Personal hygiene, as well as many other daily living tasks, is not often regarded as a stressful or traumatic event. Giving a bath or shower to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias (ADRD) is typically an ongoing struggle for caregivers around the world. Generally, taking a bath or shower results in hostility, arguing, combativeness, screaming and even crying. This study explores claims that live music decreases levels of stress during bathing for people with ADRD. To test this, qualitative data has been collected based on the observations of professional caregivers, and quantitative data has been collected based on the levels of cortisol, a human stress hormone, taken before and after bath times on music and non-music days. These preliminary results suggest that live music-based interventions may lessen the trauma experienced by the residents during bath times. Therefore, this study opens the door for more consistent use of music by nurses, nursing aids, and other caregivers to perform better care for people with memory-loss complications.

The purpose of this study is to explore ways nurses provide an optimal healing environment in the hospital setting. One aim of this research is to identify gaps between nurses’ confidence in their ability to provide a healing environment and patient interpretation of the environment they received. Additionally, this paper looks for missing information in healing environment literature and pinpoints where hospital systems can be improved to help nurses and patients under their care. Data was collected through two online surveys created with Qualtrics Research Core™. One was taken by registered nurses who annotated how well they execute each domain of an Optimal Healing Environment (OHE) and what hinders their performance. The other survey was given to individuals who have been a patient in an Arizona hospital, and they commented on the environment they experienced. Total surveyed subjects include three nurses and four previously hospitalized patients. Data collected was not enough to make any conclusions so additional literature was reviewed and patterns between the literature and survey responses were analyzed. There is a consensus around what a healing environment should look like but there is no explanation as to who is responsible for creating one and what is the nurse’s role, if any. It was concluded that there needs to be more research on the practice of providing healing environments.

Chronic pain is devastating and highly prevalent among Veterans in the United States (Johnson, Levesque, Broderick, Bailey & Kerns, 2017). While there are various treatment options for chronic pain, opioids remain high in popularity. Although opioids are fast-acting and effective, potential consequences range from unpleasant side effects to dependence and fatal overdose (Baldini, Korff & Lin, 2012; Park et al., 2015; Kaur, 2007). The effects of opioid treatment can be further complicated by a history of alcohol abuse. Past alcohol abuse is a risk factor for opioid misuse (McCabe et al., 2008). One alternative to opioid medication is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP). CBT-CP has shown small to moderate effects on chronic pain after the end of treatment (Naylor, Keefe, Brigidi, Naud & Helzer, 2008). The current study examined the effect of CBT-CP on opioid prescriptions, as well as the role of past alcohol abuse in CBT-CP efficacy, through an archival data analysis of Veterans Affairs patient charts. In order to determine the effect of CBT-CP on opioid prescriptions, an opioid change score was calculated from treatment start date to twelve months post-treatment. An analysis of 106 patient charts demonstrated no statistically significant difference in opioid prescriptions between Veterans who were referred and attended treatment (n = 24) and those who were referred but did not attend (n = 82). Veterans from both groups showed a reduction in prescribed opioids during a 12-month period. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between Veterans with versus without a history of alcohol abuse in terms of the change in opioid prescriptions over a 12-month period (both groups showed reductions). This research suggests that opioid prescriptions may decrease over time among Veterans referred for CBT-CP, even among those who do not participate in the groups. More work is needed to understand the relationship between opioid prescriptions and actual opioid use over time among Veterans who do and do not choose to participate in CBT-CP. Continuing to address poly-substance use in chronic pain patients also is critical to ensure that Veterans suffering from chronic pain receive appropriate intervention.

Cell fusion is a process that occurs in normal cells as well as in pathological cells. This process does not occur spontaneously, fusogens are required to mediate the process. Syncytin is one of the proteins that was determined to have fusogenic properties. Syncytin is a newly discovered transmembrane protein that is generally expressed in mammalian placenta and it is known for its role in cell fusion during placentation. The recent studies in Ugarova’s laboratory suggest syncytin is expressed in macrophages, thus it may be involved in macrophage cells fusion. This paper provides a literature review of syncytin protein; it also contains an experimental study conducted to determine syncytin expression on both RNA and protein level. The study was conducted on RNA and protein isolated from macrophages isolated from mouse peritoneum. Agarose gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis were used to determine syncytin expression on RNA and protein level respectively. Using these methods, syncytin expression was determined at different time points during macrophage fusion. The results show that syncytin is not expressed in freshly isolated macrophages, but its expression is initiated during macrophage adhesion in the presence of IL-4.

The purpose of this cross-sectional questionnaire is to explore women’s awareness about the lactation support amendments under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the support they received from their insurance companies and employers based on the act. Using convenience sampling and snowball sampling, participants were recruited to participate in a survey through social media and flyers. The goals of this research are to examine the number of women who were 1) aware of the lactation support provisions under the ACA, 2) received breastfeeding support from insurance their health insurance with no cost sharing 3) received reasonable break time and a private space to express milk from their employers, and 4) if there were any challenges in receiving the support mandated under the ACA from their insurers and employers or lactation support in general. The results show that many women who responded to the survey were aware of the amendments under the ACA and many of those women did receive the benefits of the provisions. There were many common reasons for why women did not receive the support they desired. These underlying reasons prevent women from accessing lactation support and provide a challenging environment for women to continue breastfeeding their children.

Self-care is essential to the well-being of nurses and the safety of their patients. Current literature is lacking research in regard to the self-care practices of school nurses. School nurses are susceptible to burnout and compassion fatigue, which is a form of burnout, from the many stressors they face. Self-care is needed to reduce the occurrence of burnout and improve the safety of those under their care. The purpose of this research is to assess the current self-care practices of school nurses so further research and interventions can take place. The theoretical framework used is Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, which has a core concept of cultivating spiritual practices toward a wholeness of one’s mind, body and spirit and a core principal of changing oneself, others, and surrounding environments through care. The research questions this study investigates are, “What are the most common self-care practices of school-nurses?” and, “What are the least common self-care practices of school nurses?” The 40-item Self-Care Questionnaire, from The Institute for Functional Medicine, was used. It uses a Likert-type scale, with response options ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (always). This questionnaire includes four domains—physical, mental/emotional/spiritual, professional life/work/career, and social life/family/relationships—each containing 10 items. Survey results of 82 research participants were uploaded to SPSS 25. Results show that school nurses most frequently engage in professional self-care and least frequently engage in physical self-care. It is strongly recommended that the data from this study be made available to school nurses and that further research be conducted to deeply assess how the self-care practices of school nurses can be improved.