This study aimed to clarify nurses' understanding of risks and risk factors in the elderly using wheelchairs in facilitites covered by public aid providing long-term care to the elderly. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 nurses working in 6 facilities covered by public aid providing long-term care to the elderly, focusing on the risks and risks factors in elderly wheelchair users. The data was qualitatively analyzed. Ten types of risk, including those of falls, pressure ulcers, and injury, and their specifics, such as transportation- or transfer-related accidents and disuse syndrome due to the long-term maintenance of sitting positions of wheelchair use. As risk factors, 3 categories: "facility environments", "caregivers' behavior and recognition", and "the elderly's mental and physical conditions", were extracted, with the following sub-categories: "physical environments", "manpower and time", "caregivers' behavior", "caregivers' recognition", "physical conditions", "ADL levels", and "mental and psychological conditions". Nurses perceive these risks and risk factors as being related to multiple viewpoints of elderly wheelchair users.
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