Exercise during decompression reduces the amount of venous gas emboli.

To determine the effects of moderate, intermittent exercise during decompression on the Doppler detectable amount of venous gas emboli (VGE), 29 healthy male volunteers performed 44 wet (8 degrees +/- 2 degrees C) dives to 45 msw (450 kPa) for 30 min with standard air decompression. During compression and the bottom period, all subjects were inactive; during decompression, 28 remained inactive, 11 performed leg exercise, and 5 did arm exercise. Intermittent exercise was controlled at approximately 50% of each subject's arm or leg aerobic capacity. At 30-min intervals after surfacing, subjects were monitored with a Doppler ultrasonic bubble detector. The Doppler scores were used to calculate the Kisman Integrated Severity Score (KISS). The KISS were log transformed (with zeroes being equivalent to log 0.01) and analyzed with a one-way analysis of variance. No significant differences (P < or = .05) between mean KISS scores after arm or leg exercise were observed, thus these data were pooled and compared to those of the inactive controls. The mean pooled KISS after exercising during decompression were significantly lower than those of the inactive controls. Moderate, intermittent exercise during decompression apparently reduces the amount of Doppler-detectable VGE after diving. The incidence rate of decompression sickness in both groups was not significantly different (P < 0.05).

Dental practice considerations.

Treating young children, working through an intermediary (the parenting adult), obtaining informed consent, and reporting suspected child abuse bring extra pressures to the dentist and staff members unless the protocol for each step is established and followed precisely. Managing for fiscal soundness and making a profit are other professional responsibilities. Counterbalancing the many pressures, the dentist who treats young children enjoys an added measure of pleasure beyond that experienced by many colleagues by helping a young child cope with the stresses of treatment, leading a child into a lifetime free of dental disease, and winning the trust and approval of parents or guardians. All of these aspects make dentistry a profession that provides a lifetime of excitement, fulfillment, learning, and constant opportunities for growth.

Communications--the future of dentistry.

Superior communication is a vital key to success in practice. Excellent communication with patients and prospective patients can build a practice more quickly than any other technique. Strengthening of team relationships depends on open communication. Sound communication builds long-term allegiance from patients who accept recommended treatment, enroll in the recare system, and refer others. And connecting with other health-care providers is an exciting challenge in communication. This article explores avenues of communication--with patients, with prospective patients, with coworkers and with other health-care providers through five techniques: listening, speaking, writing, reading, and nonverbal/body language. The author shares specific ideas and methods for honing these five skills to assure improvements in communication, the universal glue that binds people together and assures excellence in practice.

Phantom stock dividend plan.

The Phantom Stock Dividend Plan is a method of sharing net profits with staff in the same way a stock holder in a company receives periodic dividends. The purposes of the plan are to reward the staff for creative talents and recommendations for improvements; to involve the staff in the concept of being partially responsible for increased profitability of the practice; to encourage long-term employment; and to base increases in staff remuneration on profits rather than simply on seniority. An example of the plan is presented which can be modified to fit different practice situations.

A philosophical analysis of caring in nursing.

The concept of caring is fundamental to our understanding of human nature. A philosophical examination of the concept in a particular context by analytical and phenomenological methods, may help to characterize the responsibilities and potentialities of caring. The concept of caring as applied to nursing has both an activities and an attitudes aspect. The latter is complex in particular, involving cognitive, moral and emotional factors. Attention, perception and recognition of fundamental moral values such as respect for persons are discussed, prior to an attempt to elucidate the emotional components of caring further. Whilst it is evident that liking or affection for a patient may be contingently present in nursing care, perhaps compassion and gratitude may also be generated by the nurse-patient relationship, where certain benefits of understanding can also accrue to the nurse. The development of such relationships implies a long-term caring context, severely at odds with many institutional and economic pressures today.

Philosophy and nursing.

It is claimed that philosophy has a distinctive contribution to make to the education of nurses and their teachers, as well as to the development of nursing theory and research. After a brief characterization of philosophy and philosophy of education, stressing its relationship with thinking processes, and the development of personal values, the above claim is supported in the body of the article by discussion of four central concerns in nursing. First the concept of caring where cognitive, moral and attitudinal aspects are examined and secondly, the importance of gaining a moral and political consciousness of assumptions underlying a nurse's work. Thirdly, a discussion of some ethical and other implications in adopting a systems approach to the nursing process. Finally an anlysis of nursing theory and research which draws attention to the value of non-empirical work, and reiterates criticisms of the objectives approach as a research tool.