The effects of effleurage hand massage on anxiety and pain in patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of effleurage hand massage performed by trained volunteers on reducing anxiety and pain in patients receiving treatment at a chemotherapy center in Fort Wayne, Ind., as measured by heart rate, respiratory rate, BP, visual analogue scale for anxiety (VAS-A), and visual analogue scale for pain (VAS-P).

Methods: Volunteers trained in effleurage massage gave 10-minute hand massages to 24 patients at the beginning of their chemotherapy session.

Gender differences in the vocational satisfaction of physician assistants.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze vocational satisfaction differences by gender as a follow-up of data gathered from a mailed survey study on American physician assistant vocational satisfaction.

Methods: This is an analysis of a database from an original piloted, validated survey with a response rate of 50% from 2,323 labels from the 2003 AAPA's mailing list (n = 1,137). The survey measured vocational satisfaction in terms of career, job, and specialty choice on a forced-choice 6-point Likert-type scale.

Physician assistant vocational satisfaction.

Physician assistants (PAs) are known to be highly satisfied with their vocational choices, but the reasons for this high degree of satisfaction are not known. The author mailed a survey to 2,323 PAs whose names were randomly chosen from the mailing list of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) to examine the factors that PAs feel contribute to vocational satisfaction. The survey response rate was 50%.