Medical Specialties Commons^™

Promoting Safe Sex Practices And Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention In The Adolescent Population In Ridgefield, Ct, Gina Jin

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Adolescents are a uniquely at-risk population for the spread of preventable sexually-transmitted infections. Direct lifetime medical costs of sexually transmitted infections (per CDC) is nearly $16 billion in the United States. Nearly half (46%) of all new STIs in the country occur among young people (ages 15-24). Because of this, effective STI prevention in the adolescent population is important and should be further investigated.

Increasing Access Of Outpatient Therapeutic Services For Adolescents With Persistent Symptoms After Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury, Natalie J. Bales

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Persistent symptoms lasting at least 21 days after initial traumatic brain injury occur in about 15-20% of adolescents. Initial assessment of concussions can be done using the SCAT5 and a wide variety of other standardized assessment tools. However, there are striking gaps in standard clinical procedure for follow-up care for athletes who have persistent symptoms. Furthermore, there are many issues with accessibility to therapeutic services including long wait times that prevent timely referral to those services. This pilot intervention was implemented at the University of Vermont to address those issues by providing a hotline resource for families to use and …

Adolescent Substance Use: Standardizing Screening Methods In Clinical Practice, Bryan D. Shin

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Adolescent substance use is a highly pervasive issue that strongly correlates with increasing depression and anxiety rates. Standardized screening tools for substance use, such as the CRAFFT or the Screening to Brief Intervention Tool, are freely available but not widely utilized for every patient encounter in clinical practice. This project aimed to improve standardization of substance use screening at a primary care clinic located in Castleton, Vermont through implementation of the CRAFFT tool as an automatically-loaded form in each adolescent encounter note. The goal was to improve substance use detection rates by facilitating efficient incorporation of standardized screening into the …

Adolescent Anticipatory Guidance, Anna M. Corbalan

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This project focuses on creating an educational resource specifically for adolescents and young adults regarding the anticipatory guidance for this age group. Although adolescence is generally a healthy time for most, many health or social problems will start or peak during this time. Therefore, it is a crucial time to incorporate preventive guidance and increase health literacy to avoid unhealthy chronic behaviors in adulthood.

Integrating Community Into Middle School Sexual Education, Sierra Miller, Margaret Aitken

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Problem Statement: Most middle school sexual education does not include parents or community members. Evidence shows family and community attitudes towards sex and sexuality are significant factors in adolescent risky sexual and health practices.

Background: Comprehensive sex education (CSE) reduces risky sexual practices and negative health outcomes. National and local organizations have identified CSE as a public health goal. CSE works best when culturally relevant and the community is involved.

Methods: Interviews with the health educator identified community needs. Resources were created in line with the current curriculum focusing on sex education, its importance, and how to talk about …

How To Have The “Vape Talk” With Adolescent Patients, Helen Gandler

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Recent years have shown a dramatic increase in the popularity of electronic vapor products, which include e-cigarettes, vapes, vape pens, e-cigars, e-hookahs, hookah pens, and mods. While emerging data shows that adolescents are becoming more aware of the dangers posed by these products, more than 3.6 million US youth still use e-cigarettes. As of February 18, 2020, a total of 2,807 hospitalized e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) cases or deaths in the United States have been reported to CDC.

This project had two goals: to create a tool to help facilitate discussions between providers and their adolescent …

Adolescent And Young Adult Medicine: Supporting An Often Forgotten Population, Isabelle Mason

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

The actions and lifestyle choices adolescents and young adults make have profound effects on their future health and well-being. Unfortunately, these patients are often scarce among family practice lineups, making it difficult for physicians to provide impactful preventative care. This project looks at how to help reach these oft-forgotten patients.

Rutland City Public School At Risk Youth Mentorship, Michael J. Marallo

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This after school program’s purpose is to address the unique challenges of Rutland, VT Middle/High School students with multiple psychosocial risk factors (as determined by comparison to the ACE questionnaire) through mentorship, health and life skills education, and by guiding the development of positive coping skills. Activities will allow for self-expression outside of the classroom in a safe environment. Focus will be placed on assisting paraeducators and teachers with meeting goals that are appropriate for each individual student.

Mindfulness As An Effective Strategy For Anxiety Relief In Adolescent Patients, Desiree N. Dibella

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Anxiety disorders affect 6.8 million adults over the age of 18 in the United States, and anxiety disorders are the most common mental health illness in children.

Risk Factors for anxiety disorders in young adults include the following: -Shyness, or behavioral inhibition, in childhood -Being of the female sex -Having few economic resources -Exposure to stressful life events in childhood -Anxiety disorders in close biological relatives -Parental history of mental disorders -Elevated afternoon cortisol levels in the saliva Teens and young adults increasingly suffer from anxiety disorders with the CDC reporting the rate of anxiety disorders among 3 to 17 …

The Facts - Your Choice: Std Risk Information For The Adolescent Patient, J C. Gwilliam

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Sexual health education is one of the factors that has led to a dramatic drop in adolescent pregnancy since the 1990s. Paradoxically, though, rates of sexually transmitted-infections (STI) in the adolescent population during that period soared. The educational deficit appears to be a lack of understanding of both short- and long-term health risks that STIs pose, and conflation of contraceptive effectiveness with STI prevention. This project sought to develop an inexpensive, office-based education product that would aid practitioner-adolescent patient discussion and facilitate follow-up in the family medicine setting.

Adolescent Prescription Drug Abuse: An Overview Of Current Data, Tavis Cowan Md

Family Medicine Scholarly Works

Prescription drug abuse among adolescents is a growing and increasingly lethal problem. Recent survey studies show a concerning increase in abuse and poor awareness among users, parents, and medical providers. Access to prescription drugs of abuse is often through relatives’ supply of medications. Categories of abused drugs include opiates, stimulants, and benzodiazepines. Methamphetamine is a special case as prescription-only pseudoephedrine can drastically change patterns of abuse. Awareness programs are emerging for youths, parents, community members, and medical providers; but data on effectiveness of these interventions is not yet available.