Abstract
In Japan’s current outpatient care system, outpatient nurses are not tasked with
providing consultations regarding care to patients with chronic diseases. To change this
situation, the present study aimed to identify the mindset required by highly-specialized
outpatient nurses that care for patients with chronic diseases who require proactive support
on a continuous basis, and to obtain suggestions for the support provided by general
outpatient nurses. We conducted semi-structured interviews with three nurses who are
nursing specialists with practical experience in providing outpatient primary care, and
performed qualitative descriptive analysis on their responses. As a result, we identified 12
categories and 47 subcategories. We also identified six core categories wherein “Having the
resolve to continue supporting patients throughout their life” was fundamental to “Supporting
patients in a manner that made them believe that their treatment was worthwhile”, “Consciously
going against conventional practice to become involved in patients’ personal lives”, “Providing
special attention to patients who are considering discontinuing their treatment”, “Providing
support based on the patient’s overall ability”, and “Making decisions after confirming the
patient’s condition, particularly on non-treatment days”. In accordance with these findings, we
obtained suggestions for improving support provided by general outpatient nurses that care
for patients with chronic diseases who require proactive support on a continuous basis.
