The latest edition of the Journal of Forensic Nursing just came out; included is an article on accurately aging bruises. While it doesn’t conclusively refute the practice, it does provide yet another layer of support against it.
IAFN members & subscribers can read the article online by logging into the member center. If you aren’t an IAFN member (and I ask, why not?) or subscriber, you can read the abstract here.
As a follow-up to last week’s post on legislation in Iowa for animal protective orders, a podcast about the link between DV and animal abuse. Allie Phillips, who used to be at NDAA, is now the Director of Public Policy at the ASPCA. She has written the PAWS (Pets and Women’s Shelters) Program Startup Guide, a how-to manual for starting a PAWS program at domestic violence shelters. If you’d like to hear a brief podcast of Ms. Phillips talking about the PAWS program, you can listen here (warning: there’s a minute of extraneous stuff at the beginning of this podcast).
For those of you who sit on your local multidisciplinary response team, may I suggest distributing a copy at your next team meeting if your community isn’t addressing this issue already?
In my inbox this morning (because interesting things show up there sometimes)
I know this isn’t technically education, but for those of you interested in public policy, here’s a little legislation to have with your coffee this morning:
Advocates: Pets Need Domestic-Violence Protection
Victims of domestic violence should be able to seek court protection for a family pet to keep an abuser from causing harm to an animal or using a pet to gain leverage, advocates said Wednesday. Tom Colvin, executive director of the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, said his agency deals with one or two situations each week where they provide a “safe house,” foster program or other protection for a family pet caught in an abusive domestic circumstance.
Prevention Connection, a project of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, has just opened registration for its next webinar, Building the Violence Against Women Primary Prevention Movement. Two sessions are being held March 10th and March 12th, 11AM Pacific Standard Time. Content will be the same for both, but speakers may differ.
My friend Cathy, over at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, sent me a video she made for the Bandana Project. If you aren’t familiar with the Bandana Project it’s a a public awareness campaign aimed at addressing the issue of workplace sexual violence against migrant farmworker women in the United States. Esperanza: The Immigrant Women’s Legal Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center launched this campaign in 2007.
You can view the short video after the jump.
In my inbox today:
… a special webinar on Monday, February 23 (3-4:30pm ET) featuring Stop It Now! and Darkness to Light – two national organizations leading the effort to prevent the sexual abuse of children. This online exchange will help you learn from our experiences by presenting research informed practice and real life successes.
Jewish Women International is holding a teleconference March 5th (Thursday) from 12-1pm ET: GPS Technology: An Effective Tool to Monitor High-Risk Domestic Violence Offenders. Cost for non-members is $25 (free for members) and requires preregistration.
Learningtext.com is offering 4.8 CEUs for their self-paced online course on nursing ethics. Users have 3 weeks from the time of payment to complete the online program (cost is $29). The focus is on general nursing ethics across specialties. It’s marketed as being interactive and includes 4 modules and what appears to be a boatload of resources (at least from the marketing material). You can view the course syllabus here.
If you know me, you know that I am a fairly curious individual, (which is a polite way of saying I’m nosy). I like to know things. I like to know about things. I am, you could say, a student of stuff. Although studying is not required of me by my hospital, or the university where I teach, or the organizations for whom I work (or my dad, who had a terrible time making me into a student), I spend a chunk of my day, every day, doing just that.
ReachMD is offering a free CE program on the connection between irritable bowel syndrome and abuse in women. The objective for the program is to, “understand the association between IBS and abuse, effectively interview individuals with a history of abuse, identify physical and psychological disorders suggestive of abuse, and implement strategies to manage IBS patients with a history of abuse”.
Last summer Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Recommendations for Postexposure Interventions to Prevent Infection with Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and Tetanus in Persons Wounded During Bombings and Similar Mass-Casualty Events — United States, 2008. What I hadn’t noticed before today, though, was that those tricksters at the CDC snuck a CE opportunity into the PDF version of the report that doesn’t reveal itself if you link directly to the html version.
The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals offers a webinar on the effectiveness of emergency contraception. Leading this webinar is Dr. James Trussel, Director of Population Research at Princeton University (you may be familiar already with their terrific website). This session requires both pre-and post-course evaluations, assuming you take the course for CE credit (you’re given a choice). The course lasts about 30 minutes plus questions and answers at the end.
The National Academy of Sciences report on the prevention of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders among young people is now available. A formal public briefing of the document will be held live and via webcast March 25th from 1-5 pm. You can register for the event here.
Have you been to Witness? Witness uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.
And if you were a music lover back in the day, the name behind the organization may be a bit familiar …
I have had a request for some photography information–in particular, some information about the basics in choosing and using a digital camera. So I have compiled some videos to provide a brief tutorial for those of you charged with purchasing digital cameras for your program or just trying to figure out how to use the ones you have.
On February 18, 2009, at 2 p.m. (eastern time), in recognition of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week (February 2–6), the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will present an OVC Web Forum discussion with Mitru Ciarlante and Candice Hopkins on best practices for safety planning for teen victims of dating violence.
When I sent this link to my students last weekend, I had no idea I would see it bounce back to my own in-box from so many other sources. Many of you have forwarded this link to me, so I am taking the hint and getting it posted.
Thatsnotcool.com is a partnership between the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the Ad Council and the Office on Violence Against Women. Its goal is to raise awareness of teen digital dating abuse and features videos, stories, and an interesting section called Callout Cards.
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Dr. Philip Resnick is a well-known forensic psychiatrist (his CV lists some familiar cases) who teaches locally. Audio-Digest is offering a lecture by Dr. Resnick on Competency and the Law in several formats. For $19.95 you can download a podcast of the session or pay $24.95 for a CD or $29.99 for an audio cassette (!) Each audio program qualifies for up to 2 Category 1 CME credits, 2 CE credits and 2 CNE contact hours for up to 3 years from the publication date.
PLEASE NOTE: THE LINKS IN THIS POST NO LONGER WORK. HOWEVER, THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO THE SAME CONTENT, ALTHOUGH I CANNOT VOUCH FOR THE SITE.
The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health has an online tutorial for physicians and mid-level providers on providing culturally competent care. The course is free and offers up to 9 continuing education credits for the aforementioned professionals. (It’s unclear whether CEUs are also available to RNs who are not advanced practice–if you find out please let us know.)