This study was performed to examine differences in warmth and comfort caused by different usages of a washcloth in bed bathing practice using physiological and subjective indexes. For 12 healthy male and female subjects, a rolled, grabbed, or folded washcloth was used to clean the right forearm in order to measure the temperature at the skin surface, autonomic nerve activity, and warmth and comfort (VAS). With all methods, the temperature at the skin surface after cleaning was increased compared to before cleaning. This increase was maintained for 5 minutes after cleaning with a rolled or folded washcloth, but no significant increase was confirmed in some cases of cleaning with a grabbed washcloth. The temperature at the skin surface measured immediately after cleaning and at 5 seconds after cleaning with a folded washcloth was higher than that with the other methods. The VAS of warmth was 7-8 with all methods, showing no significant difference. In addition, none of the methods showed any significant difference in autonomic nerve activity. These three methods can all provide warmth to the person being bathed but should be used appropriately after understanding the characteristics of the individual methods.

　Purpose: This study aims to determine the concept of “personal grooming” in the field of nursing in Japan to select and standardize “personal grooming” nursing skills in basic nursing education.
　Methods: This study employed Walker & Avant’s concept analysis, and included a total of 37 references in the analysis. The references included 1 encyclopedia, 9 books, and 27 articles retrieved from the Ichushi Web, Saishin Kango Sakuin Web, and J-STAGE databases.
　Results and Discussion: The analysis identified 10 attributes, 3 antecedents, 9 consequences, and 28 empirical referents. The attributes of the concept of “personal grooming” in the field of nursing in Japan were summarized as follows: it is the care that nurses ‘perform at the patient wake-up and bedtime,’ ‘personalize to the patient physical conditions,’ ‘provide patients by respecting the them as a person’ when patients cannot perform “personal grooming” themselves due to physical or mental limitations, and the care that nurses ‘fix the patient final appearance to fit the person’ at the time of end-of-life care. The findings suggest the necessity for nursing instructors to instruct in these attributes that are unique to the nursing field, and to select and standardize the educational content of “personal grooming” nursing skills based on the identified empirical referents.

　This study investigates the current state of oral hygiene care in community-dwelling older adults and clarifies related subjective symptoms, health awareness, and education factors.
　Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. Participants were 638 older adults above 65 years of age.
　We examined the basic attributes of participants and the status of oral hygiene care. The relationship between oral hygiene care status and basic attributes of participants were analyzed using the χ² test or Fisher’s exact test.
　Results: We received responses from 410 older adults participants. The highest implementation rate of oral hygiene care was 75.4% for interdental cleaning and the highest rate for using interdental cleaning of tools was 51.7%. Oral hygiene care was implemented among older adults, women, those unaware of the difficulties of oral care, those interested in oral care, those who visited with the dentist regularly, and those with experience of receiving oral care instruction (P<0.05).
　Discussion: For older adults to manage their oral hygiene, it is necessary to use hassle-free approaches and methods, encourage their interest, and promote professional guidance.
　Conclusion: Oral hygiene practices were associated with oral health awareness and education.

　This study aimed to investigate the technical effects of massage frequency and contact surface area on vasodilation for blood collection. A group of 46 healthy participants aged 18 years or older underwent massage with different frequencies (5 or 10 times) and contact surface sizes (large: second to fifth fingers and palm contact the participant’s forearm; small: ulnar side of fifth finger contacting the participant’s forearm) for 10 seconds after applying the tourniquet for 10 seconds. The cross-sectional area of blood vessels was measured, and the degree of vasodilation was evaluated by visual inspection. The study found that the cross-sectional area of blood vessels increased significantly after massage at both frequencies (5 or 10) and after massage (10 times) using a larger contact surface. Although there was no significant difference in the degree of vasodilation between the number of times and the contact surface area of massage, about 80% of participants showed a change of “1: Slightly observed” or more. These findings suggest that massaging a large contact surface area 10 times may have an additive vasodilator effect when combined with a tourniquet.