Background : In Japan, local governments implement maternal and child health projects for nearly all children in the community through health check-ups and distribution of an information booklet to mothers. Public health nurses (PHNs) working for local governments play an important role in preventing child abuse and neglect. Providing support to high-risk families may require collaboration with nursery school staff (NSS). Our objective was to clarify the activities of PHNs in collaboration with NSS in case management of families at high risk for child abuse and neglect. Methods : Semi-structured interviews of five PHNs working for 3 local governments were conducted. PHNs were asked about their collaboration with NSS in case management for preventing child abuse and neglect. Interviews were audio-recorded and analyzed. The qualitative descriptive research method was used. Results : Four categories of collaboration of PHNs with NSS were identified: 1) Sharing information with NSS to support mothers and their children; 2) Asking NSS to pay careful attention for any evidence of child abuse while caring for the children; 3) Sharing with NSS how to support mothers and their children so that NSS can work free from anxiety; 4) Acting as a bridge among NSS, mothers and other organizations. Conclusion : PHNs encouraged NSS to observe and report suspected child abuse. These results suggested that PHNs take advantage of this monitoring capability of NSS in their activities. Furthermore, it was shown that PHNs encouraged NSS to care for children and to support their mothers as part of the role of nursery schools.

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Objectives: This study investigated the association between self-assessed health status in each of the categories of physical status, physical fitness, and daily-living status of the elderly who participated in the health program. Methods: A health survey and a physical fitness test were performed in 180 elderly participants aged ≥ 65 years before providing health education for them. The self-assessed heath status data were divided into two categories, "healthy" and "not healthy," as the dependent variable to analyze its associated factors by sex. Results: The subjects consisted of 68 males and 112 females with a mean age of 73.3 and 72.2 years, respectively. Of the subjects, 146 (81.1%) were included in the "healthy" group. The results of the physical fitness test suggested that the participants were physically fit, but showed no significant associations with the self-assessed health status. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the factors associated with self-assessed health status were "no history of heart disease," and "frequent participation in neighborhood association activities" among males and females, and "no histories of diabetes mellitus (DM)," "high life satisfaction scale," and "low scores of the depression scale" among females specifically. Conclusions : To keep their good health, it is important for the healthy elderly of the community to have support for continuous health checks and medication for heart disease and DM, early detection and treatment of women's depression, and to promote social interactions such as participating in neighborhood association activities.

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The purposes of this research are to reveal the current situation of collaboration between visiting nurse service station (VNSS) and hospital for patients' smooth discharge from hospital, and clarify the relationship of characteristics of VNSS to the status of collaboration. A questionnaire was mailed to all 3578 VNSS; 1,188 VNSS were returned and used as the subjects of analysis (valid response rate: 33.2%). Regular visit to hospital was done by 468 VNSS, and among them, 219 went round to each ward in the hospital regularly, 171 attended the conference about patients hospitalized in the hospital regularly, and 145 attended ward meeting about hospitalized patients regularly. Those VNSS established by medical corporation, affiliated to hospital or geriatric health services facility, having system for emergency visit, and having more full-time nurses did more regular visits to hospital than other VNSS. Activity of discharge planning inside the hospital was done by 295 VNSS. Most of them were doing discharge planning at the request of hospital, however some VNSS visited the hospital regularly or arranged for the personnel in the hospital to carry out discharge planning. The VNSS computing the extra pay for high-care patients, having more full-time nurses and doing home-visit to medically dependent patients, did more frequent discharge planning activities than other VNSS. It is necessary to make clarify the cost and effect of these activities and discuss the most desirable status of the collaboration between VNSS and hospitals.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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Purpose : The purpose of this study is to clarify how nursing students understood health guidance through wearing pedometer, recording daily activities and experiencing role-playing. Methods : The subjects were 74 third-year students at a nursing university who went through a series consisting of the use of a pedometer, recording of daily living activities, group work, and role-playing (hereinafter referred to as "the practical exercises"). After the practical exercises, they were asked to prepare a report on "the actual situation of health guidance and the reaction of the guidance clients, and their realization through experiencing the health guidance." The reports were collected at the site, and the described contents were analyzed with a focus on the students' understanding of the guidance. Ethical consideration : We explained the purpose and method of this study to the student. We covered the name of the describer in the classification of description contents. Results : The categories of the health guidance which the student learned through the practical exercises were as follows; "Integration of relationship with clients and the community health nurse" "Providing clients with an occasion to review their own life" "Providing clients with an opportunity to utilize ability of their own" "Encourage clients to undertake behavior modification". Discussion : We thought that the students understood the basics of the health guidance method. The students learned that health guidance was based on the building of human relations with the community health nurse and the client, and empowered the clients and encouraged them to undertake behavior modification.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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