Elizabeth Scala, a registered nurse and author of the book “Nursing From Within: A Fresh Alternative to Putting Out Fires and Self-Care Workarounds”, talks with Lorry about the challenges of maintaining a positive mental perspective in nursing. Elizabeth is a former psychiatric nurse who worked on one of the most acute inpatient units in the state of Maryland before starting her work as a keynote speaker and Reiki Master Teacher. She talks about the principles from her book and how they  might apply to correctional nursing practice.

A key concept for a fulfilling nursing career is to run toward your true heart’s desire and ideal work setting rather than away from what you don’t want. Listen to this podcast episode to revitalize your correctional nursing practice in the New Year. Think about connecting with your inner nurse this year – the reasons you went into nursing in the first place, who you are, and what you enjoy about nursing.

In the News

We are all about getting in shape in the New Year and so we have a couple studies here looking at the benefit of exercise. Although exercise programs can be difficult to arrange behind bars, maybe you can develop some options for your patients this year.

Exercise Helps Menopause Symptoms and Quality of Life

Researchers in Finland looked into the benefits of exercise for managing menopause symptoms and quality of life. They surveyed 2606 women about exercise habits and their self-perceived health. Less active women had higher scores for anxiety and depression while those more active reported greater self-perceived health and less hot flashes. Although these correlations are significant, the increased activity may not be the cause of the improved health but the result of it. Still, there is mounting evidence that moderate activity (2.5 hours per week) has health benefits and moderates menopause symptoms.

Arthritis: Self-directed Exercise Program Shows Benefits

A self-directed exercise program for those with arthritis was the intervention in another study on exercise and health published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Exercise has been found to be of benefit to those with arthritis but most do not exercise as they should. One reason is due to accessability of exercise classes such as those recommended by the CDC. To combat this difficulty, a self-directed program called The First Step to Active Health created by the American College of Sports Medicine was provided to around 200 participants who were directed to follow the program at their own pace. They were provided with arthritis-specific recommendations, logs for reporting progress to the study coordinator and an expectations calendar. After 12 weeks participants were found to have improvement in strength, functional exercise capacity, flexibility, pain, fatigue, and stiffness. What I like about this program is it looks adaptable to the limitations of an incarceration environment. I could not find where it has been used in a prison setting but would love to try it. Let me know if you are interested in trying this program for your arthritic patients.

Influenza Hospitalizing Twice as Many as Last Year

The CDC is reporting a heavy flu season this year with hospitalizations more than double that of a year ago. They think this is due to the principal virus strain A(H3N2) and that the strain circulating is mutated from the strain used to create the current vaccine, making it less effective.

 

What are you doing in your facility to reduce infection spread? Are you limiting visitors, increasing hygiene, monitoring staff illness? Share your actions in the comments section of this post.