Today is International Women’s Day, and in the spirit of the day I thought I would post a TED talk by Sheryl WuDunn. If you’ve never read her book, Half the Sky (co-authored with her husband, Nicholas Kristof), I encourage you to do so.
There’s also a new Half the Sky game on Facebook, for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing. It’s actually a cool concept that is meant to raise awareness and funds for organizations like Heifer International and the Fistula Foundation.
Just a note to the new readers/subscribers (including the big group of you from Montana that subscribed this week!). Please make sure to look for a link from Feedburner in your email to verify your subscription. If you don’t see it, check your spam filter. You must click on that link to activate your subscription. Thanks and welcome!
Time once again for Articles of Note, some of the research that has caught my eye from peer-reviewed journals in the field. As always, this is not a comprehensive outline of every relevant study, just the stuff that looks interesting to me. Scribd is giving me fits, so I have bagged using it this month; the complete list of articles with active links to PubMed is after the jump. Let me know if you want a printable word doc. Sorry–no free full-text this month. Sadness.
The National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence (Futures Without Violence) has a webinar coming up March 25th from 10-11:30 PDT, A Survivor’s Journey: Understanding the Health Impact of Abuse and Paths to Wellness. The presenter, Olga Trujillo, is someone I like very much and it’s always great hearing her speak, so I would just go ahead and register for this one, especially if you missed her in Puerto Rico last year at the IAFN Annual Scientific Assembly (she was one of our keynotes). It’s sure to be a good use of your time.
Just downloaded the iPad app for the Journal of Forensic Nursing. It’s a beauty (color!). Compliments to the entire Journal Board who made that happen.
Apologies for being absent yesterday, but a trial out of town makes it virtually impossible to get much else done. I’m back for the rest of the week, though, and preparing for what is naturally (because I’m in DC) being called Snowquestration. We haven’t had a real snow storm here in a couple years, so we’ll see. I guess I need to wear my pajamas inside out so that we end up with a snow day tomorrow. Oh, wait–I work for myself. No snow day. My boss sucks.
There are some great online trainings coming up to discuss. For instance, the Battered Women’s Justice Project is hosting a webinar March 20th, 11:30-1pm Central Time: Intimate Partner Sexual Assault–Research and Advocacy. This is a good opportunity to get better acquainted with some of the science around this issue: the two speakers (Walter DeKeseredy and TK Logan) are well-known for their research on IPSV. Don’t let the advocacy part of the title deter you, healthcare people. I assure you, this is relevant to our practice, as well.
SAFEta has a free webinar coming up April 11th: Caring for Survivors with Physical and Developmental Disabilities. The session will be held at 2pm ET, and is meant for a multidisciplinary audience. Presenters are Nancy Smith and Shirley Pacely.
The CDC has a new website focusing on the public health implications of child maltreatment. It’s part of the Veto Violence campaign and while it’s specifically geared toward health department personnel and other public health professionals, there are some things on the site that feel incredibly relevant to my practice, as well.
I confess that I am surprised that there remain questions regarding the issue of victim advocacy access for all sexual assault patients. The best possible forensic clinicians simply cannot meet all of the needs of the sexual assault patient, and the role of the clinician is distinct from that of the victim advocate. HIPAA is not a reason to limit access, and where this issue continues to be a struggle, please read the latest EVAW bulletin (PDF), which is a follow-up to the original training bulletin. Even if you have fantastic collaboration and access, the bulletin is a good reminder of how we can frame the issue, how are respective roles differ, and what the research says about the impact of victim advocacy on patient outcomes.
Last month the CDC released the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation. I was remiss in not posting this sooner, but it’s certainly worth your time. This is the first set of national prevalence data looking at sexual violence and IPV by sexual orientation, and the results are sadly not surprising:
Back in my office after a lovely visit with a really diverse group of forensic nurses in Australia. The trip back from Australia? Less lovely. Much. The good news about the cluster&*@k that was my trip home? Well, I might need some time before I can come up with something, but the extra time added to my return trip gave me plenty of time to read. Here’s some of what I was perusing since last we spoke:
I’m starting the long trek home today, so I leave you with a quickie: an interview Terri Gross did this week with Emily Bazelon, an editor at Slate, on the issue of teen bullying today, which she covers in her book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. The book just came out and having an almost teen girlchild of my own, I’m looking forward to reading it.
The American Bar Association AIDS Coordinating Committee is hosting a multidisciplinary teleconference on the intersection of domestic violence and HIV. It will take place on February 27th from 12-1pm ET. Looks like you’ll need to email them for call-in info since it isn’t on the announcement. It specifically states that the teleconference is meant for healthcare, legal and social work practitioners, so should be pretty relevant.
Today in my keynote talk, I will be talking about innovation. One of the people whose ideas on this subject have been inspiring is Steven Johnson (check out his TED talk here). For me, this video says so much about what we need to consider when we think about innovation and its application to our work:
“…chance favors the connected mind.” Awesome.
I am pleased to announce that IAFN and NSVRC are offering a 6 week online SANE Sustainability course, beginning in April. I will be teaching it, along with Jennifer Pierce-Weeks, and it will be specifically aimed at the issues that impact program managers, such as budgeting, recruitment and retention, and more. There is an application process, and a limited number of spots are available, so please note the deadline in the announcement. A second offering of this course will occur in late summer. All of the details after the jump.
I am heading to Sydney today, and while I am hoping to keep posts fairly regular for the week, please bear with me. My intention is also to tweet from the conference where I am able, so look for that, as well. This weekend my kiddo was in town, so it was mostly play time for me (with some packing going on). That didn’t leave a ton of time for reading, but here are a few things that have caught my eye since last we spoke. You may find the NY Times article on strangulation prosecution of particular interest.
Thanks to our friend Sheila for sending over the link to the new round of “Don’t Be That Guy” posters from Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton. I really like this campaign and appreciate that attention is paid to same sex violence, as well. You can check out all of the posters from both the 1st and 2nd series here.
The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology’s current issue is completely devoted to Sexual Violence and HIV Transmission (and it appears free full text). So, yeah, I’ll just go ahead and add that to my reading list for my Australia trip…
Well, a small, but mighty group of us had an interesting conversation at our first journal club. Not sure if it’s worth doing it again, but it was a great way to talk about a recent article. Plus I learned that I need to organize myself in a much different way when it comes to facilitating a discussion on twitter versus facilitating live, so definitely an opportunity for some skill building. You can read the full exchange after the jump (start from the bottom and read up).
I had a request for some information on bite wounds in living patients, so I decided to create a new clinical guide on the subject. However, there are caveats to this one–I only included research that was applicable to the work we do as clinicians. Any of the research on bite mark impressions and the challenges to that science are not included here (no disrespect to our forensic odontology colleagues, but that’s a very different area of science). I have only looked at issues related to identifying, treating and swabbing for the purposes of this clinical guide. If I have left something out that you feel is particularly important, please let me know and I’ll add it in. As with all of the guides, contact me if you’d prefer a word doc with hyperlinks.