Yesterday as I was leaving the last session of our trial ad exercises I managed to hook my foot under the ramp leading out of the courtroom. My arms were full, so when I went down I couldn’t brace my fall. I went headlong into the corner of the wall, lacerating my scalp in the process.
The Tribal Forensic Healthcare project has an upcoming webinar, Domestic Violence Case Review. The session will be held August 28th from 3-4:30 ET. Kim Nash is the featured presenter and CEUs/CMEs are available. Click through for details:
The news of Robin Williams’ death was received with great sadness in my household–I have been a big fan through the years (I remember listening to his comedy albums in high school, and Good Will Hunting is among my favorite movies). The insidiousness of depression, it’s profound. On LinkedIn this morning Bob Sutton shared a brief anecdote about Robin Williams that I very much appreciated, Robin Williams and the No Asshole Rule. Since it’s close to my personal motto (“Don’t be a dick”), it really resonated with me.
RIP, Mr. Williams.
I’m with the Navy and Marines in Newport, RI this week, one of my favorite gigs of the year. It’s hard to believe it’s that time again, because of course the year has flown by. Less than 10 days left with my kiddo before she returns to school, so I’m especially grateful she’s traveling with me (she’s an excellent and experienced traveling companion, so it’s relatively effortless). Pretty quiet around our house this past weekend, so plenty of time to keep tabs on my social media feeds. And lots of news to stay on top of, so here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke:
The National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative has a webinar on fatality reviews coming up, August 19 from 11:30-1pm PT. The session will provide an overview of the review process and discuss new developments and emerging issues. You can register here.
I’d like to introduce a new series here on the site: Prepping for Court. The purpose is to introduce people to the articles and books that I think are solid, reliable publications that can help inform testimony. Of course I’ll start with adult sexual assault, since it’s still the most popular topic at FHO. For this first one I have broken it into different sections, because different cases will have different issues. But all of the resources listed here are ones that I think are quality, and since we don’t have the time (or will) to read everything that’s ever been published on a given subject, this should give clinicians (and attorneys) a good foundation. Disagree with any of these or think I’ve missed some? Let me know and we’ll address it.
RTI has a 2-day drug facilitated sexual assault workshop coming up August 11th and 12th–it’s live in DC and also virtual, so no need to be local to attend. Upon perusing the syllabus (PDF) I noticed that one of the guest speakers is Aaron White from NIH. If you’re not familiar with the name you should become acquainted–I think he’s written the best article there is about alcohol and memory: What Happened? Alcohol, Memory Blackouts, and the Brain. Not surprisingly, it’s what he’s lecturing on at the workshop. The article is old (2003), but it’s excellent and should be part of your arsenal–it’s a great primer and more than one forensic toxicologist has mentioned it as an essential read.
I’m on my way to the NAC (for the 2nd of 3 trips down there in a month)–we’re kicking off the inaugural run of a fantastic (I hope) interactive testimony course for SANEs and prosecutors. Considering we started working on this about 18 months ago, it’s exciting to finally see it come to fruition. And a bit nerve-wracking, as all 1st time courses can be. I was pretty focused on prep this weekend and didn’t spend a lot of time surfing the interwebs, but there were still a few things that caught my eye since last we spoke:
VAWnet has updated their special collection on intimate partner homicide prevention. You should range around the site a bit–there’s a lot here for clinicians and for the collaborative teams in which we participate.
OJJDP just released a new resource: Recognizing When a Child’s Injury or Illness Is Caused by Abuse (PDF). It’s written for law enforcement, so this is really more of a SART or MDT resource, than a clinical text. I was happy to see it addresses issues like aging bruises based on color (you can’t), and provides some good overview information about a variety of injuries and other findings. I haven’t gone through the whole thing, but it looks promising. Peds folks weigh in…
NCMEC has a free webinar coming up, Missing and Exploited: Child Sex Trafficking Reporting and Recovery Planning (PDF). The session will be held August 19th from 2-3:30pm ET. Click through for details:
After yesterday’s post I received a request from an FHO reader for more resources on caring for patients who have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting (literature seems to be divided on the proper terminology so I am using both here). Not surprisingly, there isn’t a huge amount of clinically-focused information out there, and much of it is specific to obstetrics. I rounded up what appeared to be the best and most current articles and clinical guidelines (mostly free full-text) and included links to previous FHO posts addressing the same topic. As always, it’s not exhaustive (I opted to leave most of the obstetric-specific information out), but hopefully it’s useful.
Today is my sweet kid’s 13th birthday, so I am officially the parent of a teenager. I have no idea how that happened. A minute ago she was a newborn and now she’s this funny, interesting, incredibly smart kid who makes me proud every day. Naturally we spent the weekend celebrating (ziplining and dim sum, anyone?) and gorging on homemade Hostess-type treats (my spouse whipped up Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Cupcakes complete with squiggly frosting). Pretty much the only thing I could do after the weekend calorie bombardment was to loll around last night and surf my social media sites. Which is what I did. Here’s what caught my eye since last we spoke:
This week’s full-text offering is from The Permanente Journal and it addresses an issue that certainly doesn’t get discussed enough in healthcare circles: male patients who have experienced child sexual abuse. Coincidentally, I just saw that IAFN posted this article on Facebook, as well, so perhaps some of you have read the article already. If not, I recommend it. Click through for more details:
(UPDATED 30 MARCH 2021)
I frequently get asked about setting fees for expert consultation and testimony. Particularly with nurses, I find that people are unsure of how to determine appropriate rates and are prone to undervaluing their worth. So I figured I’d write something up for those of you needing some guidance. These are absolutely my opinions, not hard and fast rules. When I looked to see what had been written on fees for experts there was very little out there relevant to nursing specifically, and where it involved criminal (vs. malpractice) trials, there was even less. We don’t talk about it much (people are squeamish about things involving money), and really, we should. So I’ll kick off the conversation…
Surveillance data is extremely useful for us; the CDC guidelines are one resource for making decisions about how we treat our patients, but the actual information about what STDs are being seen in our communities, what problems may exists regarding things like antibiotic resistance, and other considerations, are also part of the calculus. For instance, if you have a high rate of syphilis in your community, you may choose to test as a part of your patient care.
The newest edition of Futures Without Violence‘s Health E-Bulletin (PDF) is now available. Particularly useful is the 1st article on why the ACA-mandated domestic violence screening matters and the one on reproductive coercion. Worth your time.
We finally cleared the last of our houseguests yesterday (that’s 10 days of people in our tiny place for those of you tracking), so we’re back to status quo. I head down to the NAC for the Army this week, but aside from that it should be relatively mellow. I was busy playing tourist in my own city this weekend, but there was still plenty of time to catch up on the news of the day. Here’s what’s caught my eye since last we spoke:
This week’s Full-Text Friday offering addresses the issue of multiple perpetrator rapes of adolescent girls (sad commentary: I can’t combine those words in the title of this post because of the disgusting trolls that come out of the woodwork). I hear a lot of speculative testimony, and occasionally it is about expectations of injury following sexual assault by multiple assailants. There’s not a ton of research on this topic, so I am pleased to offer this article up as a way to help inform us about the clinical picture of this patient population:
Somehow I missed this when it was held in May, but thankfully there’s an archived presentation: Vera Institute’s Center on Victimization and Safety has an archived webinar available on helping patients with disabilities understand the sexual assault medical-forensic exam. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words is available for viewing; I haven’t reviewed it yet, but it looks like a pretty invaluable contribution to the discussion around promising practices. Click through for details: