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 t… 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 »
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 »
Caregiving at the End of Life – Issues and Considerations
Caregivers are individuals who provide care to an individual who needs assistance. Caregivers can be professionals but are often unpaid individuals who support a loved one through an illness or the last phase of life. The experience can be immensely… 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 »
Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare
With the advent of astounding scientific and technological advances in every area of health care, today’s health care environment is increasingly fraught with complex patient care issues. Health care professionals often have varying views on legal an… Read more »
Creating Healing Relationships
A healing relationship involves two major elements: a relationship with the self (intrapersonal relationship) and relationships with others (interpersonal relationships). Each is critical to creating a healing environment for an organization’s staff… Read more »
Cultural Considerations at the End of Life
At the end of life, attitudes about the loss of a loved one profoundly affect how both a dying person and his or her family and friends address the dying and the grieving processes. Diverse populations in the United States provide health-care profess… Read more »
Current Issues in Nutrition
Our diet has a profound impact on our health and well-being as well as the health of the environment, yet many of us are not aware of where our food originated or how it was produced. We eat toxic, irradiated, or genetically altered foods, and we eat… 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 »
End-of-Life Issues: Death, Dying, and Grief
The dying experience is a profound, individual experience. The experience of loss and grief are as individual and unique as the persons involved. During this time, people often raise questions about the meaning of life.
End-of-Life Issues: Ethical Issues
End-of-life care presents health care professionals with many ethical challenges and dilemmas. Understanding ethical theories and ethical principles can provide a foundation for decision making. This course provides health care professionals with the… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Hospice and Palliative Care
Using a multidisciplinary team approach, the primary goals of hospice and palliative care are to provide symptom control, psychosocial and spiritual care, and optimal quality of life. The role of hospice and palliative care is rapidly expanding due t… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Pain Assessment and Management
Pain assessment and management are especially important for high-quality end-of-life care. To provide quality care to individuals at this stage of their lives, health care practitioners must be particularly skilled at assessing pain, understanding mi… Read more »
End-of-Life Issues: Physiologic Changes at the End of Life
For health care professionals to provide compassionate, quality care to patients at the end of life, they must understand the many changes the patient undergoes. Holistic end-of-life care provides relief, comfort, and support whenever possible. It in… Read more »
Energy Healing
The old paradigms of health care are shifting as a growing number of researchers, physicians, nurses, and other health practitioners embrace a new view that includes energy healing. Traditional healers have practiced energy healing methods for centur… 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 health care p… Read more »
Healing Elements of Meditation
Although there are many ways to meditate and many different forms of meditation, they all share the characteristic of intentionally training a person’s attention and concentration. Meditation practices are used by diverse cultures, are rooted in the… Read more »
Health and the Human Spirit
Spirituality plays an important role in health and healing. This course will explore the forms and expressions of spirituality; discuss culture and its relationship to spirituality; examine the relationship between spirituality and aging; explain spi… Read more »
Health Effects of Meditation
Meditation is a mind-body practice with many methods and variations that are all grounded in the silence and stillness of present-moment awareness. Evidence of meditation’s health effects has been well documented: the practice offers improvement in t… Read more »
Holistic Stress Management
Stress affects each of us every day and while some of us rise to the occasion, others experience a myriad of physiological, psychological, and spiritual effects. How we cope with stress can determine the current and future state of our health and wel… Read more »
Humor and Health
How many times have you felt better after laughing? Humor and laughter make people feel alive and bring a unique perspective to life. They relieve stress and connect people to one another. Humor is a complex phenomenon and an essential part of human… 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 »
Journaling: Healthy Living Through Self-Discovery
Writing has been an important part of the human experience for centuries but has only recently been recognized as a therapeutic tool for healing. Used to document personal and historical events, describe emotions and feelings, reduce stress, and expl… Read more »
Legal Issues in Healthcare
Health care 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 patie… Read more »
Light, Health, and Healing
Light has been a part of all life since the beginning of time. It plays a critical role in the health and well-being of every living thing on the planet. As humans have evolved, they have often moved away from the natural light of their ancestors and… 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
This course will provide health care professionals with an overview of mental health and aging, including mental health wellness strategies, mental health disorders, cultural competence, cultural diversity, complementary and alternative medicine trea… Read more »
Music Therapy and Sound Healing
In an age where people increasingly turn to holistic methods of healing, music therapy and sound healing have entered mainstream health care and can be used successfully with people of all ages and disabilities. This course examines sound and music a… 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, health care providers must be particularly skilled at assessing pain, understanding misconceptions of pain management, addre… 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 »
Pediatric End-of-Life Care – Compassion and Caring
The death of a child is a devastating event with long-lasting effects on family, friends, and health care providers. While pediatric death rates in the United States have declined in the last century, pediatric death remains a critical health care is… Read more »
Place and Space: Healing Environments
Health care providers can assist clients with their healing process through the creation of healing environments – spaces that support the individual’s inner healer and utilize the environment to maximize its healing effects. This course will provide… Read more »
Pneumonia in Adults and Children
Pneumonia is an infection in one or both of the lungs. Globally, it is the leading killer of children under the age of 5 years. It is also common in the United States. There are several types of pneumonia, depending on the type of germ (bacteria, vir… Read more »
Psychology of Stress
Events, people, and circumstances fill our normal daily lives–along with a certain amount of stress. Some of us experience psychological effects from this stress, while others seem to be unaffected or even thrive when challenged. Why do we react diff… Read more »
Puerto Rico Mandated Infection Control for Health Care Professionals
This course updates the knowledge of nurses and other health care professionals about infection control and prevention. In addition, the course describes the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and… Read more »
Sacred Spaces, Healing Places
Modern nursing was founded on the concepts of healing environments. Florence Nightingale was one of the first to realize the importance of nature, light, noise, and sensory stimulation in healing. Today, it is well known that healing environments emp… Read more »
Sleep and Aging
Sleep is essential to a healthy, productive life. While sleep disorders and changes affect all of us as we age, older adults undergo many sleep-related changes that can affect their physical and psychological well-being. This course presents a review… Read more »
Sleep Disorders: An Integrative Approach
Sleep disorders are very common complaints and they include difficulty falling asleep, early awakening, and interrupted sleep. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only one-third of adults say they get enough sleep every night… Read more »
Social Context of Stress
A strong social support network is important during difficult times. A social support network consists of friends, family, and peers. Developing and maintaining supportive relationships provides feelings of belonging, self-worth, and security. Withou… Read more »
Social Media and Healthcare
Social media has many characteristics and has become part of the very fabric of today’s society. It can be immediate, irreverent, and incredibly powerful. The use of social media in all areas of life, especially healthcare, is growing exponentially…. Read more »
Sound and Art: Using The Ears And Eyes To Heal
Music and art have tremendous healing powers. Creative expression offers patients and staff the ability to heal on multiple levels. Understanding of the intricate relationship between stress and the health of our body, mind, and spirit continues to g… Read more »
Spiritual Assessment and Spiritual Care
Spiritual care is an important and necessary part of appropriate patient care, yet many health care professionals feel ill equipped to provide it to their clients. When people experience a spiritual crisis and need spiritual care, they may choose to… Read more »
Spiritual Care of the Dying
The dying experience is unique for each individual. For many individuals, death is not an end to life. It is simply a passage to another dimension, sometimes called heaven, the spiritual world, another plane of existence, or nirvana. As knowledge of… Read more »