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In the English National Health Service (NHS), patients are now expected to choose the time and place of treatment and even choose the actual treatment. However, the theory on which patient choice is based and the implementation of patient choice are controversial. There is evidence to indicate that attitudes and abilities to make choices are relatively sophisticated and not as straightforward as policy developments suggest. In addition, and surprisingly, there is little research on whether making individual choices about care is regarded as a priority by the largest NHS patient group and the single largest group for most GPs—older people. This conceptual paper examines the theory of patient choice concerning accessing and engaging with healthcare provision and reviews existing evidence on older people and patient choice in primary care.

Can we recruit to care? A brief view of the recruitment of student nurses at a UK university is highlighted as an example of selecting the 'right' people for nursing careers. The Francis report advises that student nurses need to be both intelligent and caring, with an intrinsic desire to help others. They are required to be passionate about the values that underpin nursing and motivated to put the welfare of others above their own. When recruiting nurses from a society with values far removed from those desired by the nursing profession, finding the right people to become the workforce of the future is a difficult task. Academic and practice personnel interviewed potential student nurses with an emphasis on looking for caring attributes alongside the necessary educational requirements. The students were being recruited for a new humanised nursing curriculum with caring values at the heart of the educational experience.

Many disciplines including geography, tourism and event management, anthropology, sociology, psychology, public health and medicine have a contribution to make to the study of festivals. Despite a growing body of tourism and event literature outlining the many motivations for and subjective benefits of attending festivals, the reporting of positive health outcomes remains underdeveloped. Researching festival visitors who take risks for pleasure (voluntary risk-taking or 'edgework'), would make an important and illuminating contribution to the literature and could offer alternative and broader perspectives on what we define as 'health'. Interdisciplinary research collaborations using universally accepted definitions, methodologies and measures offer great potential to further our understanding of positive health and voluntary risk-taking from the perspective of the festival visitor. Festivals are a part of contemporary life, with different festivals appealing to different tastes and age groups; the outdoor music festival exemplifies this global phenomenon by celebrating eclectic lifestyles and attitudes. Many disciplines including geography, tourism and event management, anthropology, sociology, psychology, public health and medicine have a contribution to make to the study of festivals. Yet, despite a growing body of tourism and event literature outlining the many motivations for and subjective benefits of attending festivals, the reporting of positive health outcomes remains underdeveloped: indeed, the travel medicine and public health literature favour researching negative health issues associated with attending events and mass gatherings. This being the case, research into the taking of risks for pleasure (voluntary risk-taking or 'edgework') and associated feelings of positive health (often linked to an increased sense of freedom) experienced by festival visitors, would make an important and illuminating contribution to the literature and could offer alternative and broader perspectives on what we define as 'health'. The traditional medical view defines health in terms of illness, symptoms, and disease (Smith, 2008). In contrast, sociological research into lay (non-expert) health beliefs spanning a thirty-year period, positions health and illness within the social and cultural context of everyday life (Cornwell, 1984). Lay concepts of health affect a population's perception of risk, health, and illness behaviour, and are consequently adjuncts to the traditional theoretical medical definitions (Helman, 1991, Lawton, 2003). Helman (1991) also suggests that lay concepts of health are in tune with the seminal, and still relevant, World Health Organisation definition of health, outlined as encompassing mental, physical, and social dimensions (WHO, 1946): this definition delineates the holistic, interactive and dynamic features of health. A UK survey of 9000 people investigated lay views of what being healthy meant to them; the results were divided in terms of negative concepts, where health was defined in terms of...

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