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Ivar J Aaraas

Publications and source records attributed to Ivar J Aaraas.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Making it Work 2: using a virtual community to focus on rural health issues.

Between 21 and 23 September 2005, over 200 delegates from eight countries gathered in Tromsö, within the Arctic Circle, to discuss challenges and solutions to rural health issues. This conference was a sequel to a previous event entitled 'Making it Work', held in Scotland in 2003, in which it was identified that service delivery in remote and rural areas needed to be innovative to ensure equity. A major aim of this event was to move the debate forward to describe specific examples of practice that could be adopted in participating countries. The delegates included clinicians, managers and administrators, senior policymakers and educationalists, elected local and national politicians, patients and their representatives. In order to focus debate, the organisers provided an outline of a virtual remote community ('Hope'), including some geographic and demographic information, together with four case studies of individual health problems faced by residents of the community. During the introductory session, a short film was shown featuring the 'residents' of this community, introducing delegates to the specific problems they faced. Throughout the conference, delegates were asked to reflect back to how any recommendations made might apply to the citizens of Hope. The clinical scenarios presented included: (1) a 37 year old pregnant woman in labour during adverse weather conditions; (2) a 17 year old island resident with acute psychosis who attempts suicide; (3) an 80 year old woman living alone who suffers a stroke; and (4) a family of four with a complex range of chronic health issues including smoking, alcoholism, diabetes, teenage pregnancy, asthma and depression on a background of deprivation and unemployment. Parallel discussions and workshops focussed on a number of key themes linked to the examples highlighted in the 'Hope' scenario. These included: maternity services; mental health; chronic disease management; health improvement and illness prevention; supporting healthy rural communities; and education for rural health staff. This approach to targeting discussion is valuable in rural health conferences where the participants may be from diverse backgrounds and the issues discussed are multi-faceted.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

[Norwegian and Australian physicians' attitudes to adverse events].

BACKGROUND: As "second victims", doctors may find it difficult to meet patients and relatives with an open and regretting mind after adverse incidents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a series of six workshops 103 doctors, 46 from Australia and 57 from Norway, were included. Initially the participants completed a questionnaire about possible reactions after serious adverse events, experiences with formal complaints and legal charges, and an option to describe a personally experienced adverse event. This was followed by an interactive educational session, where prevention and management of adverse events were discussed. A descriptive analysis based on a combination of questionnaire data and notes from the discussions has been performed. RESULT AND INTERPRETATION: The questionnaire responses showed that Australian and Norwegian doctors mainly did agree about the most appropriate ways of responding after a serious adverse event. Subsequent discussions showed that certain issues were recurrently and similarly discussed among the participants through all the workshops. Although the majority principally did agree on an open approach, an underlying sceptical attitude emerged, partially connected to experiences of being thoughtlessly blamed by colleagues in the wisdom of hindsight. The study outlines a strategy to raise doctors' understanding of the importance of openness in order to reinforce trust in relation to all involved parties--patient, relatives, colleagues and self--after adverse events.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

[Access to general practitioners in a county in Troms].

BACKGROUND: In 2002 the Norwegian Board of Health made a survey of the accessibility of general practitioners in Troms county in North Norway. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a telephone interview one secretary in each surgery informed about telephone response time, planned time for telephone consultations, recorded numbers of urgent consultations, and waiting time to obtain a routine consultation. RESULTS: On average, the planned telephone time was two hours per week. Telephone time was in inverse proportion to the number of patients on the doctor's list. Rural doctors spent twice as much time as urban colleagues on the telephone with their patients. Doctors with lists between 500 and 1500 patients had a higher proportion of urgent consultations compared with doctors with shorter or longer lists. INTERPRETATION: Telephone response time below two minutes and waiting times for routine consultations below 20 days appear to be within acceptable norms. When patient lists are above 1500, doctors' capacity to offer telephone contact and emergency services to their patients seems reduced.

Emergency Medical Services↗