Panzo, Rodilyn A.

Promotion and Maintenance of Wellness July 9, 2011 REACTION PAPER Through time, many trends in the nursing profession emerge. We, as nurses must be open to new discoveries and studies that will promote and maintain the wellness of our patients. It is our social responsibility to educate the community about the new trends in the medical field and be advocates of health. I have searched the internet and I have found 3 articles which seemed very interesting and educative. It is something new; yet, it promotes wellness among people who will be able to read it. It is something I can use to edify my patients and other members of the community. The first article was written by Emily Caldwell and was published in the June Issue of the journal, Birth. It was a study done by Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, et.al of the Ohio State University. The study was done to determine the pregnant mothers action towards inducement of labor. Nearly half of the study population did not tried or used any unprescribed methods to initiate labor, while the other half did walking, engaging in sexual activity, eating of spicy foods, and stimulating of the nipple. Though majority of these practices will not bring risk to their pregnany, Dr. Schaffir mentioned that inducement of labor is something that happens naturally, regardless if you have some remedies or not. Only one practice which is the nipple stimulation has the effect on uterine contraction. But on the contrary, it can lead to an uncontrollable contraction which is a downside. It is good to know that patients have their initiative or health seeking behavior to of labor. Somehow, we as health care practitioners must commend them in their initiative headed for optimal health but must correct the wrong practices, break the health myths, and nurture their mind with correct information and health practices inducement.

The second article was from Elizabeth Lynch of March of Dimes Foundation. A research team of investigators from March of Dimes, National Institutes of Health and US Food and Drug Administration in search for adding more evidences that continuing a pregnancy to at least 39 weeks is crucial to a babys health found out that Risk of infant death doubled for infants born at 37 weeks when compared to babies born at 40 weeks for all races and ethnicities. In 2006, the infant mortality rate was 1.9 for every 1000 live births for babies born at 40 weeks of pregnancy. The mortality rate increased to 3.9 per 1000 when a baby was born just a few weeks earlier at 37 weeks of pregnancy. Another study was led by Umma M. Reddy. M.D. entitled Term Pregnancy: a period of heterogonous risk for infant mortality. It was found out that early terms infants had higher infant and neonatal mortality rates when compared to full term infants for every year from 1995 to 2006. Neonatal infant mortality rates were highest for infants born at 37 weeks of pregnancy, and declined for each additional week until 40 weeks, which had the lowest neonatal mortality rates. The trend was the same for all races except nonHispanic black infants. I think this study is really educational and useful information for all health practitioners. Most of all it is beneficial for mothers expecting a baby. I can relate the second article to the first one about inducement of labor. In my point of view, it is essential that mothers should know that they dont need to hasten their delivery, aside from knowing that uterine contractions only happens when a certain hormones are produced by the fetus, the study results also showed that 37 weeks of pregnancy, though it is a full term, have increased risk for mortality. Its always necessary to share our knowledge to our patients in order to achieve optimal health for all. When everyone is informed and educated, ignorance-related causes of health jeopardy will be eradicated, resulting in a healthier population. The third article interested me the most because it talks about quality nursing care. It was entitled Belly Laughs and Good Nursing Care, Best Medicine for Leg Ulcers. It started when a group of researchers led by Professor Andrea Nelson of the University of Leeds School of Healthcare in UK did a five-year study on the effectiveness of adding ultrasound therapy to standard care versus Standard care alone. Opposite to their expectations, adding ultrasound therapy to standard care did not have a significant result

in the speeding up of leg-ulcers healing time, percentage of participants with ulcers healed by 12 months, change in ulcer size at four weeks, time of completion of healing of all ulcers, rate of occurrence of healed ulcers, and on health-related quality of life: on both physical and mental scores. I really adore this article because it is very inspiring. It is good that new technologies materialize in hope for improving the human lives, but we must not forget that machines cannot replace the effect of human interaction to our health. As nurses, we deal with patients longer compared to other health care professionals, ergo; we need not only focus on their physical needs but on mental and emotional as well. Giving them a reason to laugh may help these patients (with leg ulcers), because laugh causes the movement of the diaphragm which plays a vital part in moving blood around the body. We nurses must always remember Holistic Health Care; we must not forget the essence of being a nurse. It is not about the money but on how we help our patients in having Quality Life. It makes me remember Florence Nightingale, the lady with the lamp. She will always be an inspiration. A symbol of a quality nurse.