The Partner Abuse Interview required as little as 3 minutes to administer. Results obtained with the interview instrument were internally consistent. Interrater reliability was high for the diagnosis of partner relationship problems with physical abuse by males, as reported by females. The Partner Abuse Interview is a simple and reliable instrument that could be adapted for use by medical personnel to assess incidents of abuse among patients. Using a mailed survey, behavioral scientists in US family practice residencies responded to questions about the location of mental health notes, the rationale for placement of notes, and opinions about integration of mental health notes into general medical records.
Most respondents favor an integrated record to increase collaboration with medical providers.
A variety of methods are used to minimize the chance of violating patient confidentiality. Although a majority of behavioral scientists integrate mental health notes in the medical chart and favor the practice of doing so, there is no consensus about this practice as reflected by divergent views and record-keeping methods. However, with the exception of a few reports describing the use of focus groups for a basic science course evaluation and a clerkship s impact on medical students, the potential of focus groups as a tool for curriculum evaluation has not been explored. Focus groups are a valid stand-alone evaluation process, but they are most often used in combination with other quantitative and qualitative methods. Focus groups rely heavily on group interaction, combining elements of individual interviews and participant observation.