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 »
Cultural Competence in Health Care
The culturally diverse health care populations in the United States provide health care professionals with tremendous opportunities to bridge cultural gaps, incorporate new treatments and disease prevention strategies into their practices, and learn… Read more »
Emerging Global Infectious Diseases
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) present 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 with infants and chi… 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 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 »
Healthy Lifestyles: How Stress, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Substance Abuse, and Nature Affect Brain Health
Individuals’ lifestyles can have a powerful impact on the health of their body and mind. The brain is affected by virtually every aspect of their life including their levels of stress, the foods they choose to eat, the amount and type of physical act… 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 »
How Safe Is Your Water?
According to the World Health Organization (2008), access to safe water is essential to health and a basic human right. Yet globally, unsafe water causes millions of deaths from diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition, and drowning. The United States has one… Read more »
Iowa Child Abuse, Prevention, and Mandatory Reporting
Child abuse is a national and international issue that has serious long-term consequences for the child and the community. A social problem that has existed for thousands of years, child abuse in all its forms first became a topic of national interes… 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 »
Medication Errors
Medications promote healing, reduce suffering, and contribute to modern medical miracles. However, because thousands of new drugs have been developed recently, because the health care environment is increasingly complex, and because patients are olde… Read more »
Meditation and Brain Health
Meditation is a mind-body practice with many methods and variations that are all based on the silence and stillness of present-moment awareness. Exciting research is showing that a regular practice of meditation causes physical changes in the brain t… Read more »
Meditation and Religious Traditions
Although there are many ways to meditate and many different forms of meditation, they all share a unifying characteristic: each one focuses on intentionally training a person’s attention and concentration. Meditation practices are used by diverse cul… 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 »
Meditation Types and Practices
There are many types of meditation. Some types appeal to people of an intellectual nature, while other types appeal to those who prefer the path of love and surrender. Individuals with an active approach to life may prefer meditation techniques invol… Read more »
Nutrition, Stress, and Immune Function
Most individuals enjoy sitting down and eating a delicious meal. Food provides an opportunity to socialize and, if the food is nutritious, it also supports a healthy body and mind. However, if individuals are stressed before, during, or after a meal,… Read more »
Obesity In America – A Public Health Epidemic
Two-thirds of adults and one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Left unchecked, the effects of this crisis on the nation’s health, health care costs, and productivity could be catastrophic. As a nation, we’re getting more… Read more »
Physiology of Stress
Stress is at epidemic levels in the world today. Currently, as many as 90 percent of all visits to health-care providers in the United States are considered to be stress-related. Stress affects every aspect of the body, mind, and spirit, resulting in… Read more »
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
When individuals experience a traumatic, terrifying, life-changing event or series of events, with a real or threatened risk of death, they may experience a variety of symptoms known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although this condition h… 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 »
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 »
Stress and Nutrition
Most individuals enjoy sitting down and eating a delicious meal. Food provides an opportunity to socialize and, if the food is nutritious, it also supports a healthy body and mind. However, when individuals are stressed, they are not able to utilize… Read more »
Stress and Physical Activity
Physical activity is essential in a program for stress management and overall health. This can include activities such as walking, running, swimming, cycling, skiing, dancing, gardening, yoga, Qigong, Tai Chi Chuan, weight lifting, stretching, as wel… Read more »
Stress Reduction Techniques and Therapies
You may think you don’t have a lot of control over the stress in your life, but you have more control than you might think. There are many ways to manage and reduce stress by using stress-relieving techniques and therapies.
The Biofield (Human Energy Field): Foundation for Energy Medicine
There is increasing scientific evidence that human beings are comprised of an energetic system that is highly integrated with the physical body, emotions, and the spiritual aspect of individuals. Because of this evidence, the health care community is… Read more »
The Effects of Stress on Health
Stress can dramatically affect the body and the mind to the detriment of physical and psychological health. Both acute and chronic stress, the timing and duration of stress, gender, and genetics play a role in the complex relationship between stress… Read more »
Tickborne Diseases
In the United States, ticks carry many different pathogens that can cause a variety of human diseases. One of the most common of these is Lyme disease. Many tickborne diseases are challenging to diagnose because their symptoms imitate other common il… Read more »
Workplace Stress
For most Americans today, the workplace is ever changing and is a major source of daily stress. As a result, the economic and personal health effects of workplace stress are at epidemic levels, making workplace stress one of the most important health… Read more »
Workplace Violence in Healthcare
Workplace violence is an increasing problem in organizations today and is especially challenging in the health care industry. Considered a human rights issue, workplace violence affects the dignity of millions of people worldwide and is a major sourc… Read more »