How Entering Students View Nursing as a Profession After COVID-19: A Qualitative Study.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the nursing profession. Nurses were called heroes during the pandemic, yet nursing is now suffering a staffing crisis. This phenomenological study asked 15 incoming first-semester nursing students about their perceptions of the nursing profession. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed, and three themes emerged: Vicarious Pride, Raw Gratitude, and Help Is Coming. With a need to attract more applicants and graduate more nurses, nursing schools might use these identified concepts to recruit and motivate prospective students. This research provides insight into the motivation to attend nursing school following the pandemic.

The Gut Microbiome and Mental Health.

The gut microbiome has been well researched in the past few years and may be a target for treating mental illness. Trillions of bacteria in the digestive system work with the brain, immune function, and endocrine pathways. This gut microbiome ecosystem mediates the interaction between the human being and the environment making its inclusion in holistic nursing essential. Changes in normal balance of the gut microbiome occur with diet, antibiotics and other medications, stress, cancer treatment, geography and environment, and current illnesses. When the microbiome is challenged a "dysbiotic" state leads to inadequate production of needed neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Research has shown links between the dysbiosis, and the inflammatory response system that are known to contribute to depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Understanding the role of the gut microbiome can be beneficial to holistic nurses, providing a new tool to prevent, treat, or reduce symptoms of mental illness and improve general immune function. This innocuous holistic approach to mental wellness is becoming an important evidenced-based approach.

Systematic Review of Burnout in US Nurses.

Nurses experience high levels of burnout, and this has become a major factor in recruitment and retention of nurses. Several factors have been associated with burnout, but it is not clear which factors are the most significant predictors. Understanding the most prevalent factors that are associated with burnout will allow for the development and implementation of interventions to ameliorate and/or reduce burnout in the nursing workforce.

Nursing Burnout and Its Impact on Health.

Burnout in nurses can have negative consequences for the organizational health of the institution and the mental and physical health of the nurse. In this article, the authors identify the incidence of burnout in nursing and risk and protective factors. Next, they discuss the relationship between burnout and health, highlighting the critical relationship between burnout, stress, inflammation, and declines in physical health. Lastly, they review articles from the Zangaro and colleagues' systematic review related to mental and physical health to create a picture of the existing research on burnout and health.

Health consequences of childhood sexual abuse.

PURPOSE: This article provides a summary for advocacy, court testimony, assessment, treatment, prevention, and further research studies in the field of childhood sexual abuse. FINDINGS: A literature review identifies the psychiatric, social, and disease disorders to which this population is predisposed. Adult survivors experience more depression, obesity, autoimmune disorders (irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, fibromyalgia), eating disorders, and addictions. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: A holistic perspective allows understanding of health consequences for survivors. A model through which to consider these phenomena is presented. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse must be assessed and addressed by healthcare professionals.

Stress management for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse: a holistic inquiry.

Among the many sequelae of childhood sexual abuse is a maladaptive response to stress. Stress has been linked to a reduction in the immune system's ability to resist disease. The purpose of this exploratory mixed-method study is to examine the experience of stress management training for 35 adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Data gathered for analysis include pre- and postintervention saliva samples for sIgA, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, and a postintervention qualitative interview. Stress management strategies enhance immunity (increase in salivary immunoglobulin A, p < .05) and coping (less distancing, p < .001; less escape-avoidance, p < .001; more planful problem solving, p < .01; and more positive reappraisal, p < .001). Grounded theory analysis finds three themes emerging: hypervigilance , an outward-focused hyperawareness; somatic detachment, a lack of inward focus on self; and healing pathway, the process of healing from the abuse. Healing is possible.

Cytokines and their role in depression.

PURPOSE: This study aims to review the cytokines that mediate the inflammatory process, the interleukins and the interferons, and the interaction of cytokines with serotonin as causative factors in the role of depression. CONCLUSIONS: Administration of proinflammatory cytokines to treat medical diseases induces depressive symptoms in humans. Patients diagnosed with depression tend to have high levels of cytokine activity and impaired immune response, as well as those patients suffering from inflammatory processes. Proinflammatory cytokines interfere with the body's feedback loop to reduce circulating corticosteroids during the stress response. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Serotonin levels, integrally associated with depression, are lowered when levels of circulating cytokines are high when the precursor tryptophan is reduced.