Effects of substance use screening and brief intervention on health-related quality of life.

PURPOSE: Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment interventions have been shown to positively impact alcohol use. These programs utilize motivational interviewing techniques in an effort to reduce risky substance use among those at elevated risk of developing a disorder. However, there is a dearth of research assessing positive impacts above and beyond changes in alcohol use. This study examines potential benefits of brief interventions, utilizing motivation interviewing, on mental and physical quality of life. METHODS: The present quasi-experimental study examined changes in health-related quality of life among individuals presenting at urban emergency departments. The analyses included the use of propensity score matching to minimize potential biases resulting from differences between groups at baseline. RESULTS: The results indicated that the intervention group experienced significant increases in perceptions of mental health over those of the comparison group, regardless of changes in substance use. CONCLUSIONS: These findings have implications for practice, as they suggest that brief substance abuse interventions delivered in the emergency department settings may have effects beyond those targeted by the intervention. Specifically, brief substance abuse interventions may positively impact mental health, thus enhancing the quality of life among targets of the intervention.

Faculty training seminars in family systems.

Family physician faculty members were instructed in the concepts and applications of family systems theory as part of a structured faculty development series. An experiential component in the seminars allowed faculty members to present their own three generational genogram. Evaluations revealed the unexpected outcome of increased understanding of faculty colleagues in the work setting.

A vocal placement model: I. Perceptual aspects.

A study of the perception of vocal placement was carried out to determine if speakers and listeners could agree about the speakers' intents in "placing" productions of vowels and sentences at different locations in the vocal tract. The model tested divided the vocal tract into five volumes from the laryngopharynx to the lips. The results showed that naive listeners, as a group, achieved significant concordance of agreement with the speakers' intents in placement. The speakers were much superior to the naive listeners in a delayed-judgement self-listening task. It was concluded that the vocal tract model has perceptual validity.

Changes in students' perceptions of clinical teaching as a result of general-practice clerkships.

This study investigated whether a 3-week clerkship for third-year medical students in general-practice doctors' offices changed the students' perceptions of clinical teaching. The Preceptor Evaluation Questionnaire was administered to 138 junior medical students before and after their clerkships. The result of the study indicated that the clerkship had a positive effect on the students' perceptions. This finding was not related to their experiences in other clerkships nor to the grades they received for the clerkship. The results indicate that the teaching relationship established between student and family doctor significantly affects students' perceptions of aspects of effective clinical teaching.

A factor analytic study of teaching in off-campus general practice clerkships.

The Preceptor-evaluation questionnaire (PEQ) was developed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center to evaluate the clinical teaching behavior of general practice doctors in private practice who have one or more third-year medical students per year in their offices for a required general practice clerkship. The PEQ was designed to provide feedback to these doctors and the sponsoring department in an effort to improve teaching in this setting. Developed from the input of family practice doctors who have supervised students in their offices and from a review of related literature, the instrument was given to students to determine the level of importance they attributed to each teaching characteristic. A principle components factor analysis and subsequent varimax rotation produced six significant teaching factors in this setting. These six factors were: (1) demonstrates a humanistic orientation toward patients and staff; (2) demonstrates a humanistic orientation toward student; (3) provides opportunity for practice; (4) motivates and stimulates student's thinking; (5)communicates effectively with student; and (6) demonstrates comfort and confidence in the roles of doctor and teacher. The factor relating to the humanistic orientation toward student has not appeared as a separate factor in other studies of clinical teaching. This may be due to the unique aspects of the relationship between student and doctor in this setting which may not occur in other settings. The PEQ and similar reliable and valid instruments can provide valuable information for the doctors in these off-campus teaching situations as well as provide useful programme planning information for the sponsoring academic departments. This information may also be valuable for off-campus residency training.