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{Don’t forget to enter our anniversary giveaway here!}

The PBS series, American Experience, has a new documentary airing tonight: Tales from the Poisoner’s Handbook (check local listings; it’ll also be available online) and an interactive website to go with it. Those of you who are members of AAFS have undoubtedly received the emails about it (the subject of the documentary was a founding member). A description after the jump:

First, let me say thank you to all of you who call and email me about using my work as a part of your presentation or handouts, whether from FHO or other areas of my professional existence. There are a lot of you who do this and it’s not just the right and legal thing to do, but it’s also deeply gratifying to receive those requests because it makes me feel like the entire profession hasn’t lost its collective mind when it comes to being ethical and professional. That being said, I am seriously tired of finding my work (and the work of my colleagues) online, embedded in other people’s slide decks and presentation handouts without attribution and without asking permission. I have said this before–don’t do it. And yet, once again, this weekend I have found my work in someone else’s presentation, including photographs.

As evidenced from the lack of posts, I am practicing some radical self-care in these 2 last weeks of the year. While it hasn’t all been happy playtime, I am trying to spend significantly less amount of time plugged in, and significantly more amount of time goofing off with my kid and my spouse. So this will be my last post of the year. Thought you might be interested in what it looked like here at FHO in 2013. And after the jump, a little sneak peak at what next week (and the new year) brings:

A Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating today. Thank yous all around to everyone pulling a shift today. And special wishes of peace and joy to our military members serving around the world.

Just received this report from Sheila Early, (about-to-be-in-a-week) President of IAFN and regular supplier of all things Canadian to this site–and wanted to share it with everyone. Forensic Science in Canada: A Report of Multidisciplinary Discussion (PDF) looks at all aspects of forensic science in Canada, and includes an overview of forensic nursing (beginning on page 41), written by Eveline Gallant and Sheila Macdonald. Even for our non-Canadian readers, this is a concise overview of the state of the science and well-worth a look.

I have found a favorite new channel on youtube–RSA Shorts. Knowing how much I appreciate Brene Brown, their brand new animated short, The Power of Empathy, is utter perfection on a day when I am beyond weary:

Time for this year’s gift guide–some ideas for what to get that special colleague or team member. This year we are going for personality-type rather than the usual generic list. In case you missed them, you can find previous years’ gift guides here, here, here, and here.

FORGE has a webinar coming up: Trans-Specific Barriers to Accessing Healthcare. It’ll be held November 21st from 2-3:30 pm CT. I do not know of a program that doesn’t need some additional training on making quality care accessible to *all* patients, so I would encourage you to attend if you’re able to make it work with your schedule. And FORGE has some great information specifically for clinicians, so don’t forget to check out their online resources.

There’s something I want to talk about that follows-up on a post I published prior to going to Anaheim a couple weeks ago. It also ties in nicely with some tough experiences friends around the country are going through right now. And that is this: putting something new into the world, changing something up, will inevitably invite commentary. Some of the commentary will be constructive, useful–feedback that will help you grow in your endeavors and be better than before. However, some of the commentary will be patently unhelpful–it will descend from some remote place without the benefit of context or compassion. These are comments only meant to wound or unmoor their target and they can be devastating.

What better day to remind folks of this hilarious CDC resource than Halloween? Don’t miss their comic book, Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic (PDF) and the other components of the Zombie blog to get a refresher on disaster preparedness.

Happy Halloween!

Will be live tweeting (when I am able) from Anaheim. I hope to be one of many. Follow the conference at #4N6RN.

Next week is the annual IAFN conference, and it’s always one of the highlights of my year. It’s the only time I get to see so many of my people in one spot. This year will be more than hectic–I’m teaching a full day of testimony for the pre-conference (with my partner Sasha, because why wouldn’t I take professional advantage of living with a prosecutor?), plus 3 breakout sessions: one on sustainability with Jen Pierce-Weeks, one on writing and evaluating expert reports (also with Jen), and a military-specific testimony breakout (also with my partner).

I spend a lot of time nagging talking about using social media professionally. It’s a tool I truly believe is invaluable. Both small- and large-scale programs can benefit from using social media to stay connected, heighten awareness and educate colleagues and the public about relevant issues that can strengthen communities as a whole. And yet…[sigh] medical-forensic programs are not widely embracing its use, and individual clinicians still seem to be avoiding Twitter and other types of social media engagement more often than not. But a girl can push her own agenda dream.

I’ve had a pretty terrific week in Colorado, but it’s been an exhausting one. Made all the better by virtue of the fact that I am waiting to board my 1am flight back east for a family celebration at my in-laws’ tomorrow. So forgive me for sinking pretty low on this one, but when you’re bleary eyed and jello-brained, there’s nothing like a good slide show on foreign bodies to somewhat mindlessly pass the time. {Val P, take note of slide 6, with one of your very favorite misspellings…}

Happy weekend, all.

Open access scientific journals have been a boon for many of us– when you have no regular access to a medical library, getting articles for free is particularly lovely. However, Science magazine just published a new article, Who’s Afraid of Peer Review?, that calls into question the peer review process in open access journals. It’s a fascinating and worthwhile read–and something to consider when we’re talking about evaluating the quality of a research study (and so I have added this one to the clinical guide). Download the full-text here (PDF).

Medscape has a pretty interesting article based on recent research published in Gerontologist: Management of Sexual Expression in Long Term Care. We don’t get a lot of articles focused on sexuality in older adults, so it’s nice to see new science on the subject.