Kansas Physician Assistants’ Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Spirituality and Religiosity in Patient Care

Research indicates patients want to discuss spirituality/religious (S/R) beliefs with their healthcare provider. This was a cross-sectional study of Kansas physician assistants (PA) regarding S/R in patient care. Surveys included questions about personal S/R beliefs and attitudes about S/R in patient care. Self-reported religious respondents agreed (92%) they should be aware of patient S/R; 82% agreed they should address it. Agreement with incorporating S/R increased significantly based on patient acuity. This research indicates Kansas PAs’ personal S/R beliefs influence their attitudes toward awareness and addressing patient S/R.     

An Assessment of the Utility of Suicide Prediction*

ABSTRACT: Efforts to predict a future event assume varying levels of confidence depending on its base rate and the error rate of the prediction instrument. Most researchers working with suicide prediction instruments seem tacitly to assume they will be able to predict a future suicide most of the time. Applying basic decision theory on a neuropsychiatric hospital population indicates that researchers using a prediction schedule will be unlikely to predict a future suicide beyond a 20% level of efficiency. Contrary to the general clinical view, eliminating false negatives was shown to be more practical than eliminating false positives in increasing the efficiency of a predictive schedule.