Steps to Enable Inpatients to Lead a Worthwhile Life

──　Use of Center-formulated Work Sheet for Patients with Intractable Diseases

Abstract

　　The number of bedridden inpatients has increased year by year. Recently, I have been assigned to look after an inpatient (Mr. “A”) with two progressively intractable diseases - ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) and the multiple system atrophy (MSA). Usually, he would time and again phone the nursing station to demand a change in his posture or replace the bedpan. In order to clarify what lay behind Mr. A’s behavior and grasp clues to his care, I referred to “My Posture and Feeling” in the booklet entitled the “Center for Management of Care for Dementia,” and the referral enabled me to realize the pains caused by immobility of his body. The achievements I have made are: (1) That the in patient’s expression has brightened and there have appeared changes in his feeling, (2) That the nursing staff has begun to clean up their cheap misunderstanding about his assertions and take legitimate action for him before his complaint, and (3) That the nurses’ posture to try to know about the desire of inpatients has enabled them to come out with help of the kind the patients really wished to have. This experience of mine has enabled me to realize that the realization of the kind of daily lifestyle the patient wishes to have in an early phase, enabling him to lead the kind of life he wishes to have in hospital.