The purpose of this study was to develop evaluation standards for measuring the educational effectiveness that incorporates a drama workshop（ WS） into the Methodology of Adult Nursing as part of learning in preparation for acute-phase adult nursing practicums. An in-depth discussion was conducted among the researchers regarding what they expect in terms of educational effectiveness from training that incorporates such workshops. The discussions were analyzed from qualitative and inductive perspectives to reveal the educational effects of the workshop（ 36 items）. The roles at the workshops and whether or not the participant actually played a part as an actor on the day of the workshop were included, which enabled us to create a questionnaire with a total of 38 items. A two-year study was conducted on 157 third-year students in the nursing department, after which exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed.The exploratory factor analysis identified five subcategories of evaluation standards of workshop effectiveness, consisting of 29 items: 1. constructing a situation simulating a realistic medical setting; 2. understanding of acute situations/conditions; 3. Authentically acted-out depiction of medical scenario; 4. Proactive approach to challenges; and 5. Convincing rendition of cooperation between nurses and other staff. A reasonable fit was also obtained through confirmatory factor analysis. These standards satisfied construct validity, and internal consistency. We believe these standards to have potential for utilization as an index of the effectiveness of programs and as a method of identifying student learning challenges.

View full abstract

This research aims the actual situation of the enforcement of recreation and/or sports and the prehension of guardians’ recognitions of recreation and/or sports; the promotion of recreation and sports, at a target of the guardians of children or pupils who go to school for special needs, the visually impaired and hearing impaired. As a research method, we distributed questionnaires to the guardians of children or pupils via five public school for special needs which were in cooperation with this research. Research contents are related to the items of: the attributes of respondents, children, and pupils; the contents of recreation and/or sports; the promotion and inhibition factors in enforcement; and the consciousness and action changes for the forthcoming 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. Analysis was conducted based on the descriptive statistics. In this research, target subjects for data analysis were 203 participants including physically（- 51.2%） and intellectually（- 58.1%） disabled persons. As a result, with regard to the enforcement for the past one year, there were “yes”（45.3%） and “no”（54.7%）. As for the burdens, “no suitable items for disabled persons”（22.2%） and “big burdens on family members”（15.7%） were reported. Some answers showed that they never received any supportive information about recreation and/or sports from schools（30.8%）, hospitals （95.4%）, and local governments（66.5%）. The result of this research shows that the enforcement rate of recreation and/or sports is low with respect to children or pupils who have impairments. This trend indicates a background of the lack of information environment about recreation and/or sports in accordance with the burden of family members or the proper ty of impairments. The enforcement from an early stage, however, will have a good influence on the mental and physical development of disabled children. Therefore, an information providing system should be established in collaboration with schools, hospitals, and local governments.

View full abstract

Objective: The Leisure Activity Enjoyment Scale（ LAES） is used to understand activities that provide enjoyment for elderly people with a disability in Japan. It helps the therapist understand not only what activities the person enjoys, but also, why they enjoy it. The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability and validity of the elderly version of the Leisure Activity Enjoyment Scale. Method: A mixed methods study was conducted using interviews for data collection. Firstly, 286 elderly participants with a disability were recruited and interviewed using the 29 item LAES as a guide. Item and factor analysis of the data from these respondents were conducted. Secondly, 102 participants were recruited and test-retest reliability and criterionrelated validity were assessed from the data. Result: Item-total correlations and Good-poor analysis quality were considered adequate for all items included in the LAES. However, as the results from the exploratory factor analysis revealed 11 items with low loadings on the factors, these were subsequently removed. As a result, the final solution involved a number of 5 factors and 18 items overall. These factors included ‘pleasure from thoughts of enjoyment from the past, present or future’; ‘the enjoyment provided through interacting with others’; the enjoyment of achieving through accomplishment’; ‘the enjoyment of thinking’ and ‘the enjoyment of experiencing affirmative change in the mind and body’, and whole item α coefficient was 0.81. The test-retest reliability was 0.85, and criterion-related validity was 0.56. Conclusion: The factor analysis revealed a stable structure and secured fixed reliability and validity. Whilst further research is still required, this paper therefore concludes that the LAES is a reliable and valid tool that occupational therapists can use to evaluate the past leisure-time activities of elderly people.

View full abstract

In Japan, cerebrovascular disease is the fourth cause of death and the first cause of bedridden patients. Recently, cerebral infarction has been under serious consideration due to the westernization of the diets and an increase in geriatric diseases. To establish a method for image-based diagnosis of cerebral apoplexy, the authors developed a phantom that could correctly evaluate disease detection by image-processing and that could visualize disease using X-ray CT imaging, while evaluating the imaging conditions. Traditionally, it has been difficult to visualize acute cerebral infarction from images produced by X-ray CT. Therefore, a frequency-enhancement processing technique that applies an unsharp mask filtering was developed. We acquired a high-frequency image containing many frequency bands of a cerebral infarction region, added the acquired image to an original image, and created an algorithm that could enhance these frequency bands and decrease image noise. We then tested the algorithm by comparing the image from the X-ray CT process to the simulation result obtained using a new cerebral stroke phantom developed by us. An outline of the algorithm and the results obtained are presented.

View full abstract