Category: Uncategorized

I can already tell it’s going to be one of those weeks. Panicky phone calls, 300 hundred road miles, piles of paperwork and trial prep have sucked the humor out of my life (at least temporarily). Not to mention the 6am flight I have to look forward to tomorrow. I am, to be frank, a tad overwhelmed. So today, let’s forget about all things scientific and formal-like.  I give you, instead, a brand new podcast from my favorite storytelling site, The Moth. Steve Osborne’s a former NYPD detective, and he tells a great story about interacting with families on the job. Similar in some ways to our interactions with families; completely different in many respects. It’s only about 14 minutes long, but it’s NSFW (unless you have co-workers like mine), so pick your listening spot carefully.

If you work with cops, you know him. Maybe you don’t know this exact detective, but we all know ones just like him. I hope you enjoy it.

Monday, pharmaceutical companies can start marketing a generic version of Plan B. I hope this will increase access to emergency contraception (EC), but I am skeptical. Part of the problem is a fundamental misunderstanding of how Plan B works (or doesn’t work, for that matter). Part of the problem is the regulatory issues which won’t change just because there’s a generic version.

I’d like to think that clinicians are better informed about EC today, but I’m not sure that’s true everywhere. However, I stumbled across a pretty cool tool that can assist you in putting together a high quality presentation on this topic, should you care to provide some training to staff or colleagues.

Well, I finally did something I should have done long ago: went through all of the posted webinars and provided archive info for them where available. This means that any live event I have posted should have a link to the PDF presentation, audio, video and/or supplemental materials except:

1. If the event hasn’t actually occurred yet
2. The information was posted in a separate entry OR
3. I couldn’t find archived materials

Click on the Webinar link on the right side of the page under Categories to pull up all of the webinars that have been posted here. All updated information is in red. You can now find archived materials for some of the most popular posts I’ve put up, including the recent Injury & Terminology session, Death Investigation, and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in Tribal Communities.

You’re welcome:)

I’m sorry to say, but it’s been a slow week over at the sustainability site–mostly because I was on a site visit this week for the project in Oregon. Posts were light, sadly. I’m hoping next week we might have the next bulletin, so cross your fingers. In the meantime:

• More announcements about our new prosecution institute (and check out our upcoming training events here)
• An online SANE course beginning next month, if you’re one of the many trying to figure out creative new ways to get new nurses trained

It’s looking like a gorgeous couple of days here in the 216, and for once I have no travel planned for a couple of weeks. Going to try and get in a little R&R. Hope you’ll be doing the same. Enjoy your weekend!

IAFN is hosting a webinar September 10th, 2-3pm ET, Confirmation Bias and Its Impact on Forensic Nurses. Cost is $30 for members ($40 for nonmembers) and the session is meant for all forensic specialties. One CEU will be awarded for participation. You can check out a definition of confirmation bias here.

It only took a few extra weeks longer than I had hoped, but the AEquitas website is now live:)

You can sign up for updates here.

I don’t have a wrap-up for you this week: I’ve been with the Army in Orlando all week, and these have been long days. Posts have been tough to get to with internet access only happening after roughly 10pm when I’m back in my hotel room. I’ll bring it back next Friday, don’t worry (maybe even with a few new publications I’ve been waiting patiently to share).

Interestingly enough, several of you have asked me to talk about my own practice a bit. So I figured I’d give you a little something different this Friday as I am winging my way back to the CLE (for a whole 44 hours until I get back on a plane). Here are 10 things making my life better right now. Not all of them are practice-specific, because my professional life is only in part centered on practice. But all of them are necessary as I attempt to keep the chaos under some modicum of control:

A new funding alert is available from VAWNet for those of you interested in the money-end of things. You can read it in full here (PDF):

Featured in this edition:

The Indiana Youth Institute has a podcast on sexting available on their website. I’m on the road with the Army this week and haven’t had a chance to listen to this one yet. But since there’s been a flurry of searches for “sexting” on the site recently, I figured this would be timely. I don’t even have any background on the speaker (just the sponsoring organization), so let us know if it’s worthwhile, please.

IAFN is hosting a webinar Tuesday, July 28th from 2-3pm ET on the basics of death investigation. Cost for members is $20 ($30 for non-members); 1.0 CEUs will be awarded upon completion. Deputy Coroner Bobbie Jo O’Neal is be the featured presenter.

Congratulations Felicia Infante! Do email me off the blog and let me know where to send your copy of the Scope & Standards (go to About for my email address).

Thanks to everyone who left comments…

Starting today, I am finally able to add a ratings feature to the site. From now on, you’ll see this at the bottom of each entry:

Although I get a sense of how much you’re interested in the various things I post based on the traffic, this will help me tailor the content even further. Please note that you have to actually click on the title of the entry and view it as a stand-alone page in order to see the ratings bar.

Thanks!

Well, now, lookie here. Courtesy of IAFN, I have in my sticky little hands one copy of the brand new Forensic Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice:

So over at Lifehacker today I discovered a new site that might be of interest to all you policy wonks out there. Trying to keep up with specific members of Congress? Legistalker allows you to follow the online goings on of your favorite (for whatever reason) elected official.

I never just post a news item on this site, but this one is so fascinating to me, I thought it was worthy of space. In California this weekend, the Governor fired 2/3rds of the state Board of Nursing for failing to discipline nurses accused of serious misconduct. It all came out after a lengthy joint investigation between the LA Times and ProPublica.

“Reporters found nurses who continued to work unrestricted for years despite documented histories of incompetence, violence, criminal convictions and drug theft or abuse. In dozens of cases, nurses maintained clean records in California even though they had been suspended or fired by employers, disciplined by another California licensing board or restricted from practice by other states.”

One of the most commonly searched terms on this site is “compassion fatigue” (or alternately  “secondary trauma” or “burnout”). Enough of you have been searching the term lately that I’m compelled to give you a new offering on the subject. This one‘s from PESI, and while it’s not free (cost is $29), it nets nurses 1.5 CEUs in a convenient audio package.

This week was a good one at the Sustainability site. We’re back with a new Coordinator Q&A, and a couple additional goodies for all you program managers out there:

• A brief post on getting your needs met, something we all could learn to manage a bit better, I think
• A cross-post that was unbelievably popular on this site: Jen Pierce-Weeks’ guest post on evaluating SANE trainers (seriously–the traffic on this was incredible)
• The Friday Q&A with Traci Jones from Cheyenne, WY. Thanks, Traci!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

The Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Minority Health has a new curriculum available: Cultural Competency for Disaster Preparedness & Crisis Response. The curriculum consists of 4 courses that “are designed to equip disaster and crisis volunteers and personnel with the awareness, knowledge, and skills needed to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to diverse communities during all phases of disaster. The curriculum is grounded in the Office of Minority Health’s CLAS Standards, which are grouped into three themes: Culturally Competent Care, Language Access Services, and Organizational Supports.”

Time once again for another installment of evidence-based medicine. The issue gets brought up in emails to me from time to time, and recently I’ve had a spate of them. So here’s another tutorial for your learning pleasure– this time, from the University of North Carolina and Duke University.

I think this issue is an important one, because as I’ve expressed many a time, one of the most critical questions you should be able to answer as a clinician is “Why?”. “Because that’s the way I was taught” or “That’s how we’ve always done it” probably isn’t going to cut it.

So about that announcement of mine…

I have been teaching and consulting for prosecutors for many years now. It’s really one of the parts of my professional life I enjoy most. So I am beyond grateful to be able to announce that today is the 1st day of my new job, as medical advisor for a brand new prosecution institute: Aequitas, the Prosecutor’s Resource on Violence Against Women. Our new website is just about ready to launch (we’re only about a month old, now); for a few more days you may still get the “under construction” notice. I will continue to oversee the National SANE Sustainability Technical Assistance project, as well–essentially splitting my time between those two gigs. You can check the updated About for all the details.