Children who witness violence: what services do they need to heal?

Children are witnesses to violence far too often in their daily lives. To elicit information on the needs of children and adolescents living in the United States who have witnessed violence in their homes, neighborhoods, or communities, we held focus groups with mothers who have survived interpersonal violence and whose family included child witnesses to violence (CWV), professionals who work with families affected by violence, and with adolescents who have witnessed violence. Based on four separate focus group discussions held in Massachusetts, involving a total of 45 participants, recommendations for screening, programming, and the development of healing interventions are offered to mental health professionals.

Health disparities among health care workers.

In this article we describe the process of an interdisciplinary case study that examined the social contexts of occupational and general health disparities among health care workers in two sets of New England hospitals and nursing homes. A political economy of the work environment framework guided the study, which incorporated dimensions related to market dynamics, technology, and political and economic power. The purpose of this article is to relate the challenges encountered in occupational health care settings and how these could have impacted the study results.

Using technology to expedite screening and intervention for domestic abuse and neglect.

Objective: In response to escalation of community violence, the U.S. Department of Commerce funded Home Health VNA (HHVNA), serving the Merrimack River valley communities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for a project demonstrating innovative use of technology in screening for abuse and neglect.

Adapting and testing the Appraisal of Violent Situation scales.

The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of a vertical version of horizontally oriented three Appraisal of Violent Situation scales that elicit women's subjective appraisals of severity, dangerousness, and controllability of violence. Construct validity of the vertical scale eliciting 64 abused women's perceptions of severity of violence experienced was supported by a low to modest correlation between that scale and the Severity of Violence Against Women Scale. Concurrent validity between the horizontal and vertical versions of the scales was demonstrated with a subsample of 26 abused women completing both.

Creating a community coalition to address violence.

Building a community-wide coalition to address violence evolved out of a five-year federally funded project on abuse during pregnancy. The setting for this coalition building is Haverhill, Massachusetts, a city of about 60,000, located northeast of Boston in the Merrimack River Valley. For nearly eight years, representatives of more than 30 agencies and institutions have been meeting monthly and creating programs and strategies to address violence in homes, schools, and neighborhoods, and designing interventions for children witnessing this violence.

Graduate students' experiences with standardized patients as adjuncts for teaching pelvic examinations.

Purpose: To explore graduate nurse practitioner students' perceptions of their experiences when learning to perform pelvic examinations in the laboratory and performing them in subsequent clinical rotations. One group was taught by faculty with voluntary peer examination, and the other two groups were taught by standardized patients (SPs).

Data Sources: Surveys with open- and closed-ended (responses on Likert scales) items administered twice during 3 consecutive years to students enrolled in an advanced health assessment course.

Infrarenal aortic diameter predicts all-cause mortality.

Objective: To assess the relationship between infrarenal aortic diameter and subsequent all-cause mortality in men aged 65 years or older.

Methods And Results: Aortic diameter was measured using ultrasound in 12 203 men aged 65 to 83 years as part of a trial of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms. A range of cardiovascular risk factors was also documented.