Medicine

The purpose of this study was to systematize nursing terminology in scientific terms by describing the way that visiting nurses expressed and described their own nursing practice. The subjects were 25 visiting nurses in the Kansai region of Japan. Each nurse was asked to choose a patient of the day and to describe and discuss her activities during the visit in terms of nursing. The items covered were divided by the researchers into "label of the activity", "reason for performing the activity" "aim of the activity", "actual nursing procedure for the activity", "labels of simultaneous activities", "aims of simultaneous activities", and "actual procedures for simultaneous activities". The data gained through this process were analyzed to determine the nature of each item and the relationships among the items. Because nursing is provided as one part of daily life for home health care patients, the terms *1 神 戸市 看護大 学看 護学 部 *2 東京大 学大 学 院医学 系研究 科地域 看護 学分 野 *3 神戸 大学 医学部 保健 学科 *4 長 野県 看護大 学看 護学 部 *5 広 島大学 医学部 保健 学科 *6 山 口県立 大学 看護学 部

Because of advanced computerization, the number of hospitals in which nurses use computers to collect, check, input, and record patient information has increased. The expectation for subjective and responsible behaviors by individual nurses has increased along with changes in society. Clarifying nurses' recognition and security behaviors regarding patient privacy is important for patients and medical staff. The present study revealed that hospitals follow various information security measures, but some of the nurses working in the hospitals did not recognize any concrete security-maintaining measures; 40% of responding nurses answered that the range of information sharing could be restricted within each occupational group from the viewpoint of patients' privacy rights. In addition, some of the nurses were making efforts to hide a portion of patient information in their hospitals. In other cases, patients gave nurses concrete requests. Patients' knowledge of information privacy and their attitudes toward the privacy of patients may have begun to change. Because hospitals' electronization will continue to increase in the future, comprehensive information security education is important not only for nurses but for all other medical staff.

In order to facilitate estimation of the dose-equivalent index or the effective dose equivalent for the purpose of radiation protection, we investigated how and where personal dosimeters should be worn by workers in nuclear facilities. Information on the dominant direction of incident radiation impinging on the body was of importance for this study, and we measured it on workers in two nuclear facilities. Sixty workers who were carried out periodic inspections of nuclear power plants were chosen as subjects. In one nuclear plant, each worker wore 2 film badges on the anterior and posterior surfaces of the trunk at chest level for one month, and in another, each worker wore four thermoluminescence dosimeters on the front, back and both sides of the trunk at waist level for 5 days, In 85 per cent of all subjects, the doses on the anterior surface of the trunk were higher than those elsewhere. The average ratio between the posterior and anterior doses was 0. 85. Thus, the majority of the incident radiation detected on workers in nuclear power plants fell on the anterior surface of the trunk. The results of this study suggested that one personal dosimeter worn on the front of the trunk is sufficient for routine individual monitoring purposes.

Nurses working at general hospitals face diffi culties in providing dementia care. The current study examined aged care nurses' dementia care practices in the hospital setting and developed a dementia care checklist that nurses can use to review their own care practice. A self-administered questionnaire was given to 676 participants; responses were collected from 595 participants. Exploratory factor analysis identifi ed six factors (e.g., patient understanding prompted by concern and interest for the patient, respect for patients' voluntary behavior, early detection of abnormalities) among the questionnaire's 28 items. This analysis provided a framework for the checklist and verifi ed that it had satisfactory internal consistency and construct validity. The frequency of care practices varied with participants' knowledge of dementia care requirements, satisfaction with their own dementia care practice, confi dence in their ability to judge patients' physical condition, and cooperation with colleagues. This checklist might improve dementia care in hospital settings.

This study aimed to describe how new graduate nurses perceive empathy for patients, how empathically they act, and experience of diffi culty about it. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 248 second-year clinical nurses in A Prefecture. The response rate was 30.6% (N=76). The main results were as follows, a) Empathy had a cognitive and an emotional dimension, and was categorized into three types: high cognitive and high emotional type, high cognitive but low emotional type, and low cognitive but high emotional type. b) Nurses who thought they had to behave empathically for every patient tended to think that they had to behave empathically in all situations. c) Most nurses found it diffi cult to deal with the patients empathically due to dual aspects involving both the nurse side and the patient side.

Access to a childcare support system makes it easier to balance work and family life. This study aimed to identify possible system access problems faced by working nurses. Questionnaires were administered to 346 nurses with children. Although it is legally mandatory to provide childcare support within each hospital, the study revealed that in many hospitals, such services were not known or still insufficient. A system that would enable nurses to apply for overtime exemptions, temporary or part-time work, and sick childcare leave is needed for an improved, more easily accessible childcare system within health care settings, as well as facilities for the care of sick children. In addition, the demand for improved policies with regard to sick childcare leave was high among nurses with lower grades children in elementary school. The results suggest the necessity for greater accessibility to as well as awareness of in child care support for working nurses.

From the age of Nightingale, the gathering of patient-related data has been recognized as critical to evaluate and advance the nursing profession. However, nursing has failed to consistently and comprehensively identify the core data needed, to systematically collect the information, and to utilize it. This situation may be the cause of lack of general knowledge of informatics and computer science by nurses. In the beginning of 1980's Nursing Informatics had been developed in the USA. This article provides the basic definition of nursing informatics, describes specific abilities that clinical nurses require to deal with nursing information, and then, explains how the idea of Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) was conceptualized in nursing, and points out the essential element of the NMDS. The major category of NMDS consists of nursing care elements, patient or client demographic elements and service elements. NMDS makes it possible for the nurses to collect, storage and retrieve th...

In Japan, the clinical nurse instructor is a staff nurse who teaches in clinical practicums. However, there is no consensus on the essential roles that clinical nurse instructors are expected to perform. We conducted a three-round Delphi survey to clarify the essential roles of the clinical nurse instructor in clinical practicums in undergraduate nursing education. The participants were an expert panel of 48 professionals in nursing education and clinical practicums, who rated the importance of 58 role items that were established through a literature review and pilot survey. Thirty one of these items were identified as essential roles, based on agreement of 80% or more of respondents. Further investigation revealed nine of the 31 items to be core roles, defined as the minimum essential roles that must be performed by clinical nurse instructors, however busy they become. The nine core roles are related to proper preparation for the clinical practicum, patient safety, and coordination with the nursing school faculty. It is important for the nursing school faculty to support and work in cooperation with clinical nurse instructors to help them fulfill these roles.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the minimum necessary educational content in the area of nursing ethics in a basic nursing education program, and the level of students’ mastery of this content, based on a Delphi study in both educational and clinical settings. A Delphi study was conducted in three rounds with faculty members who teach nursing ethics at all 158 four-year nursing universities in Japan as targeted panelists. In this study the opinions on nursing ethics of nursing instructors responsible for hospital education at all 82 special functioning hospitals were reflected in the panelists’ opinions. Consensus was obtained on 41 items from a total of 63 items in 4 proposed frameworks. There were 20 items related to the Concept of nursing ethics, 7 items related to Ethical codes, 13 items related to Ethical issues and methods to resolve them, and 1 item related to Efforts and issues in practical and educational settings. Consensus as to desired level of mastery was reach...

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the current situation of radiation protection education for designated radiation workers in hospitals. Methods: A web-based questionnaire survey was conducted at 1,883 hospitals nationwide with 200 or more beds. Results: Responses from 186 hospitals were included in the analysis. Seven hospitals (6.7%) regulated by the Act on the Regulation of Radioisotopes and six hospitals (7.4%) regulated by only the Ordinance on Prevention of Ionizing Radiation Hazards did not implement radiation protection education. In approximately 6% of the hospitals, designated radiation workers-including physicians, nurses, and radiological technologist-did not attend the education program. The education program attendance rate of physicians was lower than that of nurses. In more than 90% of the hospitals, the frequency of the periodical education program was once every year and lecture time spanned one or less than one hour. The topics of lecture in more than 90% of the hospitals were health effects of radiation and methods of radiation protection for occupational exposure. The radiological technologist was the instructor of the education program in approximately 70% of the hospitals. Conclusion: The implementation of radiation protection for designated radiation workers varied from hospital to hospital, and some hospitals did not comply with laws and regulations. Effective and efficient radiation protection education models should be implemented in hospitals.

Background: A randomized control trial was performed to test whether a lifestyle intervention program, carried out in a primary healthcare setting using existing resources, can reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Japanese with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). The results of 3 years' intervention are summarized.