Research utility and limitations of textual data in the National Violent Death Reporting System: a scoping review and recommendations.

BACKGROUND: Many studies of injury deaths rely on mortality data that contain limited contextual information about decedents. The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is unique among such data systems in that each observation includes both quantitative variables and qualitative texts (called "narratives") abstracted from original source documents. These narratives provide rich data regarding salient circumstances that can be used to inform prevention efforts. This review provides a comprehensive summary of peer-reviewed research using NVDRS narratives over the past 20 years, including the limitations of these texts and provides recommendations on utilizing and improving narrative quality for researchers and practitioners. MAIN BODY: Studies that used narratives to examine deaths related to suicide, homicide, undetermined intent, accidental firearm, or legal intervention were identified by a title/abstract screening, followed by a full-text review. The search was conducted on English-language, peer-reviewed literature and government reports published from 2002 to 2022 in PubMed, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Abstracted elements focused on the methodologies used to analyze the narratives, including approaches to explore potential biases in these texts. Articles were abstracted independently by two reviewers, with disagreements resolved through consensus discussion. During the 20-year period, 111 articles used narratives. Two-thirds studied suicide (n = 48, 43%) and homicides (n = 25, 23%). Most studies analyzed the narratives using manual review (n = 81, 73%) and keyword searches (n = 9, 8%), with only 6 (5%) using machine learning tools. Narratives were mainly used for case finding (n = 49, 44%) and characterization of circumstances around deaths (n = 38, 34%). Common challenges included variability in the narratives and lack of relevant circumstantial details for case characterization. CONCLUSION: Although the use of narratives has increased over time, these efforts would be enhanced by detailed abstraction of circumstances with greater salience to injury research and prevention. Moreover, researchers and practitioners would benefit from guidance on integrating narratives with quantitative variables and standardized approaches to address variability in the completeness and length of narratives. Such efforts will increase the reliability of findings and set the stage for more widespread applications of data science methods to these texts.

Trauma-Informed Care Curricula for the Health Professions: A Scoping Review of Best Practices for Design, Implementation, and Evaluation.

PURPOSE: Trauma-exposed persons often experience difficulties accessing medical care, remaining engaged in treatment plans, and feeling psychologically safe when receiving care. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is an established framework for health care professionals, but best practices for TIC education remain unclear. To remedy this, the authors conducted a multidisciplinary scoping literature review to discern best practices for the design, implementation, and evaluation of TIC curricula for health care professionals. METHOD: The research team searched Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Elsevier's Scopus, Elsevier's Embase, Web of Science, and the PTSDpubs database from the database inception date until May 14, 2021. Worldwide English language studies on previously implemented TIC curricula for trainees or professionals in health care were included in this review. RESULTS: Fifty-five studies met the inclusion criteria, with medicine being the most common discipline represented. The most prevalent learning objectives were cultivating skills in screening for trauma and responding to subsequent disclosures (41 studies [74.5%]), defining trauma (34 studies [61.8%]), and understanding trauma's impact on health (33 studies [60.0%]). Fifty-one of the studies included curricular evaluations, with the most common survey items being confidence in TIC skills (38 studies [74.5%]), training content knowledge assessment (25 studies [49.0%]), participant demographic characteristics (21 studies [41.2%]), and attitudes regarding the importance of TIC (19 studies [37.3%]). CONCLUSIONS: Future curricula should be rooted in cultural humility and an understanding of the impacts of marginalization and oppression on individual and collective experiences of trauma. Moreover, curricula are needed for clinicians in more diverse specialties and across different cadres of care teams. Additional considerations include mandated reporting, medical record documentation, and vicarious trauma experienced by health care professionals.

FluView and FluNet: Tools for Influenza Activity and Surveillance.

Online resources can assist with locating and monitoring the spread of influenza. The aim of this review is to describe two online tools for tracking influenza activity: FluView from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and FluNet from the World Health Organization. Overall, these freely available online resources for influenza activity and surveillance may be helpful to a range of audiences including health providers, local governments, hospitals, schools, librarians, travelers, and members of the general public.

DynaMed Plus®: An Evidence-Based Clinical Reference Resource.

DynaMed Plus® from EBSCO Health is an evidence-based tool that health professionals can use to inform clinical care. DynaMed Plus content undergoes a review process, and the evidence is synthesized in detailed topic overviews. A unique three-level rating scale is used to assess the quality of available evidence. Topic overviews summarize current evidence and provide recommendations to support health providers at the point-of-care. Additionally, DynaMed Plus content can be accessed via a desktop computer or mobile platforms. Given this, DynaMed Plus can be a time-saving resource for health providers. Overall, DynaMed Plus provides evidence summaries using an easy-to-read bullet format, and the resource incorporates images, clinical calculators, patient handouts, and practice guidelines in one place.