Roles and issues associated with nurses and other professionals as perceived by child development center directors and nurse managers

Abstract

 OBJECTIVE: To clarify the role of nurses and the multidisciplinary team approach as perceived by the facility and nurse managers of child development support centers. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was distributed to the administrators and nurse managers of 156 facilities with well-established nursing staff. Simple tabulations were performed, and χ-squared tests were conducted to evaluate the findings. RESULTS: In total, 38 letters (24.4％ response rate) from facility managers and 36 letters (23.1％ response rate) from nurse managers were analyzed. The most common age group of children using the facilities was 3-4 years old, and children at 30 facilities (76.9％) required medical care. Regarding the roles of nurses, facility administrators and nurse managers had a high percentage of items related to guidance in the healthcare of children. In addition, significant differences (p＜0.05) were found in “creating a safe environment for the child,” “supporting daily life,” “playing with the child,” and “discovering what makes children happy.” Difficulties in multidisciplinary collaboration include poor understanding other medical workers of other individuals’ specific expertise. DISCUSSION: As members of teams that support children, nurses must work with other professionals. They must collaborate with other professionals, providing a link between consultation support staff and different medical care providers to meet the children’s health needs.