The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an abrupt conclusion of field placement for social work interns at a comprehensive cancer center. In response to social distancing requirements, social workers, but not interns, were granted access to work remotely. Virtual programming became necessary to meet the interns' remaining educational requirements and provided an opportunity for proper termination from the program. This article will delineate the program redesign for oncology social work interns using remote/virtual modalities. This melded approach involved creating simulated clinical interactions, based on selected points along the illness trajectory targeting specific clinical competencies, which were presented to interns by phone and/or videoconference. Examples will be provided related to developing clinical skills and critical thinking and preparing for professional responsibilities within a broad range of healthcare settings. Guidelines for working with individuals, couples/families, and groups will be included. Issues of individual and group supervision will be explored, with sensitivity to the parallel experience of existential uncertainty and mortality awareness among the interns in the context of the pandemic. Although in-person training is preferable, there are advantages to virtual learning for both supervisors and interns. This creative adaptation of field education provides an innovative programming model that can be used to enhance the experience for social work interns moving forward in various healthcare settings during ordinary or extraordinary circumstances.

Being informed and using positive coping strategies are associated with engaging in health-promoting behaviors. We assessed whether the type of information source about HIV (personal or impersonal) and coping strategies (optimism, avoidance, or emotion-focused) are associated with HIV testing among adolescents attending therapeutic schools. Participants were 417 adolescents, ages 13 to 19, who attended one of 20 therapeutic day schools for emotionally/behaviorally disordered youth in two U.S. cities (Providence, RI and Chicago, IL) and completed a baseline assessment for an HIV prevention study. Among adolescents in the study, 29% reported having been tested for HIV. Adolescents were more likely to have been tested if they were older, female, Hispanic, identified as non-heterosexual, came from lower SES households, and had recently had unprotected sex. Additionally, youth who endorsed greater use of optimistic thinking and emotion-focused coping, and who reported having been informed about HIV by more personal sources, were also more likely to have been tested for HIV. In a multivariate analysis, having had recent unprotected sex and having more personal sources of information about HIV/AIDS were independently associated with HIV testing. Study findings suggest that, controlling for sociodemographic background, sexual risk behavior, and coping strategy, HIV testing among adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems may be increased when adolescents learn about HIV/AIDS from personal sources such as their healthcare providers, family, and friends.

Methylphenidate may be safe and effective in the management of clozapine-induced sedation in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Large scale, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials are needed to further validate the safety and efficacy of methylphenidate as treatment for clozapine-induced sedation.