This study explores knowledge and uptake of the voting rights of adult in-patients in the 2010 UK general election. A clinician-completed survey was used.

Eligible to vote psychiatric adult in-patients were half as likely to register as the general population and half as likely to vote if registered. Nine out of ten of those unregistered cited a lack of knowledge of their eligibility to vote or of the registration process. Long-stay patients were particularly disenfranchised.

Many patients and staff remain unaware of the new rules which have given a greater proportion of in-patients the right to vote and have simplified the registration and voting processes. This information barrier may be addressed in future elections by providing timely written information to both patients and staff. Once registered, patients may need further support to overcome practical and psychological barriers, and cast their vote.

Service user involvement in the development of services is a fundamental aim of the National Health Service (NHS). However, a structured and quantifiable approach to their involvement in the recruitment of NHS staff is still lacking. In this study, we used service-user focus groups within a therapeutic community for people with personality disorder in order to develop the Service User Informed Tool for Staff Selection (SUITSS).

We enabled service users to develop SUITSS as a Likert scale with which to define relevant staff characteristics and rate applicants according to them, informing the staff-selection process. The tool has a semi-quantitative format that allows to test whether applicants with higher ratings are actually appointed by selection panels or not.

This new tool provides an approach to enhancing service user contributions to staff recruitment. It may be adapted and refined for use in a range of services, with local input from service users, following the approach described here.

This paper introduces a new approach to producing case formulations, the integrated case formulation (ICF) approach, and a rating scale, the Case Formulation Scale (CFS). Twenty-four psychiatrists participated in a single-blind randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching using this new approach. The intervention group (n = 12) received teaching about using ICF, whereas the control group (n = 12) received teaching as usual. The scores on the CFS were compared before and after teaching.

Prior to teaching, psychiatric trainees had poor scores on the CFS. The CFS score for the group taught the ICF approach improved five times more than the control group.

This study demonstrates that case formulation skills can be taught. With further improvements, the ICF approach might be useful in the teaching of case formulation.

To test whether medical students find case-based discussion of child psychiatry more educationally stimulating and more enjoyable, and whether this leads to greater knowledge acquisition than traditional didactic lectures. Four cohorts of Cambridge medical students (n = 54) were randomised to case-based discussion or traditional didactic lectures for two topics in their psychiatry placements. Enjoyment and stimulation were determined by feedback forms; knowledge acquisition was tested by an end-of-placement exam.

Students in case-based discussion groups scored significantly higher than students in the lecture groups in the extent to which they enjoyed the teaching session (P = 0.006); the extent to which they understood the principles of management of real-life patient problems (P = 0.044); and their interest in looking up further information (P = 0.003). There was no significant difference in exam performance (P = 0.9).

Medical students find case-based discussion more engaging and enjoyable than didactic lectures, with no reduction in exam performance.

Non-medical staff are eligible to assess trainee doctors through mandatory workplace-based assessments (WPBAs). An anonymous questionnaire was given out to non-medical staff working with trainees in community and in-patient settings at Royal Blackburn Hospital. Our aims were to look at their awareness of and familiarity with assessor guidance, trainee competencies, training needs and assessors' views on completing these assessments.

In total 118 of 150 (79%) individuals returned a questionnaire and 89 WPBAs had been carried out. Most assessors were Band 6 (or equivalent) or below (53%). Most assessors had neither read any assessor guidelines (75%) nor were familiar with the competencies required of a doctor (76%). Although 79% felt that non-medical staff should be assessing trainee doctors, only 44% felt comfortable doing this. None had been trained and 92% felt this would help. Twenty WPBAs (excluding mini-peer assisted tools) were carried out by staff at Band 6 or below.

No respondents received guidance or training on being an assessor. This highlights the need for urgent action and delivery of training. This can easily be adapted from training packages developed for medical staff.