Aim: This study aimed to clarify expert psychiatric nurses’ evaluations of the nature and degree of post-operative pain in schizophrenia patients. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine nurses with surgical ward experience and who had worked at a psychiatric department for three years or more. An a posteriori qualitative analysis was conducted. Results: Psychiatric nurses tried to evaluate and deal with post-operative pain in schizophrenia patients by:（ a） taking into account taking into account the physical symptoms that are caused by surgical stress;（ b） observing any changes in halluciations and delusions; （c） selecting drugs, including not only analgesics but also hypnotic and sedative drugs;（ d） noting any consistency between verbal utterances and other symptoms; and（ e） consulting with other staff on the medical team. Discussion: The results of this study suggest that evaluation of changes in hallucinations and delusions and the choice of drugs, including not only analgesics but also hypnotic and sedative drugs are typically used to evaluate post-operative pain in schizophrenia patients. Because these judgments are difficult to make, nurses need to judge intuitively when caring for schizophrenia patients who have post-operative pain. Expert psychiatric nurses should also take a leading role among other nurses to be able to share and discuss the difficulties they encounter.

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The object of this study is to disclose the factors used by managers for urban small scale home care nursing stations implementing terminal care at home. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 managers for small scale home visiting nurse stations which means categorized belong nurses more than two point five to less than five nurses. As a result, based on【belief the passion to support the process of living out one’s life at home】, the manager care centered patient with respect and a comfortable space for their home at the end of life. And attempting to make business more efficient, and constructed【 a system for supporting the process of living out one’s life at home】according to each patient, needs to each home visiting nurse station. In order for home care patients ･ family to meet the end of life peacefully,【 a techniques for supporting the process of living out one’s life at home】. Based on the passion and techniques of managers who have a desire to support living out one’s life at home, it is of the opinion that the factor for implementing terminal care at home in small scale home visiting nurse stations is configuring a system designed to make the business that makes the best of the specialties of the small scale home care nursing stations more efficient.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal changes of grip strength level in the elderly after abdominal surgery. The design was quantitative descriptive study. Subjects were 50 elderly (mean age: 72.8 ± 5.9 years) with no motor impairments and were able to communicate verbally. Basic attributes and grip strength were measured over time on admission, 5 days after surgery and at discharge. Data were analyzed by using t-test, repeated measure ANOVA, etc. As a result, when comparing grip strength levels after abdominal surgery, there was a significant difference between young-elderly group and old-elderly group (p＜ 0.05). Furthermore, as a temporal change the grip strength level decreased 5 days after surgery in younger elderly, and it did not recovered at the time of discharge. In addition, grip strength of the older elderly did not change over time, and was low. The low value suggested they experienced difficulties in daily life, and was a flail state. The results suggested the nurses working at the hospital need to evaluate grip strength of the elderly to predict muscle weakness considering age and gender after abdominal surgery though the time of discharge, and to provide continual care for the elderly.

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This study examined the association between fitness tests and the Basic Health Check List（ BHCL） in participants of the Care Prevention Program, involving 73 females participating in it. The correlation ratio between their fitness test values（ the time needed to walk 5 m at maximum and normal speeds, duration of standing on one leg with the eyes open, Timed Up & Go Test score, and hand grip strength） and scores from 25 items of the BHCL, as well as cutoff values, were calculated. Among the BHCL items, [Being able to stand up from a chair without any support], [Finding things burdensome that were previously easy to do（ in the past 2 weeks）], and [Feeling worthless（ in the past 2 weeks）] were correlated with the time needed to walk 5 m at the maximum speed as a fitness index, and the cutoff point was 3.7 - 3.8 seconds in all cases. The results suggest that it is appropriate to set the target time needed to walk 5 m at a maximum of less than 4 seconds for female participants of the Care Prevention Program, and improvements in this time influence not only the motor functions, but also multiple aspects.

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