Achieving safety and integrity in conducting research with intimate partner violence survivors.

In their paper, Burge et al. (see record 2014-23812-001) describe an innovative methodology for studying real-time antecedents to intimate partner violence (IPV), as well as the methods employed to ensure the safety of research participants. Over a 12-week timespan, 200 women in moderately violent relationships were asked to make daily phone calls, using a password-protected, interactive voice response system, to provide information about new violence and abuse, and the circumstances that surrounded it.

Trends in violence education in family medicine residency curricula.

Background And Objectives: Violence is a significant public health issue with far-reaching implications for the health of individuals and their communities. Our objective was to describe trends in violence-related training in family medicine residency programs since the last national survey was conducted in 1997.

Methods: Surveys were sent to 337 US family medicine residency programs with the program director having active Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) membership.

Cultural adaptation of patient and observational outcome measures: a methodological example using the COMFORT behavioral rating scale.

Background: There is little empirical evidence regarding the translation and cultural adaptation of self-report and observational outcome measures. Studies that evaluate and further develop existing practices are needed.

Objectives: This study explores the use of cognitive interviews in the translation and cultural adaptation of observational measures, using the COMFORT behavioral scale as an example, and demonstrates a structured approach to the analysis of data from cognitive interviews.

Involving the health care system in domestic violence: what women want.

PURPOSE Domestic violence is prevalent among women using primary health care services in Lebanon and has a negative effect on their health, yet physicians are not inquiring about it. In this study, we explored the attitudes of these women regarding involving the health care system in domestic violence management. METHODS We undertook a qualitative focus group study.

Implementing radical curriculum change in a family medicine residency: the majors and masteries program.

Background And Objectives: There have been dramatic changes in the specialty of family medicine and the American health care system in the more than 40 years since the formation of the specialty. As a result, there is urgent need for experimentation and innovation in residency training to better prepare family physicians.

Methods: Waukesha Family Medicine Residency used a strategic planning process to identify four guiding concepts for a new model of residency education: intentional diversification; options for advanced training in a fourth year of residency; longitudinal, competency-based training; and strong fundamental background in family medicine skills.

Intimate partner violence.

Intimate partner violence is a common source of physical, psychological, and emotional morbidity. In the United States, approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men annually are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner.

The development and evaluation of community health competencies for family medicine.

Background: There is an increasing emphasis on teaching community-responsive care and population health in medical education. This focus requires a multidimensional perspective on community health that examines the determinants, ranges, and variations of health status and disease in the community as a whole.

Description: The Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin sought to strengthen the community health curriculum in its residency programs by developing a core set of competencies in community health as well as a service-learning model to teach residents about community needs and strengths.

Outcomes from a national multispecialty palliative care curriculum development project.

Background: In 1998 we completed a successful regional pilot project in palliative care curriculum development among 32 internal medicine residency programs recruited from the mid-western United States. Between 1999 and 2004 this project was expanded to include 358 U.S.

End-of-life curriculum reform: outcomes and impact in a follow-up study of internal medicine residency programs.

Background: In 1998 we initiated a pilot project to evaluate the feasibility of recruiting and training internal medicine residency programs in methods designed to enhance and integrate end-of-life (EOL) instruction and assessment into their curriculum.

Objective: To evaluate participants' assessment of the training program and the 12-month impact of the training on the 32 residency programs' EOL teaching.

Design: Prospective multi-institutional study.

End-of-life care education in internal medicine residency programs: an interinstitutional study.

Background: Integrating end-of-life care (EOL) education into medical residency programs requires knowledge of what programs currently teach and what residents learn.

Objective: Evaluate EOL teaching content and practices in internal medicine residency programs and the EOL knowledge of their faculty and residents.

Design: An interinstitutional pilot study.

Breaking bad news and discussing death.

The ability to discuss bad news with a patient and family is one clinical skill that is essential to providing effective end-of-life care. Patients and families value direct, nontechnical explanations that are given by a physician with compassion and kindness. Patients and families also value time to talk, express their feelings and ask questions.

Physician interaction with battered women: the women's perspective.

Background: Programs that train health professionals to identify and treat battered women have not previously incorporated systematically obtained advice from battered women to guide physician behavior.

Objectives: To survey battered women to (1) rate the desirability of specific physician behaviors, (2) describe their actual experiences with physicians while seeking abuse-related medical services, and (3) examine relationships between participants' demographics, history of victimization, history of seeking medical help, and ratings of physician behavior.

Participants: One hundred fifteen women who had been battered by a male partner, recruited from support groups and other battered women's programs in a 5-county area in southeastern Wisconsin.

Dating violence.

Dating violence presents many challenges to pediatric health care providers. It spans an age range from early high school to early adult years. Prevalence of dating violence appears to be greater than for violence among married couples.

A survey of competencies and concerns in end-of-life care for physician trainees.

A survey was developed to explore physician trainee competencies and concerns surrounding end-of-life care. Thirty-one medical students, interns, and residents from the Department of Internal Medicine completed the survey in August 1996. The survey instrument found differing levels of competence/concern among medical students, interns, and residents.

Partner violence: a systematic approach to identification and intervention in outpatient health care.

Although partner violence is a common source of injury for women, physicians and female patients rarely discuss this problem. We outline a systematic approach to clinical practice that includes screening, case finding, intervention, and changes in the office environment. The clinician can begin to address partner violence by artfully applying these techniques.

Optimal sedation of mechanically ventilated pediatric critical care patients.

Objective: To derive a target range of optimal sedation for the COMFORT Scale and to prospectively test that target range against intensivist assessment of adequacy of sedation.

Design: Serial prospective agreement cohort studies.

Setting: Twelve-bed pediatric intensive care unit in an urban academic teaching hospital.

Pediatric intensive care sedation: survey of fellowship training programs.

Children hospitalized in a pediatric intensive care unit are frequently distressed. The purpose of this study was to identify the patterns of use of sedative agents in pediatric critical care patients. A questionnaire survey was mailed to 45 directors of Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Training Programs listed in Critical Care Medicine, January 1989.

Cognitive-behavioral treatment of health-impairing food phobias in children.

Three cases reports describe assessment and treatment of three boys (ages 6 to 8 years) hospitalized because of weight loss and malnutrition, caused by severe dietary restriction and/or refusal to eat solid food. Psychological, behavioral, and medical assessments indicated that the boys were of average intelligence, without other significant psychological or medical disorders. Their eating disturbances were conceptualized as phobic disorders maintained by family factors reinforcing the children's avoidant behaviors.

Assessing distress in pediatric intensive care environments: the COMFORT scale.

Managing psychological distress is a central treatment goal in Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs), with medical and psychological implications. However, there is no objective measure for assessing efficacy of pharmacologic and psychological interventions used to reduce distress. Development of the COMFORT scale is described, a nonintrusive measure for assessing distress in PICU patients.