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Caring for Your Hand Burn
Get PDFThis patient education handout shares information on caring for a hand burn
The Art of the Trade: A New/Old Take on Resource Sharing
Get PDFThe Salem Public Library had been awarded a grant from the American Library Association and FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The award included a six-week installation of a traveling exhibit called Thinking Money, designed to introduce basic concepts of financial literacy to teens, tweens, and young adults. The 50 libraries that received the Thinking Money grant were charged with partnering with community organizations to create at least four programs based on the exhibit’s theme.
Finding community partners was not at all difficult. Credit unions and financial planners were only too happy to conduct classes and give presentations, but I wanted to have at least one program that approached the topic a bit more obliquely, something that would soft-sell the benefits of good money management skills. Marion County Environmental Services turned out to be the perfect partner for this endeavor. MCES’s basic charge is to keep materials out of the waste stream. Through their innovative outreach activities, they challenge residents to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Their program director, Jessica Ramey, and I hatched a plan for a back-to-school blue jeans swap, reasoning that conservation of resources applies as much to the environment as it does to families’ wardrobes and bank accounts, and that people who would come to the library for free back-to-school clothes might not be the same people who would sign themselves up for a class on budgets or investments. Our theory was that if we could get people into the building for free jeans, they would discover the fabulous Thinking Money exhibit and perhaps learn something new
Oregon’s County Law Libraries: Providing Legal Information and Reference Assistance Across the Miles
Get PDFIn Oregon, all 36 counties are statutorily required to “operate a free law library that is convenient and available at reasonable hours; or provide free law library services at one or more locations that are convenient and available at reasonable hours” (Or. Rev. Stat. § 9.815). County law libraries have been around for more than a century in Oregon; however, what those libraries look like today and the depth of services or resources they offer vary dramatically statewide. In rural and small counties, especially, there may be limited (or nonexistent) resources, physical space, and staffing. Despite the challenges, many counties outside the Portland metropolitan area are striving to meet—and succeeding!—the legal information needs of both attorneys and non-attorneys through non-traditional service models, targeted outreach, staff training, and other endeavors. As a result, these libraries are helping to further “access to justice,” a national movement to ensure that everyone, regardless of economic means, has equitable access to the justice system, which includes legal protection, legal awareness, and legal counsel (United States Institute of Peace, 2009).
Oregon county law libraries have a long, well-established history of skillfully providing legal research information, reference assistance, and referrals to the public, lawyers and non-lawyers alike. More than ever before, small and rural county law libraries are discovering and devising innovative ways to make big impacts on their community’s legal information needs. Nevertheless, significant room remains for growth and improvement. It is hoped that this article inspires some readers to investigate the public law library services currently offered in their own county, to evaluate the quality of those services, and to brainstorm ways in which the services could be improved or more widely appreciated and supported
Blood Pressure Measurement as a Risk Factor for Lymphedema in Females Post Breast Cancer Treatment
Get PDFBackground: Lymphedema is a common complication of breast cancer treatment. And while breast cancer survivors are at an increased risk of developing lymphedema, there are various risk factors that, if avoided, might limit the incidence of arm swelling. A few national organizations have recommended that patients avoid blood pressure measurements on the affected arm. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine whether this burden is evidence-based or if it is causing unnecessary health anxiety.
Methods: An exhaustive search of available medical literature was performed using MEDLINE-PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Key words included “blood pressure” and “lymphedema” and (“breast cancer” or “breast neoplasm”). The quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE Working Group guidelines.
Results: A total of 4 articles were included in this systematic review, all of which were prospective cohort studies. Three studies found no significantly increased risk of lymphedema with blood pressure measurements. One study measured lymphedema using 3 different techniques and found a significantly increased risk with one of the techniques but not the others.
Conclusion: This systematic review refutes the current guidelines that patients should avoid blood pressure monitoring in the affected arm. Further research that looks at how to define lymphedema and how to best diagnose it in the clinic will help with implementing earlier treatment.
Keywords: Blood pressure, lymphedema, breast cancer, and breast neoplas
Assessment of an Innovative Medication Adherence Training Exercise in an Interprofessional Training Program
Get PDFOBJECTIVE To assess the effect of an innovative training exercise on post-graduate healthcare trainees’ knowledge and perspectives of medication adherence and skills gained within an interprofessional training program.
METHODS Postgraduate trainees (medicine, pharmacy, advanced practice nursing, and mental health) at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center’s Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education interprofessional training program participated in a medication adherence exercise and training session. The session included a formal PowerPoint presentation, an innovative medication adherence simulation exercise, clinical scenarios, and a journal club. Verbal feedback during the debriefing session occurred after the medication adherence simulation exercise and throughout the session.
RESULTS
Six trainees participated in the exercise and training session (2 medical residents, 2 nurse practitioner residents, 1 pharmacy resident, and 1 clinical psychology fellow). Trainees reported developing a greater understanding for barriers patients face with medication adherence, empathy, and strategies to manage patients’ medication adherence.
CONCLUSIONS
The medication adherence exercise and training session provided an opportunity for healthcare professionals from different professions to discuss medication adherence and share their educational training and previous clinical experiences within an interprofessional training program
Caregiver Burden, Self-Perceptions, and Aging
No full textProviding care for an individual who has a form of dementia is a very difficult task. Informal caregivers may experience symptoms of caregiver burden, such as depression or chronic pain. Many of these susceptible caregivers (adult children, spouses) are aging into the geriatric population. While it is thought that caregivers with higher levels of social support and resilience experience less burden than individuals with lower levels of both, there is little research regarding how caregiver burden may affect how caregivers view their own aging process. Research suggests that individuals with more positive self-perceptions of aging are more likely to age successfully (e.g., able to engage in meaningful activities). This study examines how this experience shapes a caregiver’s view of their own aging process in order to barriers that these individuals may face and to help them age successfully, regardless of negative caregiving experiences.
A literature review describes the effect burden has on caregivers, how self-perceptions of aging are developed and how they affect aged individuals. This study examines how burden effects self-perceptions of aging and if social support and resiliency mediate this relationship. Results indicated that caregiver burden negatively affects the caregiver’s self-perception of aging, and social support moderated this relationship, while resiliency did not. Study findings suggested that caregivers with higher levels of social support experience less burden and higher perceptions of aging. Furthermore, caregivers who provide fewer hours of care had lower levels of burden and higher perceptions of aging. These findings are examined in further detail in the results and conclusion sections of this dissertation
Examining Differences in Psychopathy, Childhood Trauma, and Dissociation Among Female Offenders
No full textPsychopathy is a personality syndrome that has been widely studied in male samples, and women are underrepresented in the literature. The field’s etiological understanding of psychopathy is limited, but theorists have proposed that dissociation in response to early trauma may play an important role in the development of the affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy (Daversa, 2010; Porter, 1996). However, few studies have tested these theories. Women with psychopathy tend to experience high levels of trauma and PTSD (Hicks, Vaidyanathan, & Patrick, 2010), making them an ideal population in which to examine dissociation’s role in explaining the relationship between trauma and psychopathy. The purpose of the present study was to extend the field’s understanding of psychopathy among women and to test etiological theories of psychopathic features. The findings indicated that both factors of psychopathy were related to antisocial features, aggression, depression, borderline features, PTSD symptoms, and dissociation. Childhood abuse history was significantly related to the antisocial features of psychopathy. There was also an indirect effect observed between childhood abuse history and the interpersonal/affective features of psychopathy through dissociation. These results extend the understanding of psychopathy and external correlates among women and suggest that dissociation is at least one of the relevant factors in explaining the relationship between childhood trauma and the affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy in women