Abstract
The Japan Rheumatism Foundation instituted the rheumatism care nurse system in 2010. Rheumatism care nurses are playing critical roles in the treatment and monitoring of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. In order to obtain the title of rheumatism care nurse and maintain their licenses, nurses who wish to develop this specialty are required to take a course and earn credits. It is easy to get credits in a large city; however, nurses who work in small towns cannot easily obtain these credits because of geographic and time constraints.
In order to address this issue, we established the Gifu RA Care Meeting, a group development program intended to help nurses working in rural area a get credits to obtain and maintain their rheumatism care nurse licenses. We have convened the meeting nine times in the past two years and two months, since establishing the program in October 2012. We hold the meetings in a town quite far from Gifu city, the capital of Gifu prefecture. In the Gifu RA Care Meeting, we have granted 18 unit credits. In the meetings, many themes are discussed during lectures, such as drug therapy using biologics and antirheumatic drugs, adverse effects of drug therapies, care for daily living, activities of daily living, and so on. Participant numbers at the sessions vary, ranging from 20 to 50 participants, with an average of 30. Cumulative numbers of rheumatism care nurses in Gifu prefecture are increasing gradually: there were 6 in 2010, 14 in 2011, 28 in 2012, and 37 in 2013. Therefore, we have a sense of contributing to the professional development of nurses who work in rural towns far from large cities, but who still want to learn about RA treatment and care.
