Role of School-Based Health Centers Under Universal Coverage for Children and Youth in California: Issues and Options

Examines challenges of and provides suggestions for a universal model of health care delivery for all children and youth in California. Addresses the role of schools, school-based health centers, and their partners

A pilot study of fieldwork rotations vs. year long placements for social work students in a public hospital

A comparison of two types of fieldwork was undertaken with 26 social work students in a large urban hospital. The first group was assigned to a traditional, year long placement. The second group was assigned to three successive placements of approximately 10 weeks each. The impact of these two types of placement on students’ general sense of self-efficacy, self-efficacy regarding specific hospital social work activities and perceptions of the work environment, was assessed. Initial results suggest that both groups produce virtually no change in students’ general sense of selfefficacy, yet produce positive changes in students’ self-efficacy regarding hospital social work. In addition, results suggest that the fieldwork rotation used in the second group may produce somewhat more positive views of the work environment. Final version of the manuscript for citation: Cuzzi, L. C., Holden, G., Rutter, S. Rosenberg, G., & Chernack, P. (1996). A pilot study of fieldwork rotations vs. year long placements for social work students in a public hospital. Social Work in Health Care, 24, 73-91. © by The Haworth Press, Inc

Edith Abbott Was Right: Designing Fieldwork Experiences for Contemporary Health Care Practice

Successful social work practice in the contemporary, economically driven, health care environment demands unprecedented levels of technical competence, initiative, creativity and conceptual sophistication. Fieldwork plays a critical role in social work education for such demanding practice by providing interns initial opportunities to apply their newly acquired knowledge, skills and abilities. This article discusses the contribution of fieldwork to the preparation of social work practitioners and presents two programs that may serve as alternative models of fieldwork. Observations of the impact of these models, including a summary of two evaluations of one model are presented. We contend that a fieldwork structure using rotations may increase the value of fieldwork for students both academically and in the employment process. Correct citation for final version of manuscript is: Spitzer, W., Holden, G., Cuzzi, L. C., Rutter, S., Chernack, P., & Rosenberg, G. (2001). Edith Abbott was right: Designing fieldwork experiences for contemporary health care practice. Journal of Social Work Education, 37, 79-90

The development and initial evaluation of the Pornography-Use Avoidance Self-Efficacy Scale

Background and aims This study employed a newly developed questionnaire to evaluate whether men’s self-efficacy to avoid using pornography in each of 18 emotional, social, or sexually arousing situations was associated with either their typical frequency of pornography use or their hypersexuality. Methods Using an Internet-based data collection procedure, 229 male pornography users (Mage = 33.3 years, SD = 12.2) who had sought or considered seeking professional help for their use of pornography completed questionnaires assessing their situationally specific self-efficacy, history of pornography use, self-efficacy to employ specific pornography-reduction strategies, hypersexuality, and demographic characteristics. Results Frequency of pornography use was significantly negatively associated with level of confidence in 12 of the 18 situations. In addition, lower hypersexuality and higher confidence to employ pornography-use-reduction strategies were associated with higher confidence to avoid using pornography in each of the 18 situations. A principal axis factor analysis yielded three clusters of situations: (a) sexual arousal/boredom/opportunity, (b) intoxication/locations/easy access, and (c) negative emotions. Discussion and conclusions This questionnaire could be employed to identify specific high-risk situations for lapse or relapse and as a measure of treatment outcome among therapy clients, but we recommend further examination of the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the questionnaire in treatment samples. Because only one of the three clusters reflected a consistent theme, we do not recommend averaging self-efficacy within factors to create subscales

Prediction of liver disease in patients whose liver function tests have been checked in primary care : model development and validation using population-based observational cohorts

This work was supported by the UK National Health Service Research & Development Programme Health Technology Assessment Programme (project number 03/38/02) and also by the Backett Weir Russell Career Development Fellowship, University of Aberdeen.OBJECTIVE: To derive and validate a clinical prediction model to estimate the risk of liver disease diagnosis following liver function tests (LFTs) and to convert the model to a simplified scoring tool for use in primary care. DESIGN: Population-based observational cohort study of patients in Tayside Scotland identified as having their LFTs performed in primary care and followed for 2 years. Biochemistry data were linked to secondary care, prescriptions and mortality data to ascertain baseline characteristics of the derivation cohort. A separate validation cohort was obtained from 19 general practices across the rest of Scotland to externally validate the final model. SETTING: Primary care, Tayside, Scotland. PARTICIPANTS: Derivation cohort: LFT results from 310 511 patients. After exclusions (including: patients under 16 years, patients having initial LFTs measured in secondary care, bilirubin >35 μmol/L, liver complications within 6 weeks and history of a liver condition), the derivation cohort contained 95 977 patients with no clinically apparent liver condition. Validation cohort: after exclusions, this cohort contained 11 653 patients. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Diagnosis of a liver condition within 2 years. RESULTS: From the derivation cohort (n=95 977), 481 (0.5%) were diagnosed with a liver disease. The model showed good discrimination (C-statistic=0.78). Given the low prevalence of liver disease, the negative predictive values were high. Positive predictive values were low but rose to 20-30% for high-risk patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study successfully developed and validated a clinical prediction model and subsequent scoring tool, the Algorithm for Liver Function Investigations (ALFI), which can predict liver disease risk in patients with no clinically obvious liver disease who had their initial LFTs taken in primary care. ALFI can help general practitioners focus referral on a small subset of patients with higher predicted risk while continuing to address modifiable liver disease risk factors in those at lower risk.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Hospital Social Work Self-Efficacy Scale

The Hospital Social Work Self-Efficacy Scale (HSWSE, based on Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory) was designed as an outcome measure of social workers' confidence regarding their ability to perform specific hospital social work tasks. Evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the data obtained with the HSWSE was found in a series of studies. References include: Holden, G., Cuzzi, L. C., Rutter, S., Rosenberg, G., & Chernack, P. (1996). The Hospital Social Work Self-Efficacy Scale: Initial development. Research on Social Work Practice, 6, 353-365. Holden, G., Cuzzi, L. C., Rutter, S., Chernack, P., & Rosenberg, G. (1997). The Hospital Social Work Self-Efficacy Scale: A replication. Research on Social Work Practice, 7, 490-499. Holden, G., Cuzzi, L. C., Rutter, S., Chernack, P., Spitzer, W. & Rosenberg, G. (1997). The Hospital Social Work Self-Efficacy Scale: A partial replication and extension. Health & Social Work, 22, 256-263. Cuzzi, L. C., Holden, G., Chernack, P., Rutter, S., & Rosenberg, G. (1997). Evaluating social work field instruction: Rotations versus year-long placements. Research on Social Work Practice, 7, 402-414. Cuzzi, L. C., Holden, G., Rutter, S. Rosenberg, G., & Chernack, P. (1996). A pilot study of fieldwork rotations vs. year long placements for social work students in a public hospital. Social Work in Health Care, 24, 73-91

A pilot study of fieldwork rotations vs. year long placements for social work students in a public hospital

A comparison of two types of fieldwork was undertaken with 26 social work students in a large urban hospital. The first group was assigned to a traditional, year long placement. The second group was assigned to three successive placements of approximately 10 weeks each. The impact of these two types of placement on students’ general sense of self-efficacy, self-efficacy regarding specific hospital social work activities and perceptions of the work environment, was assessed. Initial results suggest that both groups produce virtually no change in students’ general sense of selfefficacy, yet produce positive changes in students’ self-efficacy regarding hospital social work. In addition, results suggest that the fieldwork rotation used in the second group may produce somewhat more positive views of the work environment. Final version of the manuscript for citation: Cuzzi, L. C., Holden, G., Rutter, S. Rosenberg, G., & Chernack, P. (1996). A pilot study of fieldwork rotations vs. year long placements for social work students in a public hospital. Social Work in Health Care, 24, 73-91. © by The Haworth Press, Inc

Edith Abbott Was Right: Designing Fieldwork Experiences for Contemporary Health Care Practice

Successful social work practice in the contemporary, economically driven, health care environment demands unprecedented levels of technical competence, initiative, creativity and conceptual sophistication. Fieldwork plays a critical role in social work education for such demanding practice by providing interns initial opportunities to apply their newly acquired knowledge, skills and abilities. This article discusses the contribution of fieldwork to the preparation of social work practitioners and presents two programs that may serve as alternative models of fieldwork. Observations of the impact of these models, including a summary of two evaluations of one model are presented. We contend that a fieldwork structure using rotations may increase the value of fieldwork for students both academically and in the employment process. Correct citation for final version of manuscript is: Spitzer, W., Holden, G., Cuzzi, L. C., Rutter, S., Chernack, P., & Rosenberg, G. (2001). Edith Abbott was right: Designing fieldwork experiences for contemporary health care practice. Journal of Social Work Education, 37, 79-90

Extrapolating non-target risk of Bt crops from laboratory to field

The tiered approach to assessing ecological risk of insect-resistant transgenic crops assumes that lower tier laboratory studies, which expose surrogate non-target organisms to high doses of insecticidal proteins, can detect harmful effects that might be manifested in the field. To test this assumption, we performed meta-analyses comparing results for non-target invertebrates exposed to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry proteins in laboratory studies with results derived from independent field studies examining effects on the abundance of non-target invertebrates. For Lepidopteran-active Cry proteins, laboratory studies correctly predicted the reduced field abundance of non-target Lepidoptera. However, laboratory studies incorporating tri-trophic interactions of Bt plants, herbivores and parasitoids were better correlated with the decreased field abundance of parasitoids than were direct-exposure assays. For predators, laboratory tri-trophic studies predicted reduced abundances that were not realized in field studies and thus overestimated ecological risk. Exposure to Coleopteran-active Cry proteins did not significantly reduce the laboratory survival or field abundance of any functional group examined. Our findings support the assumption that laboratory studies of transgenic insecticidal crops show effects that are either consistent with, or more conservative than, those found in field studies, with the important caveat that laboratory studies should explore all ecologically relevant routes of exposure