The purpose of this study is to clarify the situation with elderly diabetic patients who are at the stage of receiving assistance for insulin self-injection because of decreased cognitive function, as well as the types of nursing support conducted. A qualitative descriptive analysis was performed on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 23 nurses who have experience caring for older diabetics in this stage, which revealed four categories of nurses’ observations that characterized such patients: “inability to inject themselves with insulin conducive to glycemic control,” “insistent belief that they are still capable of managing self-injection,” “Isolating themselves from others with regard to self-inject insulin,” and eventually “learning to accept the introduction of care.” Furthermore, it revealed 4 categories of nursing care for them: “interactions with patients under the premise that cognitive decline impairs abilities for self-injection,” “investigating methods to help patients continue injecting themselves at home,” “involving the family to encourage the patient to accept injection care,” and “support to promote autonomous decision-making based on patient understanding and acceptance.” This analysis highlighted the importance of introducing insulin injection-related interventions while respecting the emotions and dignity of older adults.

  In this study, for the purpose of clarifying the relationship between wake after sleep onset and the number of diapers changed at night for elderly people who can express urine intentions, data collection of excretion status, sleep variables, etc. was carried out for 2 weeks for 5 elderly women in long-term care insurance facilities. The subjects were 90 to 97 years old, with NM scale 37-27, N-ADL 29-15, combined toilet and diaper use during the day, no complaints of urges to urinate at night, and diaper changes performed punctually twice a night. The subjects were awake at night for the median time ranged from 33.0 to 114.5 minutes, with three of the subjects being awake for less than 80 minutes on an average, which is the standard value for this age group. These three subjects were confirmed to experience a decrease in nocturnal time spent awake per hour until 10 PM and an increase after 5 AM, but this tendency was not witnessed in the remaining two subjects. Data on sleep state before and after diaper changes was obtained 28 times per subject over the two weeks, with wakefulness before replacement and sleep state after replacement attained two to four times for four of the subjects and eight times for the remaining one. The tendency to awaken varied with the subject, and it was found that nightly diaper changes affected both falling asleep and waking up during the night.

  In end-of-life care for aged patients, it is necessary that nurses are able to exercise professional autonomy and offer assertive communication to support patients’ decision making (Sato et al., 2019). We developed PAN-AC, a program focusing on “professional autonomy of nursing” (PAN) and “assertive communication” (AC) with the aim of improving nurses’ skills. A pilot program was conducted with nurses working in a general hospital. We collected pre- and post-intervention measurements on nurses, who participated in a total of four sessions including lectures and group discussions, and applied a Wilcoxon signed-rank sum test to the measured values. Subscales of the Professional Autonomy in Nursing Scale (Kikuchi et al., 1997), “cognitive ability” and “practical ability”, indicated significantly higher values after intervention compared to before intervention. The subscale of the Japanese version of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (Shibuya et al., 2007), “non-assertive self- expression” was significantly higher after intervention than before intervention. The results showed that the program is effective in supporting aged patients’ decision making at end of life.

  The participants of this study are nurses working at a long-term care facility. This study clarifies the impact of work engagement on role conflict, role ambiguity, career support system, and acceptance system for job changers.

  An anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted with nurses working in a long-term care facility in the Tohoku region. The effects of work engagement on role conflict, role ambiguity, and organizational background were examined using path analysis.

  Nurses’ work engagement had a direct impact on intention to continue in the workplace (β＝0.20, p＜0.001) and career support system (β＝0.20, p＝0.024). The ambiguity of the role of the nurse had a direct impact on the career support system (β＝–0.02, p＝0.001). Role conflict had a direct impact on the intention to continue in the workplace (β＝–0.03, p＜0.001). Improving the work engagement of nurses reduces role conflicts and role ambiguity and leads to workplace continuity and receiving more career support.

  This study aims to identify factors that make older people with heart failure living in rural areas wish to continue farming. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven older people with heart failure, who are engaged in farming, and a qualitative, and descriptive analysis was performed. The analysis yielded three major categories: ‘Wish that I want to lead a full life as wished’, ‘Awareness that this is my destiny’, and ‘Significance of fulfilling my social roles and creating a place to live in the community’. For the older people in rural areas, farming was seen as a way to fulfill the ‘Wish that I want to lead a full life as wished’. The older people have lived with farming with the ‘Awareness that this is my destiny’. Further, interaction with family members and others through farming have formed the ‘Significance of fulfilling my social roles and creating a place to live in the community’. The findings suggest the necessity to provide support for these older people so that they can continue farming and maintain their social roles and place to live in the community to realize their own wish for life with the heart failure.

  The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between depressive tendency and life function by early and late stage of aging among male elderly people living in the community (348 persons) who participated in the physical fitness test. The early-stage male elderly were classified into two groups: the depressive tendency group (32 persons) and the non-depressive tendency group (93 persons), and each measurement was compared. The results showed that the depressive group had significantly lower exercise time, eye gaze time, mobility function, attention function, and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) ability than the non-depressive group. The late-life elderly were classified into a depressive group (58 persons) and a non-depressive group (165 persons), and each measurement was compared. The results showed that the depressed group had significantly lower exercise time, muscle mass, body fat percentage, skeletal muscle index, mobility function, and IADL ability than the non-depressed group.

  The results suggest the need for health guidance that takes into account exercise time, mobility function, and IADL ability in depressed male elderly across age groups, eye-gaze time and attention function in the early elderly, and muscle mass, body fat percentage, and skeletal muscle index in the late elderly.

  The objective of this study was to elucidate a method of nursing practice that puts emphasis on the individual personality of each elderly patient with terminal cancer.

  Semi-structured interviews on nursing practices with five nurses working at a palliative care unit were conducted, and the results were analyzed with the qualitative synthesis method (KJ Method).

  The nursing practices were based on [focusing on unwavering attitudes of patients], such as patients’words and behavior, and carried out by [adjusting nursing care to realize daily lives that patients desire] as well as by [adjusting nursing care to encourage patients to achieve something by themselves: helping to create better living conditions] and [adjusting nursing care to encourage patients to achieve something by themselves: watching over patients]. When patients became unable to accomplish things that could have been done before due to the progression of the disease condition and aging, the nursing practices changed from [adjusting nursing care to encourage patients to achieve something by themselves] to [transforming nursing care: encouraging patients to ask for help from others]. In addition, the nurses put emphasis on patients’ individual personalities through [accepting patients’ values and giving consideration to patients’ intention], which have been cherished in patients’ long life experience, and through [sharing patients’ personalities with their family] that have been captured by the nurses.

  This study suggests that through focusing on unwavering attitudes of patients, it is possible to keep supporting elderly patients with terminal cancer while giving consideration to patients’ individual personalities even during the progression of cancer and in the process of aging.