Undergraduate pharmacological programs of nursing universities and colleges in Japan have various problems; the lectures cover a wide range of pharmacology topics but are held in a short term during the first or second year when most students lack the prerequisite knowledges of chemistry, pathophysiology and clinical medicine. A number of reports have warned that pharmacological knowledge among graduating nursing students is not sufficient to deliver safe medical care, and this unfortunate situations seems to have direct relationship with increasing number of medication errors observed in hospitals and the community. Recently, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan established a model core curriculum for nursing education. This core curriculum stresses the importance of sharing common values among all the healthcare professionals stating at the undergraduate level, and setting lofty goals similar to those described in the model-core curriculum for medical education. The next step for each university/college is re-examination of the pharmacology education curriculum while reference to the model core curriculum. Several models of collaborative education systems between basic science programs and specialized subjects for nursing have been reported. Those systems seem useful but difficult to implement in the current situation described above. At present, the careful selection and prioritization of education content will be required to meet the aims of model core curriculum. In addition, all the education staff must take the time to reinforce pharmacological knowledge among graduating nurse students in order bridge the theory-practice gap leading to medication errors.

　Purpose: To clarify the necessity and implementation status of nurses’ activities in multifunctional long-term care in a small group home (MLSGH) perceived by nurses.

　Method: A national questionnaire survey was conducted on 226 facilities, and median value of necessity (1.0 - 5.0) and the implementation rate were calculated, and items with high correlation were deemed to be duplicate items and deleted, and the remaining were analyzed.

　Results: Thirty-three items were extracted as 3 categories:【Activities performed mainly by nurses (12 items)】, 【Joint activities with families, other professionals, and other organizations (19 items)】, and【Activities related to terminal care (2 items)]】

　Four items, such as“ ingenuity of medication management,” “ preparing for an emergency medical consultation based on judgment of the symptoms and vital signs,” “ gathering information on the user’s health condition,” and “ measures to prevent outbreaks” belonging to【Activities performed mainly by nurses】 were all carried out with an implementation rate of 90% or more.

　Conclusion: The results of this study showed that nurses in MSLGHs mainly practiced nurse-based activities including prevention and judgment of emergency consultation, and that they are performing activities in collaboration with family members and other professionals.

　Aims: To elucidate the clinical judgments of experienced Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses who are preparing for emergency admissions of patients from the emergency outpatient clinic.

　Methods: Semi-structured interviews of nurses with at least four years of ICU experience in hospitals in A Prefecture were conducted. The nurses were asked about their thoughts and actions between the time they received notification of an emergency admission to the ICU of a patient from the emergency outpatient clinic and the time the patient is admitted to the ICU. The content of their responses was analyzed using a qualitative inductive method.

　Results: Nine major categories were identified as clinical judgments of experienced ICU nurses, including Linking information and making inferences about the critical state of the patient, Conjecture about the direction of intensive care the patient will receive, Determining the items that may be needed for management of intensive care after admission, and Designing the arrangement of items so that care can be carried out smoothly.

　Discussion: The characteristics of clinical judgments of experienced ICU nurses are thought to include conjecturing the critical state of patients while linking small amounts of information and determining the emergency status and level of severity, and predicting the direction of intensive care the patient will receive.

　We conducted a questionnaire survey with nurses aged 40 to under 60 working at medical and welfare facilities to clarify the relationship between past working experience and the wish to pursue the second stage of their career （working again as a nurse after reaching compulsory retirement age）. The questionnaire covered problems to surmount and difficulties encountered in later stages, and whether they wanted to continue to develop their career after moving to a new stage of their career before retirement age.

　Outpatient department staff accounted for the highest proportion among the 1,194 respondents who wished to pursue the second stage of their career. They were unsure if they were physically up to the challenge and felt that learning new duties would be rather a burden. As for the relationship between past working experience and the desire to pursue their career, the desire to work as outpatient department staff, chronic phase ward staff, elderly facility staff, visiting nursing station staff, nursing administrators and nursing educators showed a strong association with having the same work experience. Ideally, nurses should be able to choose how and where to work in anticipation of pursuing the second stage of their career before reaching retirement age.

　The present study aimed to develop a simple tool to accurately assess anemic symptoms related to cancer chemotherapy. We enrolled 389 patients who were undergoing cancer chemotherapy across 6 hospitals. Patients were administered an 11-item anemia assessment tool and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy- Anemia (FACT-Anemia) Scale. Factor analysis was performed based on the data obtained, and three factors out of 10 of 11 items (except for“ hand tip and feet tip are cold”) were selected. Assessment of construct validity revealed that all but 2 items had correlation coefficients ranging from 0.10 to 0.59. Criterion-related validity with FACT-Anemia was assessed for the overall scores of the anemia assessment tool and sub-scale scores of FACT-Anemia, demonstrating a correlation ranging from 0.77 to 0.80. Assessment of internal consistency demonstrated that Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranged from 0.48 to 0.94. We further examined the reproducibility of the measurements in 113 of 389 patients by administering the anemia assessment tool 2-3 weeks after the initial assessment. The result indicated moderate reproducibility, with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient ranging from 0.43 to 0.77 and κ coefficient ranging from 0.20 to 0.44 for each item in the tool. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated the reliability and validity of the anemia assessment tool. Given that there are only 10 items in our finished anemia assessment tool, it may be appropriate as a self-monitoring tool for patients and in normal clinical settings.

　This study was conducted to implement a learning program for novice public health nurses to improve practical skills for individual support through reflection, and to examine the efficacy of the program based on the content of realizations and learning took place in the nurses who participated in the program.

　This program comprised a total of nine hours of lectures and group work three times approximately every two months, as well as self-learning. The content described by students in the worksheets used was rendered as data and subject to content analysis to determine what kind of realizations and learning took place through reflection.

　A total of 20 students who participated in all components of the program were subject to analysis. The core categories of reflection extracted from the data were“ realizations about the need to know oneself,” “ realizations about the need for support from surrounding people,” “ awareness as a professional,” “ reviewing the implementation,” “ realizations about the impact of support,” and “ experiencing personal growth.”

　The results confirmed that implementing this program promotes reflection among novice public health nurses and has a certain effect on improving the practices of these nurses while they confront themselves, review the direction of their assistance as a supporter, and receive aid from those involved with individual support.

　The purpose of this study was to clarify joint motion during rising from a supine position with trunk rotation. Ten healthy young men (aged 21-26 years) participated in this study. The subjects rose from a supine position with trunk rotation to a long sitting position. Joint motions were recorded with a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The head flexed and rotated, the trunk flexed and rotated, and the shoulder on the contralateral side of trunk rotation flexed, adducted, and internally rotated in the early phase during rising. Except for trunk flexion, these reached a peak level at about 25-40% after the initiation of rising motion. The results of this study may support prior literature descriptions of joint motion during rising from a supine position with trunk rotation. Furthermore, the findings of this study may serve as a rough standard for the range of motion required to rise from a supine position with trunk rotation to a long sitting position.

　This research aimed to identify how teachers of this university perceive the importance of first year undergraduate education and what kinds of elements or factors they think should be improved. A questionnaire was distributed to all university faculty, i.e., eighty one full-time teachers, and forty-three of them (53%) answered the questionnaire. The results showed that teachers conceived first year students’ abilities crucial in the following areas: speaking in class, especially the ability to ask questions; listening skills, especially the ability to concentrate in lectures; and general communication skills. On the contrary, field study; leading a group; identifying solutions; and contribution to family, local community, and global society were ranked lower. By conducting a Categorical Principal Component Analysis, two factors were extracted (Cronbach α=0.968). The skill elements that students needed to develop were a logical, objective, critical mindset; basic latitudinous academic skills; and a wish for life-long growth. Indifference to the people around them was also pointed out. Furthermore, many participants in this research mentioned the need to improve the university’s courses overall, by enhancing interaction, demonstrating clear objectives, and explaining the importance of autonomous learning. First year education should also include classes that teach students how to write an essay and how to conduct literature review in their field of study. Furthermore, the educational environment of Nitona Campus needs an overall improvement with regard to the insufficient library resources and students’ difficulty in reaching teachers. Participants in this research commented that students should interact more with different people outside of the campus to develop an objective understanding of an increasingly multi-cultural society.

　The present study aimed to estimate the usual dietary intake in the population of the Chiba prefecture using the one-day dietary survey of the Chiba Prefecture Health and Nutrition Survey 2015. Moreover, we examined the difference in the proportion of participants whose dietary intake less than or exceeded the Dietary Reference Intakes values between one-day intake and the estimated usual intake.

　A non-consecutive two-day dietary survey was conducted in November 2016 in 70 households in the Chiba prefecture. The usual intake distributions of 22 nutrients were estimated by sex and age groups using the Best- Power method with the power exponent and the ratio of intra- and inter-individual variances from the two-day dietary survey.

　The one-day intake distributions were larger than the usual intake distributions. The proportion of partici-pants whose dietary intake was less than or exceeded the Dietary Reference Intakes values of the one-day intake was under- or overestimated compared with the usual intake. Our findings suggest that it necessary to estimate the usual intake distribution to assess nutrient intakes when using the Dietary Reference Intakes.

　The objective of this study was to elucidate the usefulness of nursing care that incorporates an anemia assessment tool （recording form） to evaluate anemia symptoms in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The study examined the usefulness of such care for the self-care of patients with anemia. The study subjects were outpatient nurses at 5 collaborating institutions. The nurses provided daily living instructions to 61 patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy in accordance with a guidebook for instructions in anemia care. The daily living instructions, which were tailored to the anemia symptoms of the patients in accordance with the guidebook, were provided each time the patients visited the hospital for chemotherapy. In providing the instructions, the nurses reviewed the recording form together with the patient. Approximately four weeks after the patients started recording their symptoms, a self-administered questionnaire survey on the effects of the nursing care was administered to nurses and the responses were analyzed. The results indicated that reviewing the recording forms together with the patients enabled more than 80% of the nurses to accurately and easily understand the patients’ anemia symptoms at an early stage. Moreover, the nurses indicated that the communication with the patients enabled them to gain a deeper understanding of the patients and provide care appropriate for patients’ lives. The findings indicated that nursing care that utilizes recording forms created with the tool is useful in supporting the self-care of cancer patients with anemia associated with chemotherapy.

　Tentative body-powered transradial prosthesis was developed as a component of students’ practicum. Students were involved in the creation, conformity assessment, and operation of the actual prostheses. To understand their learning and degree of satisfaction from experience through practicum, we administered a questionnaire survey to third-year students during the academic year 2015 who participated in the tentative prosthesis development research, which was affiliated with the major occupational therapy center of our school and to third-year students in the academic year 2016 who only experienced the creation of the tentative prostheses through a lecture. From the collected questionnaires, the number of responses to four question items was counted, and a written record of the comments was created us a list. In regard to the degree of satisfaction with the practicum, the responses for “very satisfied” and“ satisfied” totaled to 55% among the students of the academic year 2015 and 80% among those in academic year 2016. Thus, a high degree of student satisfaction was achieved in the academic year 2016. With the established number of lecture hours, the contents through which students could experience the operation increased, which seems to have increased the degree of satisfaction regarding lecture contents.

　We developed“ Self-administered Diet History Questionnaire Based on Food Counted as Number of Eggs. -Simple version-” The food is separated into groups based on Japanese Haizen style.

　The questionnaire is four pages, A4 sized, full color, double-sided, and letter folded. The questionnaire’s pages are as follows: cover, questionnaire description, meal content answer page, and lifestyle answer page. The meal content answer page can be spread out as a list. The individual result sheet is printed in one page, A4 sized and full color. The results are shown focusing on meal serving classification.

　The questionnaire and the individual result sheet were designed to be useful for nutrition education and food education for nutrition teachers, registered dietitian, school nurses, teachers and others.

　As the amount of intake can be answered in egg sizes, it is easy to answer even if you do not know the intake weight. Because one can answer the questionnaire by meal serving classification, the numbers of questions are reduced thus lowering the burden of answering the questionnaire to those who are not interested in meals. Additionally, this should make it possible to deliver the results more quickly to people who answered the questionnaire at food education events and such.

　The developed survey form’s relevance and reproducibility is currently being analyzed.