Aging and Disorders of Communication
Communication links all human beings together. As individuals age, their ability to perceive information through their senses is often distorted or impaired. Age-related sensory changes impact the quality of life and the quality of communication. Age… Read more »
Alzheimer’s Disease: Mysteries and Possibilities
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a condition in which the concept of loss is central—the loss of one’s memories, independence, the ability to recognize loved ones, and the loss of dignity. Often referred to as “the long goodbye,” AD is the most common typ… Read more »
Animal-Assisted Therapy
Animals have been a part of our lives as long as we have been on the planet. The health benefits of the human-animal bond are far reaching. From guide dogs, to watching fish in an aquarium, to swimming with dolphins, animals provide us with companion… Read more »
Anxiety Disorders: An Integrative Approach
Anxiety disorders are the most common, and frequently occurring, mental disorders. Anxiety is manifested by disturbances of mood, as well as of thinking, behavior, and physiological activity. The five major types of anxiety disorders include generali… Read more »
Are Your Air and Water Safe? How Air and Water Quality Affect Health
The quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink is essential to our overall well-being, our economic prosperity, and the environment. Clean air and water play an important role in maintaining our health, and contaminants in either one or bot… Read more »
Aromatherapy: The Healing Power Of Scent
Aromatherapy is a complementary and alternative, holistic, and integrative therapy that uses essential oils to promote both physical and psychological health. It is often used in conjunction with massage, meditation, and other therapies to achieve he… Read more »
Centenarians: Keys to Longevity
Living to be 100 years old was once considered a rare occurrence, but with advancements in medicine and lifestyle changes, living to be 100 is not so improbable today. As a group, there are more centenarians worldwide than ever before, with the large… Read more »
Characteristics of Spirituality
While theorists and researchers have yet to agree on a single, universally accepted theory or definition of spirituality, few would deny its existence or impact on health and healing. In the past, spirituality was synonymous with religion. Although s… Read more »
Chronic Pain: An Integrative Approach to Effective Pain Management
Pain interferes with the enjoyment of life. It makes it difficult to work, socialize with friends and family, sleep, and accomplish activities of daily living. It may reduce productivity and create financial hardships in terms of lost work and high m… Read more »
Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare
With the advent of astounding scientific and technological advances in every area of health care, today’s healthcare environment is increasingly fraught with complex patient care issues. Healthcare professionals often have varying views on legal and… Read more »
Curanderismo and Central and South American Healing Practices
With a long and complex history, curanderismo, or indigenous medicine, is the broad healing tradition found in Mexico and Mexican American communities throughout the United States. For many Hispanics, conventional medicine has not been effective or w… Read more »
Death and Dying
What is grief? What are normal grief responses? What is involved in the final life transition—death? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this course. The role of culture, palliative and hospice care, advance directives, and the… Read more »
Depression: An Integrative Approach
Depression is one of the most serious and costly health care problems facing the United States today. It is one of the most common types of mental disorders. Depression interferes with an individual’s daily life, normal functioning, and may cause emo… Read more »
Effective and Empowering Communication
Communication is how people exchange information, opinions, and ideas and it links all human beings together. Intimate, complex, and necessary for our very survival, communication can profoundly affect our overall health and wellness. Today, communic… Read more »
Elder Abuse
Older adults today are vibrant, independent, living longer, and in better health than their ancestors. However, as this growing population increases, so does the issue of caring for elderly individuals. Caregivers must often cope with stressful econo… Read more »
Emerging Global Infectious Diseases
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are an ever-present threat to the health and livelihood of individuals, families, communities, and countries all over the world. The greatest burden of EIDs lies in developing countries and among infants and childr… Read more »
Energy Medicine Therapies: Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, Reiki, Reflexology, and Craniosacral Therapy
The concept that energy systems are part of the human interactive environment and a powerful part of therapeutic healing techniques has been part of many cultures for centuries. Energy medicine therapies use gentle techniques thought to help balance… Read more »
Ethical Foundations in Healthcare
Healthcare professionals face ethical dilemmas every day of their professional lives. Ethical decision-making is an important part of the care they provide to their patients and clients. A sound understanding of key ethical issues helps healthcare pr… Read more »
Food and Mood: What’s the Connection?
“You are what you eat!” How often have most of us heard this phrase? While it may be a common saying, it remains a very true one for many good reasons. Food has the ability to affect our bodies and minds in profound ways. It can influence how we feel… Read more »
Global Healing Systems – An Introduction
Global healing traditions date back thousands of years and have a long and rich history. They reflect the specific and unique characteristics of the culture, history, philosophy, and availability of resources in different parts of the world. Global h… Read more »
Healthy Aging
As the number of people age 65 and older increases in the United States and the world, we are faced with challenges and opportunities in every aspect of our society. Policymakers, businesses, healthcare providers, and families must make new decisions… Read more »
HIPAA and Patient Privacy
Personal health information is protected under federal law. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provides for the protection and security of personal health information. Both healthcare professionals and consumers must unde… Read more »
HIV/AIDS Education for Healthcare Professionals
Since they were first described in 1981, more than a quarter of a century ago, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) remain a persistent and widespread threat to the health, well-being, and human potential o… Read more »
HIV/AIDS Education for Kentucky Health Care Professionals
Since they were first described in 1981, more than a quarter of a century ago, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) remain a persistent and widespread threat to the health, well-being, and human potential o… Read more »
Human Health and Climate Change—Is There a Connection?
Numerous independent researchers and scientists all across the world know that Earth is warming and human activity is the primary cause. How much climate change we will experience in the future is dependent on the choices we all make as global citize… Read more »
Infection Control Basics
Each year, lives are lost due to the spread of infections in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Infection control procedures are a vital part of health care and patient safety measures used by every member of the healthcare team both in the Uni… Read more »
Influenza: Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention
Influenza (commonly called the “flu”) is a highly contagious respiratory disease that affects all ages and can cause significant illness and death. Striking hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide every year, this disease can be prevented usin… Read more »
Integrative Therapies for Cancer Pain Management
Many advances have been made in the treatment of cancer during the last several decades and yet effective cancer pain management remains an overwhelming issue for more than 80% of patients. Today, there are numerous options for cancer pain management… Read more »
International Women’s Health – Challenges and Opportunities
While women have a longer life expectancy than men in most every country, they don’t necessarily get to enjoy healthier lives. Millions of women suffer from health issues each year throughout the world—health issues that would not affect them if they… Read more »
Introduction to Gerontology
Opportunities are unlimited for the individual who knows the field of gerontology. Demographic changes and changes in health care have influenced the development of a variety of roles in this field. This course will provide a broad overview of the fi… Read more »
Is Your Home Hazardous to Your Health?
While most of us consider our home a place of safety, the products we use every day and the communities in which we live can be causing our health to suffer. Common everyday items and medications can prove toxic to ourselves, our families, our pets,… Read more »
Legal Issues in Healthcare
Healthcare professionals today are acutely aware of the need to understand the legal environment in which they practice. Ever-shrinking resources, shorter lengths of stay, high-acuity patients, availability of more complex information, diverse patien… Read more »
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Health Issues
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning individuals—often referred to under the umbrella acronym LGBTQ—are becoming more visible and acknowledged in societies both in the United States and throughout the world. Yet, because of the discri… Read more »
Meditation for Health and Energy
Meditation is a mind-body practice with many methods and variations that are all grounded in the silence and stillness of present-moment awareness. The regular practice of meditation not only calms and helps focus the mind, it is also an effective pr… Read more »
Mental Health and Aging
The enormous increase in the diverse elderly population has prompted a vital societal challenge: the design and delivery of mental health services to the older adult. Because the elderly population in the United States and globally is projected to gr… Read more »
Music and the Brain
Most of what we know about music and the brain has been discovered in the last 20 years. Music is universal across all cultures and, like other arts, is a function of specific social and cultural influences. Listening to or playing music can provide… Read more »
Music Therapy and Alzheimer’s Disease
Music therapy influences an individual’s physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well-being and is especially exciting as a modality that can improve the quality of life for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The type of therapy used in in… Read more »
Music Therapy for End of Life Care
Music therapy for end-of-life care involves playing music on a variety of instruments, singing, listening to music, and performing music based on the patient’s preferences. The goal is to enhance the person’s quality of life by relieving or easing a… Read more »
Music Therapy: Inspiring Health and Wellness
Music therapy is an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. At a time when people are increasingly turning to holistic methods… Read more »
Native North American Healing
Millions of Native North Americans (indigenous peoples) utilize traditional healing traditions as a way of maintaining balance and wholeness. To the traditional Native American, all aspects of life are intimately connected to good health and well-bei… Read more »
Nutrition, Toxins, and Chronic Disease
Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and arthritis are among the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems both in the United States and worldwide. Globally, hundreds of millions of people are… Read more »
Oral Health: Beautiful Smiles for Life
Oral health can affect virtually every other aspect of our health. Good oral health can not only prevent disease in the mouth but it can also prevent many chronic diseases. Good oral health is more than “pretty teeth” and affects our ability to speak… Read more »
Organ and Tissue Donation and Recovery
The gift of organ donation is the gift of life. However, the gap between those who need an organ or tissue donation and the number of donations available is wide and growing. Healthcare providers need to understand the issues surrounding organ and ti… Read more »
Pain Assessment and Management in the Older Adult
Pain is a symptom that signals distress in virtually every population and every age. To provide quality care to aging adults, healthcare providers must be particularly skilled at assessing pain, understanding misconceptions of pain management, addres… Read more »
Pain Interventions and Treatments
Effective pain management begins with effective pain assessment. Only after an assessment is completed can the healthcare provider determine how to best manage a client’s pain. Barriers to pain management that can lead to the undertreatment of pain n… Read more »
Pain Management in Special Populations – Children and the Elderly
Helping pediatric and geriatric populations manage their pain requires special consideration regarding the types of medications and strategies chosen, the route through which medications are delivered, and specific comorbidities or metabolic issues t… Read more »
Pain Management in Special Populations – Surgery, Cancer, and HIV
Health care professionals often face difficult challenges when working with clients who have undergone surgery or who have cancer or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). These clients encounter unique problems with their health conditions, especially… Read more »
Pain Management in the Adult – Acute and Chronic Pain
Acute and chronic pain in the adult client have different causes, methods of diagnoses, and interventions. Effective health care providers understand these differences when they assess and manage their clients’ pain.
Pain Theory and Assessment Principles
Pain is a universal phenomenon. Pain is the fifth vital sign and its assessment is crucial in the comprehensive care of every patient. Pain is a subjective concept and is whatever the client says it is. Pain is experienced across all age groups, acro… Read more »
Pain Treatment at the End of Life
Regardless of the cause, pain is a common symptom in clients who are near death. Healthcare providers must understand the tremendous implications of pain and pain symptoms and prioritize the assessment and optimal treatment of pain in clients near th… Read more »