Record keeping in two types of relationships.

Three studies with 109 undergraduates tested the predictions that members of exchange relationships would keep track of individual inputs into joint tasks and members of communal relationships would not. In each study, Ss worked on a task with a partner with whom they (a) desired or had a communal relationship or (b) desired or had an exchange relationship. The task involved locating and circling number sequences in a large matrix. Whether Ss used a pen of the same or of a different color from that used by their partner served as the dependent measure. If partners worked with pens of the same color, individual inputs were obsured. If they worked with different color pens, individual inputs were clear. As predicted, in all 3 studies the proportion of Ss in the exchange conditions who chose a different color pen was significantly greater than 50% and was significantly greater than the proportion of Ss in the communal conditions who chose a different color pen. Also as expected, in no study was this percentage greater than 50% in the communal conditions. When Ss anticipated rather than had an existing communal relationship with the other (Study 1), the proportion of communal Ss choosing a different color pen was significantly lower than 50%. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Record keeping: legally and professionally important?

To prepare for the Transfer Rule's financial impact, nurse leaders should understand these issues, ramifications, and strategies.     

The American Psychological Association's revised “record keeping guidelines”: Implications for the practitioner.

The American Psychological Association recently revised its “Record Keeping Guidelines” (APA, 2007) in order to help psychologists determine the most up-to-date and appropriate methods for developing, maintaining, protecting, disclosing, and disposing of clinical documentation. The revised RKG are expanded in scope, critically different from their prior iteration, and subject to variable interpretation as a result of the complex array of record keeping options they identify. Psychologists who chaired the APA's Committee on Professional Practice and Standards (COPPS) during the development of the revised RKG discuss the specific relevance of these guidelines for clinicians providing psychotherapy and assessment services. The authors explore the interrelation of the revised RKG with the mandatory guidance of the APA's “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct” (APA, 2002) and with the requirements of state and federal law, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, 1996). These substantial ethical and legal correlates underscore the critical importance of managing clinical documentation carefully in an era of evolving technologies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Record Keeping Guidelines.

These guidelines are designed to educate psychologists and provide a framework for making decisions regarding professional record keeping. State and federal laws, as well as the American Psychological Association's "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct," generally require maintenance of appropriate records of psychological services. The nature and extent of the record will vary depending upon the purpose, setting, and context of the psychological services. Within these guidelines, more directive language has been used when a particular guideline is based specifically on mandatory provisions of the Ethics Code or law. However, some areas are not addressed in those enforceable standards and regulations. In these areas, more aspirational language has been used. This document aims to elaborate and provide assistance to psychologists as they attempt to establish their own record keeping policies and procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clients' secret keeping in outpatient therapy.

This research investigated the relation between clients' self-reported secret keeping in therapy and symptomatology. Therapy outpatients at a community hospital (N?=?42) completed surveys that asked them to list relevant secrets that they were keeping from their therapists and their reasons for doing so. Over 40% of the clients reported keeping a relevant secret in therapy, and the most frequently listed reason was that they were afraid to express feelings. After adjusting for clients' initial symptomatology, tendency to keep secrets in general, and social desirability scores, the analyses showed that keeping secrets in therapy was a significant predictor of having fewer symptoms. The results support a self-presentational perspective on secret keeping in counseling and suggest that clients may benefit from hiding some undesirable aspects of themselves from their therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misguided guidelines.

The proposed guidelines (see record 2001-17060-009) would require detailed, probing inquiry into motivation for choosing assisted suicide. This is an appropriate requirement in principle. In practice, it will be virtually impossible to carry out this inquiry within likely statutory time limits. Evaluators most likely will either reject the guidelines as impractical or give them merely perfunctory observance. There is, moreover, an inherent tension in the evaluator's relationship with the patient between empathy and impersonal distancing that the guidelines do not adequately acknowledge; this tension necessarily compromises the evaluator's ability to apply the guidelines in the probing, detailed manner they envision. The guidelines provide false comfort that physician-assisted suicide can be carried out with adequately sensitive monitoring of voluntariness and mental competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in keeping secrets from parents in adolescence.

The current longitudinal study examined adolescent gender differences in the developmental changes and relational correlates of secrecy from parents. For 4 successive years, starting in the second year of junior high (mean age at Time 1 = 13.2 years, SD = 0.51), 149 male and 160 female Dutch adolescents reported on secrecy from their parents and the quality of the parent–child relationship. Latent growth curve modeling revealed a linear increase in secrecy, which was significantly faster for boys than for girls. Moreover, cross-lagged panel analyses showed clear concurrent and longitudinal linkages between secrecy from parents and poorer parent–child relationship quality in girls. In boys, much less strong linkages were found between poorer relationships and secrecy from parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Range restriction and the Graduate Record Examination.

Comments on the article by R. J. Sternberg and W. M. Williams (see record 1997-04591-002) regarding the empirical validity of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in predicting graduate student performance in psychology. Sternberg and Williams claim that their results suggest the need for new measures for use in graduate admissions, and many will surely interpret their results to suggest that GRE scores have little valid use. Actually, however, their results are fully consistent with the opposing view that it will never be possible to improve much on the current admissions policies at Yale University and its direct competitors. Such improvements might be possible, but these results do nothing to bolster that conjecture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Administering conscious sedation. Operational guidelines

The nurse must be aware of her or his role and responsibilities when implementing IVCS guidelines. Nurses performing IVCS must be knowledgeable of state and institutional guidelines for IVCS, medications included in IVCS, and the assessment, monitoring, and documentation required in caring for the patient receiving IVCS. The process of IVCS may seem tedious, but if an institution has clearly defined expectations, as provided in the IVCS guidelines, the process is much more understandable and can be readily instituted. The patient undergoing IVCS deserves the highest quality care possible with the fewest complications, a situation that can be achieved with proper preparation and implementation of an IVCS program.     

Criteria for evaluating treatment guidelines.

This document presents a set of criteria to be used in evaluating treatment guidelines that have been promulgated by health care organizations, government agencies, professional associations, or other entities. Although originally developed for mental health interventions, the criteria presented are equally applicable in other health service areas. This document is organized on the basis of two related dimensions for the evaluation of guidelines. The first dimension is treatment efficacy, the systematic and scientific evaluation of whether a treatment works. The second dimension is clinical utility, the applicability, feasibility, and usefulness of the intervention in the local or specific setting where it is to be offered. This dimension also includes determination of the generalizability of an intervention whose efficacy has been established. To encourage accountability, criteria for evaluating the process of guideline production are also provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Federal guidelines and professional standards.

Examines the role of government regulations, professional standards, and federal and state legislation in determining issues of product quality, in resolving imbalances and conflicts among participants in the testing process, and in defining fairness and due process. Various approaches to solving these problems that have been set forth previously are discussed. It is urged that American Psychological Association standards currently under revision strike a balance between standards that are overly restrictive (possibly stifling the development of new techniques) and standards that are too general (possibly inviting multiple and conflicting interpretation). (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sport psychology service delivery: Staying ethical while keeping loose.

Although the parent discipline of sport psychology is psychology, the delivery of sport psychology services has its main roots in physical education and sports science (motor learning and control, skill acquisition). Thus, sport psychologists may look more like coaches than they look like clinicians or counselors. In this article, the authors trace the evolution of sport psychology services and contrast the temporal, spatial, and delivery issues of applied sport psychology with more mainstream counseling and clinical psychology. The looser boundaries of sport psychologist practice have both benefits and dangers, and the authors offer some examples to professional psychologists who are thinking of expanding their delivery of service to athletes and coaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thorough record keeping: A good defense in a litigious era.

Psychotherapists, like other health professionals, are concerned about the increase in malpractice litigation and insurance rates. Properly kept records, made in anticipation of future litigation, may be crucial for the psychotherapist who is faced with a malpractice suit. We review cases in which records influenced the outcome of malpractice suits, and we make specific recommendations regarding the optimal maintenance of records. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward more evidence-based guidelines for psychology.

Comments on the guidelines developed by the American Psychological Association (APA)'s Presidential Task Force on the Assessment of Age-Consistent Memory Decline and Dementia (see record 1998-11439-016). The present authors contend that the evidentiary basis for specific guidelines is limited especially with regard to discussion of collateral sources of information in the evaluation of dementia and cognitive decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practice guidelines: Not yet ideal.

Efforts to identify empirically supported psychological treatments over the past half century have been strongly influenced by the development of more potent treatments and more effective outcome research methods. Practice guidelines incorporating empirically supported treatments proposed by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association are described and critically assessed. Advocates for practice guidelines assert that they promote therapeutic accountability and motivate adoption of the best current practices; critics question their empirical bases, diverse standards of proof, and potential to constrain clinical decision making. These claims are critically examined, and when appropriate, solutions are suggested. It is clear, however, that the one solution that will not work is a return to the preguideline era. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drug interactions: keeping it straight

Drug interactions are common causes of treatment failure and adverse reactions. Patients who have a number of chronic disorders, patients who take many medications or patients who have impaired renal function are at increased risk for these problems. Special attention must be given to drugs that require blood level monitoring, because these agents have a narrow margin of safety. Drug interactions are especially likely to occur with enzyme inhibitors such as erythromycin, cimetidine, ciprofloxacin and metronidazole. Mechanisms of drug interactions include problems with absorption secondary to binding by antacids or other cations, interference with the distribution of drugs secondary to the displacement of highly protein-bound drugs, differences in metabolism secondary to variability of the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, and interaction-related problems with drug excretion by renal tubules. Antagonistic and synergistic reactions also need to be considered. Finally, the time course in which a given drug interaction is likely to occur must be taken into account when deciding whether the interaction is responsible for an adverse effect or treatment failure.