Articles of Note: November Edition

Time once again for a run down of some of the new and noteworthy articles in the current literature. All of these are from the October/November issues. As always, please keep in mind this in no way a comprehensive list; simply items that have caught my attention from a selection of peer-reviewed journals. Links lead to PubMed abstracts; from there you can choose what’s worth a.) paying for; b.) a pilgrimage to your nearest medical library;  or c.) downloading via the full-text access you possibly have at your disposal. To be honest, it was kind of a light month; not nearly so much grabbed me in my rounds of the recent stuff.

New CEU Offerings

RN.org has several new CE offerings available that might be of interest to readers. It’s a flat $19.95 for unlimited CEs (in a 12 month period), and they offer some of the state mandated courses, as well as a general selection. That’s actually a pretty fantastic value for the money–something to consider springing for if you just don’t have the budget to send your team members to conferences this year.

Cultural Competency & Disaster Response

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.”

Bioterrorism & Emerging Disease Preparedness

Rutgers College of Nursing has 8 online courses on bioterrorism and emerging disease preparedness. They all carry contact hours and range from $10-$70 depending on the number of hours you earn (looks like it’s roughly $10 per CE, give or take a few bucks).

Weekend Extra: Workplace Violence

This weekend has been yet another sad reminder of the epidemic of workplace violence. It’s obviously not a new phenomenon, but right now it seems to be happening with frightening frequency. The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) actually has a tool for hospitals (cleverly known as the Hospital eTool) that addresses a wide variety of hazards in the workplace, such as blood-borne pathogens and medical lasers(!). There’s also a section on workplace violence.

Disaster Health Care

Audio Digest has free podcasts available on a range of disaster-related healthcare topics. You can download audio files on PTSD, principles for initial response, infectious disease, incident management and disaster mental health. Even better, they have kindly segmented the files, so you have the option of downloading just parts of the podcasts or the whole megillah.

Emergency Preparedness

AHRQ hosted Lessons Learned from the Field of Emergency Preparedness, last November. You can listen to a webcast of the session and view PowerPoint slides in their archives at no cost. According to the site, presenters shared key insight on customizing tools in order to address the distinct needs of their communities. Emergency preparedness planners as well as Federal, State, and local community health planners, providers, and first-responders attended.

Using Telehealth for Disaster Preparedness & Response

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.

Bioterrorism

Nurses can earn 5 CEs for completing Western Schools’ Bioterrorism and the Nurse’s Response to Weapons of Mass Destruction. This is in a text-posttest format; however it is much longer than your typical article-based CE offering, running 65 pages (so pace yourself).  It’s currently available at the sale price of $19.95 (you save $5).

Explosions and Blast Injuries

Explosions and Blast Injuries: A Primer for Clinicians is a 1 credit on-line CE offering for nurses. This is as close to a paper-and-pen type offering as you will find online. Simply read the content and take the quiz (the materials are also printable for those of you who struggle with reading large amounts of content online).  Fee is $10.