Women's responses highlight the significant impact of the experience on their lives and illuminate to primary care providers the importance of assessing, recognizing, and appropriately addressing their specific concerns.

We have developed and assessed two innovative, case-based, interactive training programs on substance abuse, one for health professional students on alcohol and one for primary care providers on SBIRT. Both programs build skills in substance abuse screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT). Real-world effectiveness trials involving medical students (n=10); nursing students (n=60) were completed; trials involving primary care providers (n=65) are in progress during 2011. Medical students and nursing students had similarly low baseline scores on assessments that benefited from training: knowledge, confidence and clinical performance measured via an online standardized patient case and encounter note all improved post-training. Preliminary results indicate that practicing providers improved on knowledge, attitude, and brief intervention skill performance after a similar training. Results suggest that SBIRT skills can be improved with this model for case-based interactive training programs, and thus, that this training has the potential to impact patient outcomes.

BackgroundIt is increasingly important that physicians have a thorough understanding of the basic science of human genetics and the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) associated with genetic testing and counseling.MethodsThe authors developed a series of web-based courses for medical students on these topics. The course modules are interactive, emphasize clinical case studies, and can easily be incorporated into existing medical school curricula.ResultsResults of a ‘real world’ effectiveness trial indicate that the courses have a statistically significant effect on knowledge, attitude, intended behavior and self-efficacy related to genetic testing (p<0.001; N varies between 163 and 596 for each course).ConclusionsThe results indicate that this curriculum is an effective tool for educating medical students on the ELSI associated with genetic testing and for promoting positive changes in students' confidence, counseling attitudes and behaviors.

The experience of men who have completed cancer treatment and transitioned into survivorship is not well understood; therefore, a qualitative, descriptive, narrative analysis was conducted with open-ended questions that participants responded to annually during the course of a 10-year period. The participants expressed that the experience was complex and three themes were identified: "symptoms," "can't go back," and "needs." Time also emerged as an important concern. Participants indicated that sexual and physical symptoms impacted their entire life and that acknowledgment, information, and help from others were important to their recovery. Returning to baseline functioning was no longer possible; rather, a new normal now existed. The findings will help oncology nurses better understand the experience of being a prostate cancer survivor. The need for long-term interventions with information delivered prior to, during, and beyond the treatment process was identified. Clinical interventions should move toward a more integrated approach that helps men develop their new normal.

The modified Delphi approach we employed allowed for the development of a consensus statement that will serve as a template for education, practice, and future research in maternity care. The completion of this statement marks the beginning of a project to promote systemic changes that support normal physiologic birth, and thus, have the potential to improve outcomes for mothers and infants.