Energy healing with women and children.

Western allopathic medicine has focused on illness care of the body. Energy healing is a complementary therapy focused on the mind-body-spirit connection and is especially useful for conditions for which allopathic medicine has few answers. Common in Eastern cultures, energy healing has developed as therapeutic touch and healing touch in Western nursing practice. An explanation of the scientific/theoretical basis of energy healing and case study presentations provide the framework for considering the application of this therapy to the care of women and children.

The path to becoming an energy healer.

The 4-year curriculum of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing prepares energy healers to facilitate client healing of the mind, body, and spirit. Energy healing is an integrative therapy dating back 5,000 years. Psychoneuroimmunology and quantum physics are beginning to reveal what Eastern cultures, spiritual leaders, and indigenous peoples have known about healing through the ages. Case studies illustrate energy healing as an integrative modality. Nurse practitioners need to better understand integrative therapeutic modalities such as energy healing, to treat and communicate with clients who may be using these therapies.

Intervention model for substance-using women.

Treatment programs for pregnant women using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are generally ineffective because of a focus that is male-oriented and because of an emphasis on primarily fetal outcomes. This paper examines women's addiction to alcohol and other drugs from a feminist perspective. Published literature over the past decade on the importance of relationships in the etiology of women's drug-use behavior is reviewed and an intervention model based on home visits and framed in the context of women's relationships is proposed.

Program for women and infants exposed to drugs: a legal alternative.

The Drug Identification, Screening, and Counseling Program is a system of care that uses the NP to implement a balanced perinatal program in both primary care and community based settings to meet the needs of mothers and babies exposed to drugs.

Community health nursing visits for at-risk women and infants.

The purpose of this study was to utilize the Barnard Model of parent-infant interaction and instruments from the Barnard Newborn Nursing Models study to assess 30 pregnancy clients and to help determine appropriate interventions. Upon consent, the 30 study participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: primiparous, unmarried, or otherwise socially at-risk. Thirty-three percent of the participants were under 19 years of age. A doctorally prepared community health nurse (CHN) completed all interventions, including a comprehensive assessment. Over 20% of participants admitted mild to moderate abuse of alcohol, cigarettes, and/or street drugs during early pregnancy. Counseling/supportive interventions established rapport and encouraged women to develop and maintain healthy life-styles. The control group of 10 were evaluated when their infant reached 6 months. A second group was followed during pregnancy, then evaluated at 6 months. A third group of 10 women were followed through pregnancy and the first 6 months of their babies' lives. Results indicated that substance abuse stopped or substantially decreased during intervention. Mothers in the intervention groups had fewer perinatal complications and better parent-infant interaction scores than the controls. This research supports previous reports that home visitor programs foster more healthy pregnancies and improve child developmental outcomes.

Adolescent pregnancy prevention by health education computer games: computer-assisted instruction of knowledge and attitudes.

Adolescents enjoy animated-action computer games that capture and hold attention. In this study, the use of computer-assisted instruction in improving knowledge and attitudes in favor of decreased teenage pregnancy is evaluated. Computer-assisted health education is an interactive process and simulates reality. Teenagers explore alternatives and outcomes, and experience consequences of behavioral choices. Two games were designed to promote understanding of the impact and cost of sexual behaviors and parenthood, as well as provide sexual survival skills. Educational evaluation in high schools showed improvements in knowledge and attitudes in these sensitive areas. Test instruments based on the content of each game were developed to assess the impact of the two interventions. Half of the 718 teenagers used the educational programs, and half served as matched control subjects who did not use computer games. Players rated the games highly and evaluated them positively. Measures of 19 factual and psychologic factors associated with pregnancy and parenting were separately made for control and experimental groups. Teenagers who played the games gained knowledge and positive attitude changes to a significantly greater extent than did the comparison group. "The Baby Game!" users increased their knowledge of costs of birth and of costs in money and time of child rearing. "Romance!" users would seek more professional help, had a better understanding of risk of pregnancy, learned more effective means of contraception, and had greater acceptance of oral contraceptives. Teachers and teenagers found the computer games acceptable and fun, and the games reduced counseling time in physician's offices. Computer-assisted instruction is a useful means of providing health education and a promising intervention for adolescent pregnancy.