Balneotherapy using Kusatsu hot-spring water was performed in 5 patients with pressure sores, who were hospitalized at our Hospital between 1995 and 1997. A complete cure was observed in out the of 5 patients, a marked improvement was seen in 3 patients, and no change was noted in one patient. Deterioration of the diseases causing the pressure sores and adverse effects of the hot-spring water were not observed. This study suggests that hot-spring water is useful for treating deep pressure sores and decubitus complicating infection.

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The Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) was founded in 1965 as part of the international cooperation efforts of the Japanese Government. JOCV nurses have been sent at the request of developing countries since 1966. Not all of the requests can be met, although more than ten times of the requested number of nurses make an application to works as volunteers. We are trying to analyze their categories (registered nurses : RNs, nurse midwives : NMs, and public health nurses : PHNs) and the number of volunteer nurses corresponding to requests between 1975 and 1996 for international cooperation.
A total of 1436 volunteer nurses have been requested and 936 corresponding nurses (65.2%) were dispatched. The corresponding rates were 74.8% for RNs, 52.4% for NMs, and 56.3% for PHNs. One reason for the low rate of PHNs seemed to be difficulty in finding employment after their return to Japan, while a low rate of sufficiency of NMs during first years might influence the result. With activity areas the sufficiency rate of education and administration was low. It is necessary to improve the welfare and support system after their return and to prepare on environment evaluating their experiences in international cooperation.

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Clinical practice is an important component of the nursing education curriculum. The faculty spends a great deal of time instructing students in clinical settings. The faculty of our Department of Health Sciences provided clinical practice instruction for the first time. During practice the students learned how cancer patients are cared for and recognized the educational effects of the experience. We designed the teaching approach so that students could understand patient crisis situations through records and conferences. The subjects were 10 students for whom we were responsible. Each student monitored one patient carefully. Before surgery the student was asked to understand the impact of telling the patient the diagnosis, as well as concerns about the surgery, and to prepare the patients physically and psychologically for surgery. After surgery, the student could support the patient according to Fink's crisis process of recovery from risk. Ten students shared their experience with 10 patients through group conferences.
The authors provided practical nursing care instruction together with the clinical staffs at the hospital. We tried to assess the value of our instruction through the words and behaviors of the patients and the review of the students themselves. On the last day of the practice, the students volunteered such responses as “I could experience the wonderful aspects of nursing” and “I was pleased to observe my patient's recovery.” The authors could support patients' recovery, students' learning, and identify the educational effects of the practice.

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The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of the prone position in the management of body positioning.
First experiment was a basic study on difference in physiological response between the prone position and the supine position in 7 healthy female students. Two position patterns for each of these two positions : feet in contact with the bed and free of the bed were tested. Data were collected from all samples for the four different positions, and the retest procedure was applied. We selected the β-wave (13.030.0Hz) on the electroencephalogram (EEG) as the evaluation index and compared the change in wave power according to the position patterns. The greatest amplification in the β-wave area was obtained in the prone position with feet in contact with the bed, followed by the prone position with feet free from bed. There was no change in the supine position with feet free from bed.
Nest experiment, we focused on the supine position and the prone position feet free of the bed and compared elderly and youth subjects. We selected the β-wave and the α-wave (8.013.0Hz) on the EEG as the EEG as the evaluation index. The result were as follow : in both the youth and the elderly there was greater amplification of the α and β-waves in the prone position than in the supine position. The prone position may activate brain function in the elderly.

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A remarkable improvement in the dementia scale and activity of daily living was observed after the administration of donepezil hydrochloride and rehabilitation therapy in a bedridden patient with disuse muscle atrophy and bradyphrenia as a result to Alzheimer type dementia. Though the rehabilitation of patients with bradyphrenia is difficult because of lack of motivation, a synergistic improvement in dementia and the activity of daily living level can be expected by rehabilitation combined with the administration of donepezil hydrochloride.

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