Health Care Practitioners and Families Writing Together: The Three-Minute Mental Makeover.

Introduction: Expressive writing, the process of self-expression through writing, appears to have beneficial effects. Our hospital's narrative medicine group developed an expressive writing tool, the Three-Minute Mental Makeover (3MMM).

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the 3MMM to reduce stress and optimize communication between health care practitioners and their patients/families.

Evaluation of a standardized all-terrain vehicle safety education intervention for youth in rural Central Illinois.

Background: Although research investigating all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders and ATV injury patterns has led to support for legislative and educational efforts to decrease injuries in users younger than 16 years, there is little published data regarding the utility of ATV safety education programs. This study investigates the effectiveness of a standardized adolescent ATV safety program in changing the safety knowledge and safe ATV riding practices reported by rural Central Illinois youths.

Methods: A convenience sample of 260 rural Central Illinois middle and high school students received an ATV safety presentation with both didactic and interactive features during the 2009-2010 school year.

All-terrain vehicle dealership point-of-sale child safety compliance in Illinois.

Objectives: In 2008, an estimated 37,700 children younger than 16 were treated in US emergency departments for nonfatal all-terrain vehicle (ATV) injuries. This study identifies safety guidelines and recommendations dealers convey to consumers at the point of sale.

Methods: A telephone survey of all 2004 licensed motorcycle dealers in Illinois was conducted.

Core Practical Objectives: a means to standardize the 4th-year emergency medicine clerkship.

Background: Core Practical Objectives (CPOs) are clinical emergency medicine (EM) experiences (including suggested number of patient encounters) that students use to self-direct clerkship progress.

Purpose: This study investigates feasibility of implementing EM clerkship CPOs, describes characteristics of students fulfilling CPO guidelines, and relates CPO completion to outcome measures (exam scores and grades).

Methods: Cross-sectional research was conducted comparing students completing and not completing CPOs by gender, month of rotation, total patients evaluated, clerkship exam score, and final grade.

All-terrain vehicle safety and use patterns in central Illinois youth.

Context: All-terrain vehicles' (ATVs) popularity and associated injuries among children are increasing in the United States. Currently, most known ATV use pattern data are obtained from injured youth and little documented data exist characterizing the typical ATV use patterns and safety practices among American children in general.

Purpose: To describe the typical ATV safety and use patterns of rural youth.

Self-reported height, calculated height, and derived body mass index in assessment of older adults.

Body mass index (BMI) is frequently used as assessment of nutritional and health risk. Yet, there is no consensus regarding assessment of height and cutpoints for weight classification in older adults. We first investigated differences in height by self-report (SR-height) and height calculated from measured knee-height (KH-height) and derived BMI in a cross-sectional assessment of 145 older adults residing in a Midwestern United States city.

Innovations in injury prevention education.

Innovations in Injury Prevention Education describes four programs presented at the Annual Injury Free Coalition for Kids National Meeting in December 2006. The programs were developed by Injury Free sites in Providence, RI; Detroit, MI; Hartford, CT; and Peoria, IL. Each demonstrates how education continues to be an essential aspect of injury prevention interventions, either as a means of disseminating knowledge among children or as a way to assess baseline knowledge to develop more appropriate interventions.

Evaluation of a novel animal model for teaching intubation.

Background: Medical colleges, which face dwindling financial resources, are often forced to rely on inexpensive means of providing students with relevant learning opportunities.

Purposes: In this article, we present an evaluation of a novel animal model to be used to teach medical students, resident physicians, and allied health personnel advanced airway management skills, namely, endotracheal intubation.

Methods: Over 3 years of regularly scheduled teaching laboratories, 140 students had exposure to both a traditional teaching manikin and a whitetail deer head on which to learn rescue airway techniques.

Use of a novel animal prototype to teach advanced airway management skills.

Background: Airway management skills are a vital part of emergency medicine training. Mastery of these skills requires didactic, model, and real-patient experiences. Practice with the use of relevant models greatly enhances these skills.

Nutritional risk and body composition in free-living elderly participating in congregate meal-site programs.

Early detection of nutritional risk in free-living elderly is critical in healthcare, yet comprehensive measurements are time consuming and can be frustrating to both health professionals and elderly. In addition, body composition measurements provide information regarding fat and fat-free mass that have been linked to morbidity and mortality in elderly. In this study, nutritional risk was assessed in 69 elderly, aged 50-90 years, attending congregate meal-site programs, using Mini Nutritional Assessment, and body composition was assessed by bioelectric impedance.