Socialization of R.N. to B.S.N.

The Nurse's Professional Orientation Scale and Schwirian's Six-Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (Six-D Scale) were used in a five-year, longitudinal study of the professional socialization of the Registered Nurse/Bachelor of Nursing Science (RN/BSN) (n = 30) and generic baccalaureate students (n = 193) in a nursing program in the Southeast United States, Program exit socialization scores between RN/BSN and generic graduates were not significantly different. Using an ANCOVA, significantly higher socialization scores were found for the generic graduates. The scores for the RN/BSN graduates were significantly higher than the generic students at graduation on the teaching/collaboration, planning/evaluation and interpersonal communication subscales of the Six-D scale. When program entry Six-D subscales score were controlled, only the professional development subscale differentiated between RN/BSN and generic graduates. The program impact on the RN/BSN student/graduate as well as the means by which this process can be studied are questioned.     

Diagnosis of rheumatic disease. 1. Radiographs.

Radiographs are a clinician's most valuable tool in differential diagnosis of rheumatic disease and in assessment of its severity. The patterns of joint involvement and the specific bony changes characteristic of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome and psoriatic arthritis, gout, and systemic lupus erythematosus are discussed here.     

Transdermal iontophoresis of insulin. V. Effect of terpenes.

To increase the skin permeation of large peptides like insulin, it is necessary to utilize a combination of enhancement strategies. In this regard, this study investigated the effect of terpenes/EtOH combination in comparison to EtOH and neat terpene on transdermal iontophoretic permeation of insulin. Ex-vivo experiments were conducted using full thickness rat skin after pre-treatment for 2 h with 5% of menthol, menthone, cineole and pulegone in EtOH; EtOH alone; neat menthone with and without iontophoresis (0.5 mA/cm(2); 6 h). FT-IR studies were carried out using rat epidermal sheets after pre-treatment with enhancer solution for 2 h and tritiated water permeation studies was used to investigate the alteration in skin barrier property after enhancer or current treatment. The lag time was significantly reduced (P<0.05) with terpene/EtOH pre-treatment in comparison to passive control and EtOH pre-treatment, although there was no significant difference (P>0.05) among the terpenes. Synergistic enhancement in flux was observed with terpene/EtOH, and menthone/EtOH showed highest enhancement among the terpene/EtOH combinations. On the other hand, enhancement with neat menthone was higher than with menthone/EtOH. FT-IR studies showed that terpene/EtOH, EtOH and neat terpene act at the intercellular lipids. The skin barrier property was significantly (P<0.05) compromised with neat menthone treatment. Iontophoresis had a lesser effect on skin barrier property compared to chemical enhancer pre-treatment. Terpene/EtOH caused synergistic enhancement of insulin permeation when combined with iontophoresis and was influenced by the type and concentration of terpene.