Utilizing a Continuing Education Workshop to Increase Knowledge of Documentation Among Hospital Psychosocial Staff

ABSTRACT

Hospital-based psychosocial staff including social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage and family therapists utilize documentation skills to assess, treat, and manage patients admitted to inpatient settings. Little research exists that examines the impact of continuing education on documentation skills. This study examined changes in hospital-based psychosocial staff perceptions of their documentation skills after attending a two-part continuing education documentation workshop. The quantitative, pretest–posttest design utilized a convenience sample that included 32 staff members at pretest and 30 staff members completing the posttest. Results from the 51-item pretest and posttest survey indicate that the continuing education workshop statistically increased participants’ knowledge of progress notes and termination summaries. Findings did not indicate any differences when comparing knowledge, at the start of the workshop, for employees with prior documentation training, longer work experience, or different license groups. The authors discuss implications for practice, continuing education, and future research.     

Single machine batch scheduling with release times

Motivated by a high-throughput logging system, we investigate the single machine scheduling problem with batching, where jobs have release times and processing times, and batches require a setup time. Our objective is to minimize the total flow time, in the online setting. For the online problem where all jobs have identical processing times, we propose a 2-competitive algorithm and we prove a corresponding lower bound. Moreover, we show that if jobs with arbitrary processing times can be processed in any order, any online algorithm has a linear competitive ratio in the worst case. A preliminary version of a part of this paper was presented at the 31st International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2006). We gratefully acknowledge reviewers’ comments that helped to improve the presentation of this work. Supported by the Swiss SBF under contract no. C05.0047 within COST-295 (DYNAMO) of the European Union. Research carried out while B. Weber was affiliated with the Institute of Theoretical Computer Science, ETH Zurich.     

Test-retest reliability on nine tasks of the Physical Work Performance Evaluation

The Physical Work Performance Evaluation (PWPE) is one of many functional capacity evaluations (FCEs) currently available to assist with determining injured workers' physical potential to return to work. Previous research has explored interrater reliability, construct and predictive validity of the PWPE. This research examined test-retest reliability on a sample of 24 clients with stable physical injuries who were participating in vocational rehabilitation. Nine of the 21 main tasks of the PWPE were evaluated: lifting floor to waist, bilateral carrying, pushing, sitting, standing, kneeling, stair climbing, repetitive squatting and walking. Kappa scores ranged from 0.19 (error) to 0.77 and percent agreement from 66.7% to 87.5%. The results for kneeling, lifting floor to waist, bilateral carrying and pushing tasks suggest substantial test-retest reliability with moderate reliability also suggested for the standing and repetitive squatting tasks. Self-limiting behavior and alterations in pain scores, position adjustments and movement deviations are seen to be the main contributors to affect scoring between the first and second tests.     

A Cellular Dynamics Model of Experimental Bladder Cancer: Analysis of the Effect of Sodium Saccharin in the Rat

To make the methodology of risk assessment more consistent with the realities of biological processes, a computer-based model of the carcinogenic process may be used. A previously developed probabilistic model, which is based on a two-stage theory of carcinogenesis, represents urinary bladder carcinogenesis at the cellular level with emphasis on quantification of cell dynamics: cell mitotic rates, cell loss and birth rates, and irreversible cellular transitions from normal to initiated to transformed states are explicitly accounted for. Analyses demonstrate the sensitivity of tumor incidence to the timing and magnitude of changes to these cellular variables. It is demonstrated that response in rats following administration of nongenotoxic compounds, such as sodium saccharin, can be explained entirely on the basis of cytotoxicity and consequent hyperplasia alone.     

Racial,religious, and national origin intermarriage in the U.S.: review of selected theory,method, and research

"This article summarizes the intermarriage literature with special reference to books and articles in the social sciences. The literature is partitioned into theoretical approaches, conceptualization and operationalization, computational formulas used in the reporting of intermarriage, general findings on the extent and types of intermarriage, [and] correlates of and attitudes toward racial, religious and national origin intermarriage. The authors conclude that a variety of theories and methods have [been] and continue to be employed to investigate this phenomenon. Among the findings reported are that racial intermarriages are least prevalent and national origin intermarriages the most prevalent in the United States."     

Shifting shares of the population and U.S. fertility

American fertility, as measured by the total fertility rate, apparently has been climbing since 1988 and could approach replacement level in 1990. Three possible explanations are explored: incorrect denominators, actual fertility increase, and changing ethnic proportions of the population. Using California data as a surrogate for the nation, it is found that at least part of the gain in fertility is attributable to what is called "shifting shares." Given that minorities have higher fertility than the majority, as these groups increase their share of the population, the nation's fertility can be expected to continue climbing. Any attempt to attain zero population growth must therefore be postponed indefinitely.     

Private lives and public programs: an Australian longitudinal study of the elderly

Major late life events, reported in the Dubbo longitudinal study of older Australians, are used to examine the interaction of private lives with public programs. First, the data indicate strong supportive effects of publicly funded income, health, and aged care programs in reducing family burdens from major life changes. In particular, financial crises were rarely mentioned, directly or indirectly, as major threats. Next, the central role of informal social support in these events is demonstrated, first, as in previous studies, family support was responsive to risky events and to aging itself. Also, in new findings, one-third of surviving elderly respondents coped with the burdens of family crises as a substantial proportion of the "major" life changes that occurred over 13 years of the study. Within the security and support provided by the Australian welfare system, and with strong social networks, families with older persons in the Dubbo study manage multiple, major life changes. With rapid population aging, the development of more, and more easily accessible, services for a growing population of older people is a priority. The critical challenge will be to harmoniously grow public financing, private funding, and informal caregiving to deal with the growing burden arising from an aging society.     

Marital Processes and Parental Socialization in Families of Color: A Decade Review of Research

Research published during the past decade on African American, Latino, and Asian American families is reviewed. Emphasis is given to selected issues within the broad domains of marriage and parenting. The first section highlights demographic trends in family formation and family structure and factors that contributed to secular changes in family structure among African Americans. In the second section, new conceptualizations of marital relations within Latino families are discussed, along with research documenting the complexities in African American men's conceptions of manhood. Studies examining within‐group variation in marital conflict and racial and ethnic differences in division of household labor, marital relations, and children's adjustment to marital and family conflict also are reviewed. The third section gives attention to research on (a) paternal involvement among fathers of color; (b) the relation of parenting behavior to race and ethnicity, grandmother involvement, neighborhood and peer characteristics, and immigration; and (c) racial and ethnic socialization. The article concludes with an overview of recent advances in the study of families of color and important challenges and issues that represent research opportunities for the new decade.