Development of a measure of clinicians' self-efficacy for medical communication (SEMC).

Objectives: Studies of clinician-patient communication have used varied, ad hoc measures for communication efficacy. We developed and validated the Self-Efficacy for Medical Communication (SEMC) scale as a standard, quantitative measure of clinician-reported skills in communicating difficult news.

Methods: Using evidence-based scale development guidelines, we created two 16-item forms of the SEMC, one assessing communication with patients and one assessing communication with families.

Hope, Burnout, and Life Satisfaction: An Intriguing Trinity Among Investigators of the SWOG Cancer Research Network.

Purpose: Although hope has been explored in patients, few studies have investigated hopefulness in health care professionals. We surveyed oncology professionals within the SWOG Cancer Research Network, exploring relationships among personal hopefulness, social support, work stress, burnout, and life satisfaction. We hypothesized that hope would mediate the relationships between these other variables and life satisfaction.

An after-school exercise program improves fitness, and body composition in elementary school children.

Reduced cardiovascular fitness (CVF) is a risk factor for obesity and cardiovascular disease. It has previously shown that a school-based fitness curriculum can improve CVF, and other health indicators in middle school aged children. Whether an afterschool program improves CVF and other health markers in elementary-school children is unresolved.

Uterine hyperperistalsis and dysperistalsis as dysfunctions of the mechanism of rapid sperm transport in patients with endometriosis and infertility.

Women suffering from infertility in association with mostly mild endometriosis were subjected to vaginal sonography of uterine peristalsis during the menstrual period, the early, mid- and late follicular phases, and the mid-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The data obtained were compared with those of healthy controls. Women with endometriosis displayed a marked uterine hyperperistalsis that differed significantly from the peristalsis of the controls during the early and mid-follicular and mid-luteal phases.