Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • BJGP Blog
    • eLetters
    • Feedback
    • Librarian information
    • Alerts
    • Resilience
    • Video
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
    • RCGP e-Portfolio

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
    • RCGP e-Portfolio
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
Advertisement
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • BJGP Blog
    • eLetters
    • Feedback
    • Librarian information
    • Alerts
    • Resilience
    • Video
The Back Pages

Top Tips in 2 minutes

Ruth Bastable, Sarah Rann and Vinny Barker
British Journal of General Practice 2008; 58 (546): 62-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp08X263956
Ruth Bastable
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sarah Rann
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Vinny Barker
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

‘Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?’1

And where indeed is the information we have lost in data? Anyway, here's a really good idea that might help. We don't have hand outs at our postgraduate sessions any more, we ask instead for a ‘Top Tip’. We asked authors to imagine this: ‘You are about to give a talk to a group of interested GPs, you were going to speak for 1 hour at an important international conference. As bad luck would have it, you and a group of GPs have got stuck in the lift and your talk has been cancelled. However, you will be rescued in 2 minutes. Knowing what an interesting speaker you are and how passionately you feel about this area of your work, your colleagues plead with you to pass on some essential pearls of wisdom. What are your top tips in 2 minutes?Tell your captive audience (all of whom will be blessing the name of Elisha Graves Otis)2 why the subject is important/interesting; how to look for specific features in the consultation; what next and when for investigations and further management, and finally, a web link or two, both for yourself and your patient.

Top Tips in 2 minutes are snappy, to the point, up-to-date and totally unstuffy. Since the word limit is no more than one side of A4 your enthusiasm will not be over taxed but if you are feeling keen you can always use the web links section to find out more. Our first Top Tip in 2 minutes is on chronic kidney disease. Why? Because it's ‘been around forever, but important now because of eGFR and the QOF’.3

We will be publishing one Top Tip in 2 minutes a month for the next year, and while we guarantee to inform and entertain, we certainly don't intend to be too serious.

Why the humour? Evidence-based of course! Researchers have found that a sense of humour reduces mortality.3 Kidney patients who participated in the study answered questions about age, sex, race, education, quality of life, and sense of humour. All of the patients studied were on dialysis. Patients who scored relatively high on sense of humour were 30% less likely to die within 2 years. No other patient characteristics could predict life or death within 2 years as strongly as the score for sense of humour.

View this table:
  • View inline
  • View popup
Table 1

Top Tips in 2 minutes: Chronic kidney disease.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Addenbrookes PGMC. Top Tips in 2 minutes would not have happened without their help.

  • © British Journal of General Practice, 2008.

REFERENCES

  1. ↵
    1. Eliot TS
    1. Eliot TS
    (1961) in Selected poems, Choruses from ‘The Rock’ ed Eliot TS (Faber and Faber, London), p 97.
  2. ↵
    1. Otis EG
    Inventor of the safety lift. http://www.otis.com/ (accessed 27 Nov 2007).
  3. ↵
    1. American Association of Kidney Patients
    Humor extends life. http://www.aakp.org/newsletters/Renal-Flash/January-2007/Humor-Extends-Life/ (accessed 27 Nov 2007).
View Abstract
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 58 (546)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 58, Issue 546
January 2008
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Top Tips in 2 minutes
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
Citation Tools
Top Tips in 2 minutes
Ruth Bastable, Sarah Rann, Vinny Barker
British Journal of General Practice 2008; 58 (546): 62-63. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp08X263956

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Top Tips in 2 minutes
Ruth Bastable, Sarah Rann, Vinny Barker
British Journal of General Practice 2008; 58 (546): 62-63. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp08X263956
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • Acknowledgments
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

The Back Pages

  • The ethics of listening and responding to patients' narratives: implications for practice
  • How big is your society?
  • Evidence-based medicine and Web 2.0: friend or foe?
Show more The Back Pages

Serial

  • Turning a blind eye to crime: health professionals and the Sexual Offences Act 2003
  • Facing unpalatable truths: 2
  • Facing unpalatable truths: part 1
Show more Serial

Related Articles

Cited By...

Advertisement

 

Register by 10 December and save 15% at the BJGP Research Conference, 12 March 2020

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers
  • RCGP e-Portfolio

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Blog
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7679
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2019 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242