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Background: Lymphedema is a debilitating condition that significantly affects quality of life due to its chronic nature and visible symptoms. Lymphaticovenous anastomosis (LVA) has emerged as a promising surgical intervention, yet its effects on body image and spiritual health alongside physical symptoms have not been thoroughly examined. This study evaluates the efficacy of LVA in improving symptoms, quality of life (QOL), body image, and spiritual well-being in lymphedema patients. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, involving 44 patients with lymphedema undergoing LVA surgery. Evaluations were made pre-surgery, one month post-surgery, and six months post-surgery using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), Multidimensional Body–Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS), and a spiritual health scale. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Significant improvements were observed in lymphedema symptoms and QOL measures at six months post-operation. SF-36 results showed enhanced scores in nearly all domains, particularly in physical functioning and role-physical. The appearance orientation scores from the MBSRQ-AS significantly increased, indicating improved perceptions in some dimensions of body image. Conclusions: LVA surgery significantly enhances physical and psychological outcomes in patients with lymphedema, with marked improvements in symptoms, QOL, and body image perceptions. The findings suggest that while LVA is effective in addressing the physical and psychological aspects of lymphedema, it does not impact spiritual dimensions. This underscores the need for holistic approaches in the management of lymphedema to address all facets of patient well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nurses in intensive care units (ICUs) care for critically ill and dying patients. The stressful nature of the work performed by these nurses may affect their spiritual health and sleep quality. Purpose: The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the sleep quality, spiritual health, and related factors in a sample of ICU nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design with stratified random sampling was applied. A total of 170 clinical nurses were recruited from the ICUs of a medical center in northern Taiwan. A demographic characteristics questionnaire, the spiritual health scale-short form, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used for data collection. Results: The average PSQI score was 7.07, with 62.9% of the participants reporting poor sleep quality. A significantly negative correlation was identified between the spiritual-health-scale item "connections to others" and the PSQI. "Connections to others", "chronic diseases", and "menstrual cycle discomfort" were the important predictive factors of sleep quality in the ICU nurses in this study. Conclusions/Implications for practice: The findings of this study support nurses engaging in regular exercise that is both low-intensity and not subject to time or space restrictions in order to help prevent chronic diseases and relieve dysmenorrhea. Furthermore, education and training related to spiritual health should be incorporated into the wholeperson education curriculum in order to enhance spiritual status and improve sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an intergenerational health promotion program. Methods This was an action research project. A total of 34 participants attended the 12-week program and completed the pre-test and post-test. There were 16 middle-aged and nine older adults recruited from a district of Taipei, and nine young adults recruited from the principal investigator's university. The 'Attitudes toward Aging Scale' and the 'Spiritual Health Scale' were two assessment instruments used in the study. Results The results showed that there were significant improvements in the Attitudes toward Aging Scale for the young adult group (aged 18-29 years) and in the Spiritual Health Scale for the older adult group (aged 65-80 years). The evaluation showed that participants were satisfied with the program. Conclusions The results of the present study provide future directions for successful aging and intergenerational learning. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1799-1807. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have indicated an association between spirituality and health outcomes. However, little information is available about interventions that have been shown to enhance spiritual health and decrease stress. Purpose: This study examined the effects of a spiritual learning program (SLP) on nursing student-perceived spiritual health and : clinical practice stress. Method: A convenience sample of nursing students currently enrolled at a nursing school in northern Taiwan were recruited to participate in this quasiexperimental study as participants to experimental and control groups via simple random sampling. Results from a spiritual health scale and a perceived clinical practice stress scale, together with the score for clinical nursing practice, were compared between the groups. Baseline data were collected from all participants. The experimental group participated in 8 weeks of 50-minute per week SLP, which included lectures, discussion, reflection, and spiritual practices. A second data set was collected from all participants after the intervention. A third data set was collected after all participants had performed 4 weeks of nursing clinical practice. Results: Participants were all women. Average age was 19.4 years (SD = 1.3 years). Generalized estimating equation analysis showed SLP to have a significant short-term effect on improving the total score for spiritual health (p < .01). Significantly greater improvement in clinical practice stress scores was also seen in the experimental group as compared with the control group (all p < .05). The experimental group obtained a higher score of the final clinical practice than the control group (f = 3.771, p< .001). Conclusion: The SLP may encourage participants to see Stressors as meaningful events that are connected to individual life purposes. The program developed in this study may be used to improve spiritual health and reduce stress in nursing students' clinical practice. This SLP may be referenced when designing similar spirituality-related courses and applied to nursing student counseling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Title. Spiritual health, clinical practice stress, depressive tendency and health-promoting behaviours among nursing students. Aim. This paper is a report of an exploration of the association of spiritual health with clinical practice stress, depressive tendency and health-promoting behaviours among nursing students. Background. Several studies in western countries have demonstrated an association between spirituality and health. Spirituality-related research in eastern countries, however, is still in its infancy. Methods. A cross-sectional design was adopted and structured questionnaires were used for data collection. We adopted the Probability Proportional to Size cluster sampling method to recruit nursing students in senior grades. Data were collected in 2005 using the Spiritual Health Scale, Perceived Clinical Practice Stress Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II and Health Promotion Behaviours Scale. Results. A total of 1276 nursing students with an average age of 20·1 years (sd = 1·6 years) participated in the study. Spiritual health was negatively associated with clinical practice stress ( r = −0·211, P < 0·001) and depressive tendency ( r = −0·324, P < 0·001) and positively associated with health-promoting behaviours ( r = 0·611, P < 0·001). Using hierarchical regression analysis to control for demographic factors, spiritual health was found to be an important predictive factor for clinical practice stress, depressive tendency and health-promoting behaviours. Conclusion. These results are consistent with research findings from western countries. Educators should develop strategies to address nursing students’ spiritual health. This may help nursing students to manage their stress, to reduce depressive symptoms and to enhance health-promoting behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nurses in intensive care units (ICUs) care for critically ill and dying patients. The stressful nature of the work performed by these nurses may affect their spiritual health and sleep quality., Purpose: The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the sleep quality, spiritual health, and related factors in a sample of ICU nurses., Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design with stratified random sampling was applied. A total of 170 clinical nurses were recruited from the ICUs of a medical center in northern Taiwan. A demographic characteristics questionnaire, the spiritual health scale-short form, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used for data collection., Results: The average PSQI score was 7.07, with 62.9% of the participants reporting poor sleep quality. A significantly negative correlation was identified between the spiritual-health-scale item "connections to others" and the PSQI. "Connections to others", "chronic diseases", and "menstrual cycle discomfort" were the important predictive factors of sleep quality in the ICU nurses in this study., Conclusions / Implications for Practice: The findings of this study support nurses engaging in regular exercise that is both low-intensity and not subject to time or space restrictions in order to help prevent chronic diseases and relieve dysmenorrhea. Furthermore, education and training related to spiritual health should be incorporated into the whole-person education curriculum in order to enhance spiritual status and improve sleep quality.