Therapeutic use of cannabis in the US.

ABSTRACT: NPs are likely to encounter patients using cannabis with therapeutic intent, with or without legal authorization. During the clinical history and assessment process, NPs need to engage in frank discussion about cannabis therapeutics, including the risks and benefits, evidence for use, dosing considerations, potential drug interactions, and harm reduction.

The Management of Cancer Symptoms and Treatment-Induced Side Effects With Cannabis or Cannabinoids.

Cannabis and cannabinoids are increasingly being accessed and used by patients with advanced cancer for various symptoms and general quality of life. Specific symptoms of pain, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite and cachexia, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and medical trauma are among those that have prompted patients with cancer to use cannabis. This conference report from the National Cancer Institute's "Cannabis, Cannabinoid and Cancer Research Symposium" on the topic of "Cancer Symptom/Treatment Side Effect Management" is an expert perspective of cannabis intervention for cancer and cancer treatment-related symptoms. The purpose of the symposium was to identify research gaps, describe the need for high-quality randomized prospective studies of medical cannabis for palliative care in patients with cancer, and evaluate the impact of medical cannabis on cancer survivors' quality of life. Further, education of clinicians and affiliated health-care providers in guiding cancer patients in using cannabis for cancer care would benefit patients. Together, these steps will further aid in refining the use of cannabis and cannabinoids for symptom palliation and improve safety and efficacy for patients.

A Radical RN- BS Nursing Class: Outcomes from an Integrative Yoga Elective.

With the knowledge of psychoneuroimmunological responses and the known high stress levels of nursing students, as caring nurse educators, we have become ethically obligated to revise and re-vision our current nursing educational practices. Nurse educators should be motivated to create innovative and radical caring science curricular approaches, so that our nurses of the future are in turn supported in creating caring- healing sustainable bedside practices. This paper details the outcomes from an upper level yoga elective in an RN- BSN program. The course is just one within an innovative holistic-integral nursing curriculum that supports nurses in practicing self-care as a way to support their ability to create caring-healing moments and spaces for patients, implement change in the workplace, and avoid the perils of burn-out related to low stress resilience, which is so common within the nursing profession.

Medical Cannabis: The Oncology Nurse's Role in Patient Education About the Effects of Marijuana on Cancer Palliation
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BACKGROUND: Cannabis, also known as marijuana, is legal either medicinally or recreationally in 29 states and the District of Columbia, with a majority of the U.S. adult population now living in states where cannabis is legal for medicinal use. As an advocate for patient autonomy and informed choice, the oncology nurse has an ethical responsibility to educate patients about and support their use of cannabis for palliation.
. OBJECTIVES: This article aims to discuss the human endocannabinoid system as a basis for better understanding the palliative and curative nature of cannabis as a medicine, as well as review cannabis delivery methods and the emerging role of the oncology nurse in this realm.
. METHODS: This article examines the literature and uses a theoretical-conceptual method to explore the oncology nurse's role in supporting the use of medicinal cannabis by patients with cancer. 
. FINDINGS: The oncology nurse can play a pivotal role in supporting patients' use of cannabis for palliation.

Resistance to change in the nursing profession: creative transdisciplinary solutions.

This article offers a definition of the transdisciplinary inquiry approach (Montuori, 2010) and demonstrates how this approach can benefit the nursing profession in our process of shifting our paradigm toward caring, love, and healing. The article provides an example of a transdisciplinary approach to change process in nursing. It considers the phenomenon of resistance to change in nursing academia, which has created obstacles to revising pedagogical processes, resulting in ongoing difficulties in creating change in the practice setting. A model based on transdisciplinary practices for creative change in nursing is described.

An integral nursing education experience: outcomes from a BSN Reiki course.

Reiki is a hands-on healing modality that is practiced to support patients' healing process at more than 800 hospitals in the United States. This article explores the educational outcomes of an RN-BSN Reiki course as an aspect of an integral-holistic curriculum experience.

Beyond holism: incorporating an integral approach to support caring-healing-sustainable nursing practices.

This article examines holism and healing in nursing as a paradigm and explores at how the use of an integral approach may help articulate and guide the future of contemporary caring-healing-holistic-sustainable nursing practices.

The nursing shortage as a community transformational opportunity.

The nursing shortage is continuing toward its projected peak in 2010. As a profession we seem unable to devise effective strategies to enhance growth and overcome this looming crisis. By focusing on predictable barriers using methods of reductionism, nurses may have forgotten the biggest barrier: the challenge of creating a holistic professional group presence and inclusive nursing stance. Without first addressing and solving internal paradoxical identity struggles, nursing will continue to try to overcome the multiple internal and external barriers that resulted in the current shortage. This article discusses the group dynamics that have fostered the cyclic loop of nursing shortage situations and explores the reflection and inquiry needed to formulate a cohesive national nursing group posture.