of nursing home residents. Further study is warranted to lead to practise changing outcomes for nursing home settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]