[ABSTRACT] It is considered that olfactory stimulation by fragrance inhalation is one of the methods of relaxation. We examined the possibility by using fragrance inhalation essential oils, such as sweet orange oil and peppermint oil. We measured salivary alpha-amylase activity and state anxiety levels in undergraduate students before and after inhalation. Salivary alpha-amylase activity levels have been utilized to assess the sympathetic nervous activity. Our results indicate that both salivary alphaamylase activity and state anxiety levels are significantly reduced after fragrance inhalation of the sweet orange oil. Consequently, our research suggests that sweet orange essential oil has a relaxation effect.

Morphine is the dominant medication to control cancer pain. Morphine consumption has been increasing each year in many countries including Japan based on the understanding of the WHO report on the treatment of cancer pain. To evaluate the recent and current state of palliative medication for cancer patients in Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University (TMPU） Hospital, the amount of and trend in the use of morphine preparations from 1992 to 2001 were investigated. The amount used increased every year to 3.9-fold of that in 1992 at the end of this survey. Inpurticalar, the consumption of morphine sulfate sustained-release tablets and morphine hydrochloride injection increased markedly, because both total dose in individual patients and the number of patients treated with high dose morphine increased. The distribution of the maximum daily dose in TMPU Hospital was similar to that in a specialist hospital in oncology. In conclusion, morphine consumption will increase to achieve better palliative care and to improve quality of life in cancer patients, and therefore appropriate use and regulation of narcotic preparations are necessary.

It is not easy for nurses to estimate a patient's degree of shame, as the sense of shame depends on each person's personality, but nurses are requested to evaluate it as correctly as possible and to reduce the patient's mental load. We presume that most of the sense of shame is generated by body defects or disadvantages recognized by the patient. In this study, we tried to measure the degree of shame and to improve the basic nursing curriculum, depending on students' school year, under the assumption of what cases the nurses would frequently meet in a hospital. We prepared 13 figures that show common cases in hospitals. In these figures: 1) 6 figures show cases in which a nurse touched a patient's body; 2) 3 figures show common daily life; and 3) 4 figures show cases in which there are other people around the patient. A questionnaire was given to the first and second year students in A Nursing University, and we allocated scores of 1 to 10: 1 is "no-shame", and 10 is "very much shame". The students answered that patients must feel shame when: 1) they take off their clothes, 2) they show their disability to another person even without taking their clothes off, and 3) having people other than medical staff around them. In the results, as 2) appeared more strongly in the second year students than in the first, we thought that the second year students could surmise a patient's position in a hospital through the effect of the nursing education.

: Nursing department students are expected to correctly grasp the entire concept of nursing through their education. The authors created a movie of a Nightingale ward (virtual ward, hereafter) with an architectural computer design software for education. The students' reaction to the virtual ward was categorized into three viewpoints: that of nurses, of patients, and of nurses and patients in common. Most of the reactions in each viewpoint were: "easy to observe patients" in the nurses' viewpoint; "no privacy" in the patients' viewpoint; and "wide room" in the common viewpoint, respectively. These reactions show the effectiveness of using a virtual ward in nursing education. Because these reactions are characteristics of a Nightingale ward, and even students, who have generally less experiences, recognized these characteristics from the both viewpoints of nurses and patients.