Purpose: This study investigates the realities and activities of public health nurses in small municipalities as they pursue interdepartmental community health actions to satisfy residents’ needs.

Method: Using a qualitative and descriptive design, individual semi-structured interviews of public health nurses were conducted to acquire information on their experiences in interdepartmental community health activities in the last three years. The participants included four public health nurses in small municipalities where public health nurses supervisors are not assigned.

Results: The activity contents of the 4 public health nurses were extracted using 42 codes and classified into 26 subcategories, 15 categories, and 4 core categories. The core categories that emerged from the data were as follows: “sharing values with other personnel,” “maintaining relationships and requiring others to cooperate and play an important role,” “making full use of communication methods and opportunities without the role or position of a public health nurse supervisor” and “producing interdepartmental activities without a public health nurse supervisors where one’s superior or superintendent department exercised leadership.”

Discussion: A lack of public health nurses supervisors who coordinate interdepartmental community health activity is a problem in small municipalities. Public health nurses who do not hold the position of supervisors should promote interdepartmental community health activities through strategic activities based on collaboration between departments, such as coordinating and deciding the order and timing of discussions with bosses and working staff.

Purpose: Health literacy-the ability to obtain, understand, evaluate, and use health and medical information to make better health decisions-has garnered attention for its role in determining a person’s health. We sought to clarify the health literacy of mothers with infants in terms of how they raise their children (“parenting literacy”).

Method: The study participants were 10 mothers with infants who were using a parenting support facility in Prefecture A, and who had been recommended to the researchers for exhibiting parenting literacy skills in raising their children. We conducted a semi-structured interview examining their parenting literacy, and performed qualitative inductive analysis on their responses.

Results: We identified the following six categories relating to parenting literacy among mothers with infants: Being receptive to parenting information; Accessing multiple sources of parenting information; Understanding parenting information; Assessing the reliability of parenting information; Assessing the importance of parenting information for oneself and one’s child; and Integrating parenting information into one’s own parenting.

Discussion: We clarified two categories, “Being receptive to parenting information” and “Assessing the importance of parenting information for oneself and one’s child,” as distinguishing factors in the nature of parenting literacy among mothers with infants, and the remaining four categories as common factors of health literacy. Our findings suggested that public health nurses need to provide support for mothers with infants not only through initiatives such as delivering early education on parenting literacy, developing parenting consultation services and providing evidence-based advice, but also by vocally encouraging mothers dealing with parenting hardships.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between household roles and fatigue among community residents in their 60s.

Method: In 2016 an anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 4,970 residents in town A in Fukuoka Prefecture. Household roles were defined as caring for grandchildren and older adults. The survey consisted of household role, living conditions, health behavior, health condition, and fatigue. After calculating descriptive statistics, hierarchical binomial logistic regression analysis was conducted with physical fatigue and mental fatigue as dependent variables.

Results: Of the 2,052 respondents (recovery rate 41.2%), 1,990 were included in the analysis. Household roles were as follows: 11% of men and 16% of women only took care of their grandchildren, 13% of men and 15% of women only took care of older adults, and 2.6% of men and 2.2% of women took care of both of them. The fatigue of men was not related to their household roles, while the physical fatigue of women was high when they took care of both grandchildren and older adults（OR=3.16，95％ CI:1.39 ～ 7.20）, and when they only took care of older adults（OR=2.52,95 ％ CI:1．57 ～ 4.05）. And mental fatigue was high when they only took care of older adults（OR=1.72，95 ％ CI:1.07 ～ 2.75）. Health consciousness and living conditions were associated with both physical and mental fatigue in both men and women.

Discussion: This study examined the relationship between fatigue and household roles in a suburban community in the 60s. The results showed that there were sex differences in the relationship between household roles and fatigue.

Purposes: To clarify practical abilities expected of new public health nurses (PHNs) by managerial-level PHNs in municipalities.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight managerial-level PHNs in municipalities in Prefecture A who provided cooperation through an open recruitment process. Responses collected were analyzed qualitatively and descriptively, focusing on practical abilities expected of new PHNs.

Results: 88 codes were extracted and grouped into 13 subcategories and four categories: 1) promoting smooth communication within organizations; 2) working with motivation and a positive attitude; 3) providing support proactively by anticipating community needs based on lifestyle; and 4) engaging with stakeholders in activities based on community characteristics. (1) and (2) are basic skills for working in society and organizations and (3) and (4) are abilities in forming a foundation as a PHN.

Discussion: The results suggest that new PHNs must be able to form a foundation to develop community activities, building on basic skills for working in society and organizations. This is mainly in terms of attitude and behavior, and they must be made aware of this in basic nursing education. We reconfirmed the need to expand from individual support in basic PHN education to understanding the community and developing activities based on needs. This suggests enhancing education programs to encourage PHNs to ask questions, think for themselves and take initiative. We believe it is necessary for educational institutions to share information with administrative PHNs so they can understand what is required of new PHNs and provide basic education and achievement goals.