The purpose of this research is to clarify the beginner nurses ' learning process of the nursing art by taking notice of their bodily senses during their practice of changing the body positions of their patients. This is qualitative descriptive research conducted through participation observation and half-structured interviews. The research participants were five nurses new to the job who had started their working lives in 2009 or 2010. The research was conducted between May and August of 2009, as well as the period between May and August of 2010. After the beginner nurses were assigned to wards in May, they repeatedly provided their patients with assistance for their activities of daily living while teaming up with nurses senior to them. At the beginning they felt as if they could not keep up with the senior nurses. They gradually learned the knack of learning the nursing art by repeated practice. By June, they felt the effect of theacquired learning, and started to move in unison with the senior nurses. By July or August, the beginner nurses started to decipher the physical conditions of their patients based on their bodily senses that were activated when they touched their patients. They could then provide assistance in tune with the physical condition of their patients.

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　Background : Patients with multiple sclerosis perform self-injections of Interferon for prevention of disease relapse. They have a question about the needle length required for the intramuscular self-injection. Therefore, we developed a formula to calculate the subcutaneous tissue thickness of the rectus femoris site for the intramuscular self-injection. The formula is calculated using BMI or the measurement of the tricep skinfold thickness using an Adipometer.　
　Purpose : To clarify whether these formulas are useful as an assessment of the needle length required for intramuscular self-injections in multiple sclerosis patients.
　Methods : Subjects were 18 female patients with multiple sclerosis. Subcutaneous tissue thickness was measured at the right and left rectus femoris site using ultrasonography.The triceps skinfold thickness was measured using an Adipometer. The sum was calculated from the formula using BMI and the measurement of the tricep skinfold thickness using an Adipometer. The correlation between the ultrasonography results of subcutaneous tissue thickness and the fomula’s results were analyzed.
　Results and Discussion : Signif icant correlations were f ound between the ultrasonography results and the f omulas using BMI ( P<0.01) and Adipometer measurements ( P<0.05). This study suggested that the assessment formula is useful to calculate the needle length necessary for multiple sclerosis patients using BMI. The assessment formula using the measurement of the tricep skinfold thickness by Adipometer is useful for all patients except the obese.

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　 This study focused on breathing exercises involving Souffle^® (POLA PHARMA). Therefore, this study experimentally investigated the effects of training activities on circulatory dynamics, autonomic nervous system activities, and central nervous system activities in order to improve knowledge regarding the proper way to perform breathing exercises before and after cardiac surgery. To prevent bias related to factors such as age, medical history, and current therapy, 10 healthy adults were included in the study, and their autonomic nervous activities and brain waves were continuously monitored during the control period, the breathing exercise period (using SOUFFLE, for 5 minutes), and the recovery period. The heart rate and blood pressure variation as well as the cerebral cortex activity for the training period were significantly higher than those for the control and/or recovery periods, and the parasympathetic activity for the value for 5 minutes after the exercise was significantly lower than that for 20 minutes after theexercise ( p < 0.05 for all). The participants’ heart rates increased to the maximum level after 3 minutes of exercise and decreased to the average level in 15-20 minutes. The results suggest that (1) the breathing exercise induced fluctuation in circulatory dynamics, which caused heart strain ; (2) the breathing exercise activated cardiac sympathetic nervous activity and inhibited parasympathetic nervous activity ; (3) breath control involving Souffle^® activated cerebral cortex activity and led to brain wave fluctuation, especially in alpha waves ; and (4) it is appropriate to conduct training within 3 minutes per session and resume training after a break of a minimum of 15-20 minutes,especially during preoperative training.

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　We examined the effect of lower abdominal warming in 25 elderly patients with low level of consciousness (4 males and 21 females ; 84±10yr) who had serious constipation according to measurement of bowel movements, usage of laxative, frequency of enema and disimpaction. Vital signs were measured before and after being treated with heat application.The subjects applied a heat and steam generating sheet ( HSG) ( Megurizumu, Kao Co., Tokyo) on the lower abdominal skin for 7 days ( 6.7±0.7hrs/day). Subjective constipation［ the Japanese version of the Constipation Assessment Scale-Short term (CAS-ST) and the Bristol Stool Scale］ , bowel movements and taking laxatives were compared before and after being treated with HSG. Significant improvements were observed in CAS-ST, the Bristol Stool Scale and frequent of bowel movements for 7 days. These results suggested that lower abdominal warming improved constipation significantly (from stool form scale, constipation assessment scale and bowel movements) in elderly patients with a low level of consciousness. The stool form scale is useful in patients with a low level of consciousness as well. In addition, the potential relaxation effect based on a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure and a decreasing tendency in diastolic blood pressure, and no marked effect on the skin or cardiovascular system suggested the safety of long-term continuous use of this warming method. In future investigations, it would be necessary to bring in objective evaluations in case that it is difficult to obtain subjective data.

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　 The present study seeks to verify the usefulness of a skin-washing method for the treatment of skin problems in infants by investigating time required and changes observed in skin surface pH and hydration/fat contente from the commencement of treatment until the disappearance of symptoms.
　 The subjects were 10 infants with skin problems. Erythema, papules, dander, erosion, and dryness disappeared three to seven days ( mean=5.4 days) after the commencement of the skin-washing treatment. For seven infants, their skin surface pH was 5.7 or more on the day of skin-washing. For three infants, their skin hydration was less than 30%. However, on the seventh day of the treatment, the outer skin pH of nine infants had become 5.6 or less, and their skin had become weakly acidic. As for the amount of moisture, all 10 infants recorded a level of more than 30%.
　 The results suggest that this washing method is useful for relieving infant skin problems and for improving the skin’s acidity.

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　 The objective of this study was to determine the usefulness of hot compresses applied to the backs of patients receiving outpatient cancer chemotherapy and suffering from fatigue. The patients were divided into two groups : one that was prescribed 15 minutes of bed rest (control group, n = 6) and the other in which hot compresses (approximately 50 ℃) were applied to the backs of patients for 15 minutes (hot compress group, n = 12).These groups were compared in terms of blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature, and Cancer Fatigue Scale (CFS) score. CFS score pre-and post-treatment and CFS score on the day following treatment were obtained by a questionnaire survey and a mail survey, respectively. Significant differences in body temperature were found pre-and post-treatment in the hot compress group (p = 0.02). The pre-treatment average overall fatigue score was 23.00 (SD 3.58) in the control group and 25.08 (SD 7.31) in the hotcompress group. Significant differences were found in CFS overall fatigue scores, physical fatigue scores, and cognitive fatigue scores between pre-and post-treatment in both the groups. Significant differences were found in overall fatigue scores for the hot compress group between pre-treatment and after 15 minutes of treatment, and weren't found between after 15 minutes of treatment and the day following treatment. Twelve categories were extracted in a content analysis of interviews conducted after hot compress treatment, including “feeling good", “feeling calm and at ease", “feeling of relaxation", and “feeling of exhilaration." The results of this study suggest that hot compresses applied to the backs provide comfort to patients receiving outpatient cancer chemotherapy and suffering from fatigue.

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　 The purpose of this research is to clarify how nurses new to working life practice the art of nursing. In particular, I will focus on the experiences of carrying out patient body position change, which is highly situation-dependent and is characterized by the bodily contact the nurses have with their patients. This is qualitative descriptive research conducted through participation observation and half-structured interviews. By focusing on April, the month when they start employment, I described specifically how the beginner nurses feel, think, and practice changing the body position of their patients. The research participants were five nurses new to the job who had started their working lives in 2009 or 2010. Right after they started to work, the beginner nurses came to appreciate their patients’ conditions through physical contact. They were surprised by the difference between their pre-contact impressions and that of reality. While they felt fear and anxiety as they did not know how to provide the patients with proper assistance, they started to think about how they could learn to do so. The bodily senses that the beginner nurses became attuned to functioned as a tool they could use to grasp the physical conditions of the patients. At the same time, the anxiety that arose from these bodily senses led to the search for appropriate assistance. Therefore it can be said that the bodily senses form the basis of nursing art acquisition.

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　 Extravasation (EV) is the inappropriate or accidental administration of medicinal drugs into the tissues surrounding the delivery site, and can be a serious complication of intravenous therapy. In previous retrospective studies of EV that relied on recall, many aspects of the situation and symptoms were unclear. In addition, the parameters and symptoms of EV that were assessed lacked uniformity, making it difficult to track the course of care. In the present study, therefore, we investigated the use of a newly devised sheet for assessment of EV to obtain a grasp of EV in actual clinical practice. We also investigated the most appropriate items and criteria for evaluating the symptoms of EV.
　 Fifty-one patients who had suffered injury due to EV of 15 kinds of drugs were included. EV had occurred between 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning, and was often discovered by a nurse. The most frequent site of EV was the bilateral medial forearms. The acute symptoms of EV included swelling (87.5%), erythema (63.0%), tenderness (53.2%), pain (46.9%), and induration (33.3%). Our investigation showed that such symptoms were relieved or exacerbated according to the type of care given. We think that detailed observation and recording of EV using our unified assessment sheet would be valuable for clarifying the effects of care for drug EV.

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