Competency-based training in the supervision of relational telemental supervision

Supervision has long been considered essential to developing effective mental health practice, especially among COAMFTE accredited training programs. But with telemental health rapidly being accepted as a standard treatment medium for couple and family therapy, there is little guidance about how to supervise clinicians who are engaged in telemental health practice. This paper presents an important step toward increasing the effectiveness of the supervision of therapists who are delivering relational therapies online through the identification of relational competencies unique to this delivery medium. These competencies have been adopted and integrated into a COAMFTE accredited master\u27s degree program that has been providing training in telemental health since 2008. The competencies are described, and supervision strategies that can be utilized and developmentally assessed throughout the program will be detailed

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Technology Is Not the Problem: A Case Study on Perspectives of Healthcare Providers on Remote Collaborative Mental Health Care in a University Student Health Center

University student health centers play an important role in addressing mental health problems among college students as they serve as an ‘entry point’ into receiving healthcare. Adopting a collaborative care approach allows healthcare providers to address complex healthcare needs in college students and provide better quality care due to the exchange of knowledge and expertise among various healthcare providers (Donnelly et al., 2021; Knowles et al., 2015). However, collaboration had to be adapted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and providers had to adapt to this by collaborating mental health care remotely. While extensive research has been conducted on collaborative care, little research has explored the perspectives of healthcare providers on collaborating remotely, especially in a university student health center population. A multi-method, single-case study approach was adopted to explore the perspectives of healthcare providers on remote collaborative mental health care in a university student health center population. Healthcare providers who collaborated mental health care remotely completed a questionnaire that measured the strength of the collaborative relationship with mental health providers, followed by an interview. Data from the questionnaire was used to complement findings from the interview. Qualitative findings suggest that healthcare providers perceived that (1) there was more collaboration under the same entity, (2) collaboration is challenging when providers are working under separate entities, (3) collaboration is valuable, and that (4) in-person collaboration is preferred but remote collaboration is just as effective. Quantitative results suggest that while collaboration was challenging for healthcare providers, they believed that they were able to continue providing high quality care to patients. Findings from this study shed light on the collaborative care process when providers worked under the same versus separate entities. Further, technology was believed to be just as effective as in-person collaboration and was able to circumvent the challenges from working under separate entities and the COVID-19 pandemic

Competency-based training in the supervision of relational telemental supervision

Supervision has long been considered essential to developing effective mental health practice, especially among COAMFTE accredited training programs. But with telemental health rapidly being accepted as a standard treatment medium for couple and family therapy, there is little guidance about how to supervise clinicians who are engaged in telemental health practice. This paper presents an important step toward increasing the effectiveness of the supervision of therapists who are delivering relational therapies online through the identification of relational competencies unique to this delivery medium. These competencies have been adopted and integrated into a COAMFTE accredited master\u27s degree program that has been providing training in telemental health since 2008. The competencies are described, and supervision strategies that can be utilized and developmentally assessed throughout the program will be detailed

Influence of the National Trauma Data Bank on the study of trauma outcomes: Is it time to set research best practices to further enhance its impact?

Background: Risk-adjusted analyses are critical in evaluating trauma outcomes. The National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) is a statistically robust registry that allows such analyses; however, analytical techniques are not yet standardized. In this study, we examined peer-reviewed manuscripts published using NTDB data, with particular attention to characteristics strongly associated with trauma outcomes. Our objective was to determine if there are substantial variations in the methodology and quality of risk-adjusted analyses and therefore, whether development of best practices for risk-adjusted analyses is warranted.Study design: A database of all studies using NTDB data published through December 2010 was created by searching PubMed and Embase. Studies with multivariate risk-adjusted analyses were examined for their central question, main outcomes measures, analytical techniques, covariates in adjusted analyses, and handling of missing data.Results: Of 286 NTDB publications, 122 performed a multivariable adjusted analysis. These studies focused on clinical outcomes (51 studies), public health policy or injury prevention (30), quality (16), disparities (15), trauma center designation (6), or scoring systems (4). Mortality was the main outcome in 98 of these studies. There were considerable differences in the covariates used for case adjustment. The 3 covariates most frequently controlled for were age (95%), Injury Severity Score (85%), and sex (78%). Up to 43% of studies did not control for the 5 basic covariates necessary to conduct a risk-adjusted analysis of trauma mortality. Less than 10% of studies used clustering to adjust for facility differences or imputation to handle missing data.Conclusions: There is significant variability in how risk-adjusted analyses using data from the NTDB are performed. Best practices are needed to further improve the quality of research from the NTDB

Influence of the National Trauma Data Bank on the Study of Trauma Outcomes: Is It Time to Set Research Best Practices to Further Enhance Its Impact?

BACKGROUND: Risk-adjusted analyses are critical in evaluating trauma outcomes. The National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) is a statistically robust registry that allows such analyses; however, analytical techniques are not yet standardized. In this study, we examine peer-reviewed manuscripts published using NTDB data, with particular attention to characteristics strongly associated with trauma outcomes. Our objective is to determine if there are substantial variations in the methodology and quality of risk-adjusted analyses and thus, whether the development of best practices for risk-adjusted analyses is warranted. STUDY DESIGN: A database of all studies utilizing NTDB data published through December 2010 was created by searching Pubmed and Embase. Studies with multivariate risk-adjusted analyses were examined for their central question, main outcome measures, analytical techniques, the co-variates in adjusted analyses, and handling of missing data. RESULTS: Of 286 NTDB publications, 122 performed a multivariable adjusted analysis. These studies focused on Clinical Outcomes (51), Public Health Policy or Injury Prevention (30), Quality (16), Disparities (15), Trauma Center Designation (6) or Scoring Systems (4). Mortality was the main outcome in 98 of these studies. There were considerable differences in the co-variates used for case adjustment. The three most frequently controlled for co-variates were age (95%), Injury Severity Score (85%) and gender (78%). Up to 43% of studies did not control for the five basic covariates necessary to conduct a risk-adjusted analysis of trauma mortality. Less than 10% of studies used clustering to adjust for facility differences or imputation to handle missing data. CONCLUSIONS: There is significant variability in how risk-adjusted analyses using data from the NTDB are performed. Best practices are needed to further improve the quality of research from the NTDB