In Japan’s current outpatient care system, outpatient nurses are not tasked with providing consultations regarding care to patients with chronic diseases. To change this situation, the present study aimed to identify the mindset required by highly-specialized outpatient nurses that care for patients with chronic diseases who require proactive support on a continuous basis, and to obtain suggestions for the support provided by general outpatient nurses. We conducted semi-structured interviews with three nurses who are nursing specialists with practical experience in providing outpatient primary care, and performed qualitative descriptive analysis on their responses. As a result, we identified 12 categories and 47 subcategories. We also identified six core categories wherein “Having the resolve to continue supporting patients throughout their life” was fundamental to “Supporting patients in a manner that made them believe that their treatment was worthwhile”, “Consciously going against conventional practice to become involved in patients’ personal lives”, “Providing special attention to patients who are considering discontinuing their treatment”, “Providing support based on the patient’s overall ability”, and “Making decisions after confirming the patient’s condition, particularly on non-treatment days”. In accordance with these findings, we obtained suggestions for improving support provided by general outpatient nurses that care for patients with chronic diseases who require proactive support on a continuous basis.

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Purpose: A factor analysis on participation behavior in disabled sports was carried out in the present study, to clarify the relationship between the awareness and attitude of persons with disabilities. Methods: Study subjects included 220 people who had registered with an Internet research firm. Several items related to the following topics were used: “interest and behavioral changes when the Olympic and Paralympic Games were decided,” “attributes,” “knowledge about, and educational and contact experience with disabled people,” “recognition of disabled sports,” and “behavior of participants in disabled sports.” The path analysis was conducted using Amos, Ver. 21, IBM. Results: In the post-bid Paralympics decision phase, this result did not change for 76.8% of the subjects. In addition, participation behavior to watching behavior displayed a path of 1 factor（ 80% ; R＝.71）. Similarly, the path to volunteering from par ticipation behavior showed a high value of 90% （R＝.81）. Conclusion: Participation behavior was considered as a promoting factor for disabled sport participation and behavior. Having a deeper understanding about disability had a positive effect on being in contact with disabled persons. The Olympic and Paralympic bids were not mere sporting events, but were also seen as opportunities for bringing about changes in the attitudes toward disabled sports.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between self-efficacy and the effects of exercise intervention on the physical functions in the community-dwelling frail older adults. Subjects: We enrolled 44 subjects（ average age 80.0 ± 5.7 years） in this study. Methods: We evaluated any relationships between self-efficacy（ the scale of the selfefficacy of physical activity in frail elderly people） and the improvement of physical functions. Results: Some physical functions improved after exercise intervention. There were no significant differences or relationships found between self-efficacy and improvement in physical function. Conclusion: These results suggest that the physical functions of frail older adults can improve regardless of self-efficacy.

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In radiotherapy, the severity of radiation induced skin toxicity depends mainly on the received dose, and when tumors are near the skin, it is essential to determine the skin dose. This study evaluates the accuracy of an optically stimulated luminescent detector（ OSLD） with different setup conditions by experimental measurement and Monte Carlo simulation in skin dosimetry. We calculated the dose in the buildup region by Monte Carlo simulation and compared the dose measured by OSLDs（ nanoDotTM, Nagase-Landauer, JP）. The setup conditions of OSLD are in the hole of a customized phantom and on the top of a solid water phantom. Since the recommended skin dose is 0.07 mm, to determine such dose at 0.07 mm, a dose at a shallower depth is calculated to obtain the ratio between the dose at the effective depth of OSLD and the calculated dose at 0.07 mm in water. The dose by OSLD setting in the hole of a customized phantom（ DOSLD_hole） shows good agreement with the dose by Monte Carlo simulation（ DMC） compared to the dose by OSLD setting on top of the phantom（ DOSLD_top）. In addition to the build-up region, the dose difference between DOSLD_hole and DOSLD_top is within ±2％. At a depth of 0 mm, the ratio of DMC to DOSLD_hole and the ratio of DMC to DOSLD_top is 1.14 and 1.16, respectively. Skin dose can be determined by OSLD with multiplication of the above-mentioned ratios. In conclusion, skin dose can be determined using OSLD with setup on top of a phantom considering an error within ±2％.

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