We examined the effects of footbath treatment before bedtime in inpatients complaining of sleeplessness. We measured subjective sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability (high-frequency power (HF) and ratio of low-frequency power to high-frequency power (LF/HF)), and factors associated with sleep and awakening with a wrist activity meter.
　Heart rate and LF/HF, which express sympathetic nervous activity in inpatients (five males and four females) with sleeplessness, showed a significantly different time course by two way ANOVA (P ＝0.017 and P ＝0.035) . In the footbath treatment (FB) groups, a decrease of graded heart rate and a decrease of the sympathetic nervous activity were shown. However, in the non-footbath treatment control (CT) groups, those changes were not seen. Furthermore, with regard to subjective sleep quality of the inpatients, “falling asleep and sleep maintenance” (P ＝0.017) and “sleep times” (P ＝0.018) were significantly higher in the FB groups compared to the CT. The results of this study indicate that foot bath treatment before bedtime ameliorates inpatients sleeplessness.

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　The present study aimed to determine the association between participants’ subjective symptoms and physiological responses to physical load when receiving a foot bath in a fixed supine position. Both male and female subjects from late middle to old age were included in the study. During the foot bath, the following factors were investigated：whether participants experienced bodily burden or not, and if so, what they experienced and how their body pressure and autonomic nervous system reacted. Participants were divided into two groups, positive and negative, according to their experience of bodily burden. Results indicated that subjective symptoms of bodily burden were observed, but the degree of this negative feeling was “slight” and that subjective effects of positive feelings, such as “comfortable” and “relaxed,” were experienced by subjects. Changes in body pressure were present in the positive and negative groups；changes were observed in the places regarding which the positive group had complained. Before their complaints regarding subjective symptoms, upward tendencies in parasympathetic nerve activity and lower tendencies in sympathetic nerve activity were recorded. In the negative group, upward tendencies in parasympathetic nerve activity and downward tendencies in sympathetic nerve activity within 6 min and 12 min of initiating the foot bath were observed, respectively. Accordingly, there were only slight subjective symptoms of physical load when receiving foot baths in a fixed supine position, and the comfort of the foot bath perceived through subjective and physiological effects was demonstrated.

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　The purpose of this study was to set clear criteria for nurses to classify and judge defecation states, and create a flow chart for classification of defecation states in a clinical setting. These researchers re-examined the indexes used to classify the defecation patterns described in previous research (Kato et al., 2012). In that study, the greatest priority was placed on the form of the stool, followed by the frequency of bowel movements, the size of the stool and finally subjective and objective measures of bloating in the abdomen. Groups of reference values were thus set from the previous study to create a flow chart consisting of 5 questions： “Do at least one in two of the patient’s bowel stools have no shape?” (form)； “Are at least one in fourof the patient’s stools hard?” (form)； “Do bowel movements occur 4 or more times per week?” (frequency)；are one in five stools as large as the area of the thumb from the first knuckle to the tip?” (size) and “Is there any bloating (feeling of fullness) ?” (subjective/objective measure of bloating). The flow chart classifies stools into six defecation patterns：Normal Class I, Normal Class II, Constipation Class I, Constipation Class II, Constipation Class III and Diarrhea Class.

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　We extracted technical elements based on veteran nurses’ teachings on intravenous catheter placement techniques to novice nurses in order to visualize techniques involved in the success and failure of intravenous catheter placement.　
　Five veteran nurses performed educational intervention for 21 novice nurses after these novice nurses performed intravenous catheter placement using an indwelling needle. Transcripts were created from recordings of educational intervention situations and data were categorized into A (Antecedent), B (Behavior), and C (Consequence) for the content of each technique taught by the veteran nurses. Technical elements involved in the success and failure of intravenous catheter placement were extracted on the basis of the antecedent, i.e., veteran nurses’ teachings. Techniques were then visualized using an algorithm in accordance with the Japanese Industrial Standard (JISX0121-1986) from start to completion of the intravenous catheter placement technique. Results revealed that novice nurses encountered technical problems during the time from checking backflow of blood after successfully inserting the indwelling needle into a blood vessel to removing the inner needle. This algorithm should serve as an effective means of accurately checking the techniques of Novice nurses by having novice nurses objectively examine their own techniques.

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