BACKGROUND Medical tourism is a global health practice where patients travel abroad to receive health care. Voluntourism is a practice where physicians travel abroad to deliver health care. Both of these practices often entail travel from high income to low and middle income countries and both have been associated with possible negative impacts. In this paper, we explore the social responsibili...

BACKGROUND Musculoskeletal disorders are very common and almost inevitable in an individual's lifetime. Enabling self-management and allowing the individual to take responsibility for care is stated as desired in the management of these disorders, but this may be asking more than people can generally manage. A willingness among people to take responsibility for musculoskeletal disorders and not...

Principles of autonomy and self-determination have been upheld as vital to modern-day medical and ethical practice. However, the complexities of current health care and changes in the expectation of some patients and their families justify a review of such concepts. Their limitations and relativities may suggest that other descriptions of partnership and negotiated goal-setting, while based on ...

Running a health care organization is a team sport. It is very important that all members of the team—whether on the medical staff, in management, or on the board—understand the role of governance and what constitutes effective governance. Many misunderstandings about the roles of boards exist. Many people think that board members are paid, for example, which is not true. Effective governance: ...

The recent decisions of Brus v Australian Capital Territory [2007] ACTSC 83 and Greater Southern Area Health Service v Angus [2007] NSWSC 1211 highlight different aspects of the difficulties associated with supervision of junior doctors in the present public-funded Australian public hospital system. Their facts reveal how difficult it is for senior staff to achieve the fine balance required to ...

BACKGROUND The study is placed within the context of the Irish health care system, which has undergone tremendous change, at the dawn of the new millennium, in particular from the nursing management and leadership viewpoint. AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of this study is to explore nurses' expectations of the content and delivery of a nursing management degree programme. METHODS This is an on-go...

A health care team is like a sports team, except for instead of points we are dealing with people’s lives. Like any great team, it is essential to know the roles and responsibilities of each of the players and to have trust in one another. It is vital to have that team learn together, and practice together so that when the game truly matters they can each play their best with trust and understa...