Category: Child Abuse

Dr. Rachel Berger, from the University of Pittsburgh (a source of previous blog posts on this site), gave pediatric grand rounds at the Seattle Children’s Hospital last summer. You can view a webcast of her talk, Using Serum Biomarkers to Screen for Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury: How Close Are We? archived on the hosptal’s site (warning: video plays automatically). Physicians seeking CEs can submit this form for up to 1 AMA PRA Category 1 credit. Sorry, nurses, no CEU equivalent from this offering.

Child Death Reviews (or Child Fatality Reviews as they’re called in my neck of the woods) are happening in all 50 states and in countries around the world. Talking about child fatalities doesn’t always mean putting lessons learned into practice, though. The University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neurological Surgery’s Center for Injury Research and Control has an archived webinar on this topic: The Role of the Injury Professional on the Child Death Review Team: Translating CDR Findings to Injury Prevention Policy and Practice.

The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome has an online training center for professionals and the lay public. One of the professional courses they offer is an intermediate course on Shaken Baby Syndrome and Abusive Head Trauma. It is comprised of 4 lessons, including an Overview of Shaken Baby Syndrome, Medical Perspectives, Investigation and Legal Issues, and Prevention.

In the Summer of 2007 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines for accurately evaluating and diagnosing children appearing to have been physically abused. While this information is not new per se, Medscape is still offering a CE unit on the guidelines (for nurses and physicians), valid until June 10, 2009.

The Child Trauma Academy offers several free online courses on a variety of topics, including one that people frequently seem to be searching for: secondary (or vicarious) trauma. The Cost of Caring: Secondary Traumatic Stress and the Impact of Working with High-Risk Children and Families uses slides and narrative content, including case studies, broken into 4 lessons:

1. Introduction to secondary trauma
2. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders and secondary trauma
3. Self-care strategies for combating secondary trauma
4. Finding resources and getting involved

Each lesson includes as assignment or quiz: some of these might be excellent jumping off points for conversation at staff meetings or team retreats (just a thought).

Nursing Spectrum is offering 1 CEU on the topic Munchausen by Proxy: Recognizing A Form of Child Abuse. This is an online article with accompanying test, and is available for $10.

They also offer a deal where, for $34.99, you can access all of their online CE programs 1.5 hours or less and all state mandated CE programs at no additional cost for 1 year. Additionally, larger modules are 50% off. Visit their site for a complete listing.