The lived experience of healing touch with cancer patients

The recent use of complementary therapies by cancer patients has prompted the study of the use of Healing Touch, an energy based therapy, to learn the meaning of the experience. By using Ray's Caring Inquiry, a phenomenologic-hermeneutic process, the lived experience of receiving Healing Touch was elicited from three cancer patients. Through the interactions of the Healing Touch practitioners, the cancer patient participants, and the energy in and around them, specific themes were expressed: body-physical, emotion-feeling, mental-knowing, and spirit-essence. Further abstracting lead to the metathemes sensation and perception. Through a change in consciousness, a oneness/wholeness was experienced. The unity of meaning elicited was the Rhythm of Oneness Through Energy which is the connecting, opening, and cocreating through caring, the wholeness of each to become one through rhythms of energy. ^

Pressure ulcers and nutritional deficits in elderly long-term care patients: Effects of a comprehensive nutritional program on pressure ulcer healing, length of hospital stay and charges to patients

The elderly are at the highest risk of developing pressure ulcers that result in prolonged hospitalization, high health care costs, increased mortality, and decreased quality of life. The burden of pressure ulcers will intensify because of a rapidly increasing elderly population in the United States (US). Poor nutrition is a major predictor of pressure ulcer formation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a comprehensive, interdisciplinary nutritional protocol on: (1) pressure ulcer wound healing (2) length of hospital stays, and (3) charges for pressure ulcer management. Using a pre-intervention/post intervention quasi-experimental design the study sample was composed of 100 patients 60 years or older, admitted with or acquiring a pressure ulcer. A pre-intervention group (n= 50) received routine pressure ulcer care (standard diet, dressing changes, and equipment). A post-intervention group received routine care plus an interdisciplinary nutrition intervention (physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, added protein and calories to the diet). Research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, Chi-Square Tests, and T-tests. Findings indicated that the comprehensive, interdisciplinary nutritional protocol had a significant effect on the rate of wound healing in Week3 and Week4, total hospital length of stay (pre-intervention M= 43.2 days, SD=31.70 versus M=31.77, SID-12.02 post-intervention), and pressure ulcer length of stay (pre-intervention 25.28 days, SD5.60 versus 18.40 days, SD 5.27 post-intervention). Although there was no significant difference in total charges for the pre-intervention group ($727,245.00) compared to the post-intervention group ($702,065.00), charges for speech (m=$5885.12, SD=$332.55), pre albumin (m=$808.52,SD= $332.55), and albumin($278 .88, SD=55.00) were higher in the pre-intervention group and charges for PT ($5721.26, SD$3655.24) and OT($2544 .64, SD=1712.863) were higher in the post-intervention group. Study findings indicate that this comprehensive nutritional intervention was effective in improving pressure ulcer wound healing, decreasing both hospital length of stay for treatment of pressure ulcer and total hospital length of stay while showing no significant additional charges for treatment of pressure ulcers.

An ethnopharmacological approach to multidrug -resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Evaluation of Italian plants used in the traditional healing of skin disease

One-third of botanical remedies from southern Italy are used to treat skin and soft tissue infections (SST's). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a common cause of SSTIs, is responsible for increased morbidity and mortality from infections. Therapeutic options are limited by antibiotic resistance. Many plants possess potent antimicrobial compounds for these disorders. Validation of traditional medical practices is important for the people who rely on medicinal plants. Moreover, identification of novel antibiotics and anti-pathogenic agents for MRSA is important to global healthcare.^ I took an ethnopharmacological approach to understand how Italian medicinal plants used for the treatment of SSTIs affect MRSA growth and virulence. My hypothesis was that plants used in folk remedies for SSTI would exhibit lower cytotoxicity and greater inhibition of bacterial growth, biofilm formation and toxin production in MRSA than plants used for remedies unrelated to the skin or for plants with no ethnomedical application. The field portion of my research was conducted in the Vulture-Alto Bradano area of southern Italy. I collected 104 plant species and created 168 crude extracts. In the lab, I screened samples for activity against MRSA in a battery of bioassays. Growth inhibition was analyzed using broth microtiter assays for determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration. Interference with quorum-sensing (QS) processes, which mediate pathogenicity, was quantified through RP-HPLC of δ-toxin production. Interference with biofilm formation and adherence was assessed using staining methods. The mammalian cytotoxicity of natural products was analyzed using MTT cell proliferation assay techniques.^ Although bacteriostatic activity was limited, extracts from six plants used in Italian folk medicine (Arundo donax, Ballota nigra, Juglans regia, Leopoldia comosa, Marrubium vulgare, and Rubus ulmifolius ) significantly inhibited biofilm formation and adherence. Moreover, plants used to treat SSTI demonstrated significantly greater anti-biofilm activity when compared to plants with no ethnomedical application. QSI activity was evident in 90% of the extracts tested and extracts from four plants ( Ballota nigra, Castanea saliva, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Sambucus ebulus) exhibited a significant dose-dependent response. Some of the plant remedies for SSTI identified in this study can be validated due to anti-MRSA activity.^

Pressure ulcers and nutritional deficits in elderly long-term care patients : effects of a comprehensive nutritional program on pressure ulcer healing, length of hospital stay and charges to patients

The elderly are at the highest risk of developing pressure ulcers that result in prolonged hospitalization, high health care costs, increased mortality, and decreased quality of life. The burden of pressure ulcers will intensify because of a rapidly increasing elderly population in the United States (US). Poor nutrition is a major predictor of pressure ulcer formation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a comprehensive, interdisciplinary nutritional protocol on: 1) pressure ulcer wound healing 2) length of hospital stays, and 3) charges for pressure ulcer management. Using a pre-intervention/post intervention quasi-experimental design the study sample was composed of 100 patients 60 years or older, admitted with or acquiring a pressure ulcer. A pre-intervention group (n= 50) received routine pressure ulcer care (standard diet, dressing changes, and equipment). A post-intervention group received routine care plus an interdisciplinary nutrition intervention (physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, added protein and calories to the diet). Research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, Chi-Square Tests, and T-tests. Findings indicated that the comprehensive, interdisciplinary nutritional protocol had a significant effect on the rate of wound healing in Week3 and Week4, total hospital length of stay (pre-intervention M= 43.2 days, SD=31.70 versus M=31.77, SD=12.02 post-intervention), and pressure ulcer length of stay (pre-intervention 25.28 days, SD5.60 versus 18.40 days, SD 5.27 post-intervention). Although there was no significant difference in total charges for the pre-intervention group ($727,245.00) compared to the post-intervention group ($702,065.00), charges for speech (m=$5885.12, SD=$332.55), pre albumin (m=$808.52,SD= $332.55), and albumin($278 .88, SD=55.00) were higher in the pre-intervention group and charges for PT ($5721.26, SD$3655.24) and OT($2544 .64, SD=1712.863) were higher in the post-intervention group. Study findings indicate that this comprehensive nutritional intervention was effective in improving pressure ulcer wound healing, decreasing both hospital length of stay for treatment of pressure ulcer and total hospital length of stay while showing no significant additional charges for treatment of pressure ulcers.

Inventing indigenous religious belief and practice within the spaces of Ghanaian Pentecostalism : the Mame Wata healing churches of Half Assini

Goddesses in African religions are spirits that affect humans and demand reverence from them. They are also embodiments of ideas that African people have about women, their powers and their roles in society. This study focused on Mame Wata, a goddess in Half Assini, an Nzema-speaking coastal community in western Ghana. It sought to resolve a paradox, that is, the fact that, the goddess is at the center of a Pentecostalist tradition even though traditional Pentecostalism in Ghana views her as an agent of the devil. The study involved fieldwork in this community of the goddess's female worshippers led by Agyimah, a charismatic man, and an agent of the goddess. The study interpreted the goddess as a post-colonial invented symbol personifying both pre-colonial and emerging ideas about female power. Findings from the study also show that through Mame Wata the followers celebrate the spirituality of the female.

Systematic Monitoring of Wound Healing Using a Hand-held Near-Infrared Optical Scanner

According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, about 15 percent of the patients with diabetes would develop a diabetic foot ulcer. Furthermore, foot ulcerations leads to 85 percent of the diabetes-related amputations. Foot ulcers are caused due to a combination of factors, such as lack of feeling in the foot, poor circulation, foot deformities and the duration of the diabetes. To date, the wounds are inspected visually to monitor the wound healing, without any objective imaging approach to look before the wound’s surface. Herein, a non-contact, portable handheld optical device was developed at the Optical Imaging Laboratory as an objective approach to monitor wound healing in foot ulcer. This near-infrared optical technology is non-radiative, safe and fast in imaging large wounds on patients. The FIU IRB-approved study will involve subjects that have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician and who have developed foot ulcers. Currently, in-vivo imaging studies are carried out every week on diabetic patients with foot ulcers at two clinical sites in Miami. Near-infrared images of the wound are captured on subjects every week and the data is processed using customdeveloped Matlab-based image processing tools. The optical contrast of the wound to its peripheries and the wound size are analyzed and compared from the NIR and white light images during the weekly systematic imaging of wound healing.