The Impact of HeartMath Resiliency Training on Health Care Providers.

Background: Health care providers must think clearly and make critical decisions under stressful circumstances. Providing effective strategies for managing stress in the moment helps mitigate the physical, emotional, and psychological impacts associated with caring for others and promotes resiliency. Staff may also utilize these techniques with patients and their families to help alleviate the symptoms of stress that may be experienced as the result of illness.

Reducing Anxiety and Improving Engagement in Health Care Providers Through an Auricular Acupuncture Intervention.

Background: Stress and anxiety are experienced by health care providers as a consequence of caregiving and may result in physical, emotional, and psychological outcomes that negatively impact work engagement.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine whether auricular acupuncture can reduce provider anxiety and improve work engagement.

Methods: Study participants received 5 auricular acupuncture sessions within a 16-week period utilizing the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association protocol for treating emotional trauma.

Auricular acupuncture to relieve health care workers' stress and anxiety: impact on caring.

Background: The caring relationship between individual health care providers and patients is a critical component of healing. However, caring can result in physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual symptoms in providers that can interfere with their capacity to enter into these relationships.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether auricular acupuncture is an effective tool for reducing health care provider stress and anxiety and, second, to determine if auricular acupuncture impacts provider capacity for developing caring relationships with patients.

Development of a hospital reiki training program: training volunteers to provide reiki to patients, families, and staff in the acute care setting.

Creating a healing and healthy environment for patients, families, and staff is an ongoing challenge. As part of our hospital's Integrative Care Program, a Reiki Volunteer Program has helped to foster a caring and healing environment, providing a means for patients, family, and staff to reduce pain and anxiety and improve their ability to relax and be present. Because direct care providers manage multiple and competing needs at any given time, they may not be available to provide Reiki when it is needed.

Identification of peroxiredoxin-5 in bovine cauda epididymal sperm.

Developing spermatozoa require a series of posttesticular modifications within the luminal environment of the epididymis to achieve maturation; this involves several surface modifications including changes in plasma membrane lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, and alterations in the outer acrosomal membrane. Epididymal maturation can therefore allow sperm to gain forward motility and fertilization capabilities. The objective of this study was to identify maturation-dependent protein(s) and to investigate their role with the production of functionally competent spermatozoa.

Isolation of a calcium-binding protein of the acrosomal membrane of bovine spermatozoa.

The mammalian sperm acrosome reaction is a calcium-dependent exocytotic event characterized by extensive fusion between the plasma and the outer acrosomal membrane. The mechanisms by which elevation of cytosolic calcium initiates the membrane fusion process are not understood and the present study was undertaken to identify calcium-binding proteins in the acrosomal membrane (AM) of bovine spermatozoa. Sperm heads, purified from sonicated spermatozoa, were used to isolate an acrosomal membrane-enriched fraction on Percoll density gradients.

Use of the revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children.

Posttraumatic growth (PTG; positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma) was examined among children impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The revised Posttraumatic Growth Inventory for Children (PTGI-C-R) assessed PTG at two time points, 12 (T1) and 22 months (T2) posthurricane. The PTGI-C-R demonstrated good reliability.