PLEASE NOTE: THE LINKS IN THIS POST NO LONGER WORK. HOWEVER, THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO THE SAME CONTENT, ALTHOUGH I CANNOT VOUCH FOR THE SITE.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health has an online tutorial for physicians and mid-level providers on providing culturally competent care. The course is free and offers up to 9 continuing education credits for the aforementioned professionals. (It’s unclear whether CEUs are also available to RNs who are not advanced practice–if you find out please let us know.)

Nurse.com is providing 1.5 CEUs for their online offering, Forensic Nursing and School Shooters. Co-authored by Dr. Ann Burgess, the course is $10 and is in the standard article-posttest format.

The American Telemedicine Association has made available Kentucky’s Use of Telehealth for Disaster Preparedness and Response: 9-11 Was Just the Beginning. This offering, in webinar format, is available for download from their online store. Cost is $30 (although it’s free for members of ATA) and can be viewed at your leisure since it’s prerecorded.

Many of you have requested more information regarding starting up nonprofits (as people are examining ways to extract themselves from less than supportive or financially hamstrung hospital environments). The Foundation Center has a series of webinars on startup issues for nonprofits that should be helpful. There are 5 parts and they range from outlining legal issues to raising money. Best of all, they’re free.

Did you know that you can subscribe to this site by email? Rather than check back on a regular basis, you can register for email updates that will deliver new content to your in-box:

It’s easy, it’s free, and your in-box won’t get clogged with spam from this site because it only updates you once a day, and only when new content has been added in that 24 hour period. Or try the RSS feed. It will deliver new content to your blog reader or Google/Yahoo homepage effortlessly–just a few mouse clicks and it’s done.

The Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, are hosting a webinar February 24, 2009 at 2pm ET. The webinar, Helping Immigrant and Refugee Students Achieve School Success: Partnering with Families to Support Student Mental Health Needs, will highlight successful strategies for supporting mental health needs of these students and examine some of the trauma inherent in the immigrant and refugee experience.

The University of California (Berkeley) has published a podcast from a talk given last week on the role of medical personnel in torture. The presentation, given by Dr. Vincent Iocopino, touches on legal, medical and human rights issues. Dr. Iocopino has written and presented extensively on this topic (and has the accolades to back up his contributions to the field).

I’m in Chicago teaching today, and one of the topics we touched on briefly was evidence-based medicine. As we were talking I realized that it’s one of those terms we sling around quite freely, but my hunch is that many people aren’t particularly clear what it really means. Lucky for us many medical libraries have put together online tutorials on the subject. The Norris Medical Library at the University of Southern California has a good one: easy to use and concisely presented. It’s also well-linked, which, if you’re wonky like me, will send you over the moon. Best of all, it’s free and doesn’t even require registration to use.

PESI is offering a webinar this Friday (2/6/09),  Combat Stress and Trauma in Returning War Veterans and Their Families. The “teleseminar” (I’m not clear what this means–I suspect audio, no visual) will be held from 2:30pm-4pm ET and costs $149. CEs are available for nurses (as well as counselors, psychologists and social workers).

Grant Station is offering 2 webinars on grant writing this month. February 18th, they will host a 90 minute webinar, Making Time to Write Grants. Then on February 19th, they are hosting a 2nd webinar, Grant Writing: Getting Off to a Good Start. Both webinars begin at 2pm ET and require registration a minimum of 24 hours in advance. Both webinars appear to be geared toward the novice grant writer (though I suspect everyone could benefit from the time management aspects of the 1st one, regardless of experience). Cost is $89 a person per webinar. You can call 1-877-784-7268 for questions.

Just a quick note to let people know I will be on the road the rest of the week, so posts may be a bit lighter than usual. I will return next Monday with the usual volume of posts.

In the course I’m teaching this semester, we’ve been talking about vulnerability. Impossible to have that discussion and not talk about teens. The following webcast is an interesting panel discussion sponsored by The Dana Foundation and Syracuse University. Entitled The Teen Brain, it’s part of their Speaking of Science Series.

Have you been to SlideShare? Perhaps you should check it out…

Because my last post on the Choking Game was one of the most visited posts yet, I have added a second post on the subject. This is a video made by the folks at GASP. It’s less than 15 minutes and was created for teens and educators (I assume). However, I think there’s great information for us, as well, including a heartbreaking 911 tape that starts it off.

Also from the CDC website this morning:

It’s called the “choking game,” but it’s no game, and there are no winners. Some kids are choking themselves or each other, by hand or with some form of noose. The intent is to get a high, caused by a temporary lack of oxygen to the brain. Tragically, this so-called ‘game’ sometimes goes too far and results in death. In this broadcast, Dr. Robin Toblin discusses this latest activity and steps that can be taken to bring an end to this deadly game.

Today, for the 2nd installment of the Leadership Reader, I wanted to highlight a book about money. Many of you have talked with me about the challenges of funding your programs and the need to explore new ways to bring in operating dollars. Grants are always a good avenue to pursue, but they often come with serious restrictions on how the money can be used. Fundraising, on the otherhand, allows you much more freedom and flexibility in alotting those dollars to areas grants often don’t cover, like general operating funds or travel for education and conferences.