Participant-observation research was conducted in the home care components of a free-standing inpatient facility associated with several hospice organizations over three years. The data are reported using negotiated order theory as a framework for understanding the hospice movement and its attempts to change the experience of dying. (JPS)

A study investigated the productivity, measured as patients seen per half-day, of 15 family practice faculty and third-year residents at the University of Kentucky during a 4-month period. Physicians assigned to teach ambulatory care clerkships had productivity levels similar to those without teaching responsibilities. (Author/MSE)

Three studies in the development of the Patient Reactions Assessment (PRA), involving a total of 19 nurses, 13 counseling students, and 417 cancer patients, are described. Concurrent validity of the PRA is supported, and confirmatory factor analysis supports the conceptual model on which the scale is built. (SLD)

An aphasic patient is described as one whose poor repetition of sentences and of lists of words contrasts with his or her surprisingly good performance on immediate problem recognition tasks. This result is interpreted as suggesting a distinction between phonological input and output buffers. (41 references) (Author/LB)

The development and psychometric assessment of a Risk of Hospitalization Scale are described. The scale, designed to help case managers for the seriously mentally ill meet clients' needs, demonstrates satisfactory reliability and validity for 18 vignettes and 60 actual cases. The scale has been adopted for use in New Jersey. (SLD)

Medical faculty who choose and tell stories appropriately, especially if they are of their own clinical experiences, can stimulate students to examine their own values and attitudes. A sample story illustrates how the technique can help students address crises in professionalization and aspects of the doctor-patient relationship. (Author/MSE)

Attitudes of 180 registered nurses (graduate students) toward gay and hemophiliac Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients and leukemic patients were studied. Results suggest that the mode of AIDS transmission affected certain patient judgment evaluations, and there was some weak evidence of antigay bias. (SLD)

This article describes the development of a mechanism to organize a network in Florida for individuals who are at risk for diabetic retinopathy. The task force comprised representatives from governmental, academic, professional, and voluntary organizations. It worked to educate professionals, patients, and the public through brochures, resource…

Explores opportunities for the future involvement of counseling psychologists in the health field. Includes evolving definitions of health specialties; changes currently taking place in conceptual models for health, disease, and medicine; and issues related to counseling psychologists' involvement in the health field. (Author/PVV)

Research on vocational services for methadone clients is reviewed, and preliminary results of an evaluation of a training and employment program for 249 methadone treatment clients in 3 community-based programs are presented. Results suggest the usefulness of vocational services in increasing training access and use. (SLD)

In 1980, the State University of New York at Stony Brook began a program, integrated into the program of children's dentistry, to train students in care for the developmentally disabled. Management of developmentally disabled patients is provided over three years, and represents an extension of pediatric behavior management. (MSE)

A study assessed the feasibility of sequential testing of medical students using standardized patients. Sequential testing passes students who score well on the first segment of the test thus eliminating additional student-standardized patient encounters. Subjects were six classes of Southern Illinois University students (n=404). Results strongly…

In a roundtable discussion, a panel of experts address how physicians can identify active patients for whom exercise poses the risk of serious heart complications, how useful stress tests are, what exercise intensity is best, and what physicians can tell patients about the risks of exercise versus its benefits. (SM)

The usefulness of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) (J. Butcher and others, 1989) for diagnosis and assessment of depression and psychoses was studied with 264 psychiatric inpatients. MMPI-2 profiles were sensitive to group differences, and the derived regression equations were stable and fairly good at classification.…

Discusses a new test of English language proficiency for international medical graduates. The test, the Clinical Skills Assessment, consists of a series of encounters with "standardized patients" who have been trained to portray various medical conditions. (Author/VWL)