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Well, folks–we have gotten to the point where an actual site redesign is a possibility. Time to take this thing from a blog with a ridiculous amount of information to trawl through to an actual website that is intended to make information easily accessible and user friendly. Over the next 3-4 months I will be working with a firm to overhaul FHO, and frankly, I could use some input. What would you like to see happen on FHO? What suggestions do you have for how the site could be organized, or what information could be included to make it work better for you? Are there sites that you think are a great model design-wise? Feel free to leave comments below, tweet me your suggestions, or, as so many of you prefer to do, send me an email and let me know your thoughts. It’s important to me to get this right, and if it doesn’t meet the needs of FHO’s readers, it won’t be. So don’t be shy–all feedback is welcome.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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).

Mark your calendar: the inaugural Forensic Journal Club is coming up 12 February. Find all the information you need to participate here.

This is a busy week for me–aside from significant writing and teaching, I am also prepping for a trip to Sydney, Australia next Monday. It’s a fantastic honor to be the keynote for the Australian National Forensic Nursing Conference, and I very much hope I will get meet some of FHO’s Australian readers (of which there are many, so thank you all for that!). On top of all of that, tomorrow (Tuesday) kicks off our very first Twitter journal club (#ForensicJC). Don’t forget to check out the dedicated page for everything you need to know about our virtual session.

Mark your calendar: the inaugural Forensic Journal Club is coming up 12 February. Find all the information you need to participate here.

Several of you have asked me about specific questions to consider for journal club. I think there are are lot of directions you can take in a journal club, but as I looked at the resources in my own library, here are some basic ones I like (adapted from a guide from the nice folks at McMaster University School of Public Health in Canada):

Mark your calendar: the inaugural Forensic Journal Club is coming up 12 February. Find all the information you need to participate here.

I am mired in bureaucracy today. The kind of head-shaking, migraine-inducing, make-you-feel-kind-of-stabby bureaucracy that causes me to wonder,  how is it possible that we as a people are able to get anything done? I ran across this quote, which I thought rather apt: “Some third person decides your fate: this is the whole essence of bureaucracy.” True that. Clearly at the point where I am hollering at my dog about the small-minded incompetence of certain state government offices, while simultaneously shoveling stale chocolate chips in my mouth (the only chocolate I could find in the whole damned house)–clearly now is a good time to close up shop for the weekend. Before I go, though, please do check out the newest offerings on the Canada page. Some good stuff there (thank you, Sheila!).

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Mark your calendar: the inaugural Forensic Journal Club is coming up 12 February. Find all the information you need to participate here.

As we get closer to our kickoff Twitter Journal Club (#ForensicJC), allow me to provide a 10 Things list of why you should participate:

Mark your calendar: the inaugural Forensic Journal Club is coming up 12 February. Find all the information you need to participate here.

FORGE is offering a webinar on February 14th: Creating a Trans-Welcoming Environment. It will be held from 2-3:30pm CST. This is a great one to attend–it will provide concrete action steps to make sure your programs are accessible and inclusive. Make sure to also check out their new safety guide for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who are experiencing IPV (PDF), which should be a part of every program’s resource cache.

Medscape has an interesting article looking at the ethical and legal challenges in disaster medicine. No CEs attached to it, unfortunately, but it does make some fascinating points. It’s not a terribly long piece, so if part of your responsibilities include response to or preparation for disasters, it’s worth a look.

In order to participate in Journal Club you will need to get acquainted with Twitter. If you have never used Twitter I encourage you to check out Twitter 101: How Should I Get Started Using Twitter. Once you feel comfortable with the basics (and hey, I’m happy to be your guinea pig–just use @ForensicHealth in your test message and I will be sure to see it), it’s time to start familiarizing yourself with some basics for participating in Twitter Journal Club.

Last week I announced the 1st forensic journal club on Twitter. One thing I meant to mention is that you don’t have to be a clinician to join us–in fact sometimes it can be useful to have a nonclinical set of eyes on the research, giving a very different perspective on its strengths and weaknesses. So for our (many) non-clinical readers, please consider participating February 12th (3pm ET). Today I wanted to provide a couple resources for participating in journal club. The 1st is a tool that may be helpful in thinking about this month’s article.

If you’ve been reading this site for awhile you know that I have been obsessed with trying to get a Journal Club started. I have racked my brain for ways to do this (considering FHO readers are spread so far and wide). I realized we could make use of social media as one possibility, and did a search to see if anyone else was using platforms like Twitter for just such an effort. Turns out a few intrepid souls have done exactly this, with excellent success. So I am pleased to announce the inaugural Forensic Healthcare Journal Club via Twitter, Tuesday February 12th from 3-4pm Eastern. 

The article with which we will kick off the journal club is from the current issue of the Journal of Forensic Nursing: Caring for the Forensic Population: Recognizing the Educational Needs of Emergency Department Nurses and Physicians (link leads to PubMed abstract only). Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the article and I will be happy to review options with you.

In the coming days I will be rolling out how the journal club will work, including guidelines, suggested conversation points, Twitter pointers and logistics for being able to follow the conversation. I am hoping to also archive the conversation and provide the overview on a separate page on this site for those unable to join us live.

Interested?

More of what I’m reading now: When Men Murder Women–An Analysis of 2010 Homicide Data (PDF), published this fall by the Violence Policy Center. From the press release:

Nationwide, 1,800 females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents in 2010. Where weapon use could be determined, firearms were the most common weapon used by males to murder females (849 of 1,622 homicides or 52 percent). Of these, 70 percent (597 of 849) were committed with handguns. In cases where the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 94 percent of female victims (1,571 out of 1,669) were murdered by someone they knew. Of these, 65 percent (1,017 out of 1,571) were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers. Sixteen times as many females were murdered by a male they knew than were killed by male strangers. In 88 percent of all incidents where the circumstances could be determined, the homicides were not related to the commission of any other felony, such as rape or robbery.

The Stalking Resource Center is offering a webinar, Recognizing and Responding to Stalking in Later Life, January 31st from 1-2:30 pm ET. This webinar is part of events related to Stalking Awareness Month (read the President’s proclamation here).

I thought I’d share a few things I’ve been reading lately. Up first, Our Culture Is Our Medicine: Perspectives of Native Healers on Posttrauma Recovery Among American Indian and Alaska Native Patients. Published in the Winter 2012 edition of the Permanente Journal (Vol 16, no. 1), you can read the abstract after the jump, or download the PDF for free.

As we begin a new year, here is what I’d love to see more (and less) of in 2013: