Bibliometric study of Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 1982-2009.

Medical Reference Services Quarterly began publication in 1982, covering topics of current interest and practical value to public services librarians in medical and related specialties. Since then, it has expanded in scope to include more aspects of health sciences librarianship. This article is a systematic study of all 428 peer-reviewed articles published from 1982 through 2009, with a comprehensive description of content and a citation analysis. Content is extensively analyzed for article subject, and cited references are examined for subject, type of cited material, and average age. In addition, author, institutional, and regional productivity is determined and ranked.

Rural trauma and emergency medical service challenges in a sample of Western States.

State trauma system managers from the western region meet annually to identify and address health care issues, particularly those related to trauma care access and delivery. In each of these states, policy makers face a host of convergent problems: declining populations, rapid growth, low incomes, and high poverty rates. Challenges of providing emergency medical services to largely rural states include geographic barriers of vast expanses of unpopulated landmass, provision of services across mountain ranges, volcanoes, and extreme weather conditions, communication challenges due to lack of cell or radio coverage in some areas, and difficulty recruiting and retaining trained personnel.

Medical records in equine veterinary practice.

Quality medical records are the cornerstone of successful equine veterinary practice. The scope and integrity of the information contained in a practice's medical records influence the quality of patient care and client service and affect liability risk, practice productivity, and overall practice value.

A primer for effective organization of professional conferences.

The challenge of organizing a successful conference is a tremendous commitment requiring extensive preparation and teamwork. It is tempting but dangerous to underestimate the details needed to coordinate an outstanding event. Conferences follow a natural life cycle from proposal, gaining administrative support, planning, implementing, and then finally evaluating outcomes. These guidelines identify the tasks and areas of responsibilities required including setting objectives, budgeting, selecting a venue, publicity, programming, and working with vendors.

A randomized, prospective, multisite comparison of pediatric prehospital training methods.

OBJECTIVE: Results of prehospital pediatric continuing education using train-the-trainer and CD-ROM training methods were compared to each other and to a control group. The null hypothesis was that no differences would be found in pretraining and posttraining measurements of knowledge and performance by either training method. METHODS: This was a prospective trial involving 12 sites. Random selections were made from ambulance service lists provided by 3-state emergency medical services (EMS) agencies. Preintervention and postintervention (12-month) measurements included a written examination and 2 performance scenarios videotaped for independent panel evaluation. Training was either an interactive CD-ROM or standard classroom instruction using a train-the-trainer model. Mean differences in written, performance, and combined scores were analyzed. RESULTS: Differences were noted in the combined and performance scores for the CD-ROM intervention group. No differences were noted in written measurements between or among the groups. CONCLUSION: In this small sample, interactive CD-ROM training shows promise for improving performance. The research design, with additional guards against sample size attrition, may provide a model for multisite EMS education research.