The basic difficulties with nurse scheduling lie in the necessity of maintaining a certain level of service and skill in the makeup of every shift, while balancing the workload among the nurses involved. This is usually prepared on paper by a head/chief nurse and takes a considerable amount of time and effort.
In order to lighten the burden we are aiming to developing an efficient support system that enables a head/chief nurse to concentrate her thoughts on scheduling without needing a prior knowledge of computer operation. In our previous study, task analysis of manual nurse scheduling was performed. The result of the analysis led to the following four user-interface functions that would be needed in a support system; (1) A tool that supports eyes' moving over a spreadsheet, (2) A tool that highlights each nurse and each day that need looking at again, (3) A warning message for a lack of nurses working a night shift, (4) An efficient input tool for marking the cells. Furthermore, in this paper, we divided the scheduler's tasks into those which could be performed by only a computer and those which need a human to complete. We then created an interface based on the above.
Five head nurses were given a hands-on demonstration of the support system including the interface. In addition, a chief nurse actually made a monthly schedule using the support system. All six nurses were impressed with its effectiveness and expressed that they wanted to use this system every month, especially the chief nurse.

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An acquisition of learning for a mental work for which memory function is required was investigated using memory work test system. Here, we estimated the degree of physiological burden on a person under a process of learning and analyzed the learning process to clarify the relation between physiological burden and leaning acquisition. The results were as follows:
1) The learning process was analyzed for each step of achievement according to the test procedure for achievement of memory task. The value of Q, which expresses the degree of achievement, was low in the early phase of learning and gradually increased as progress of the learning. Therefore, the value became greater in the middle and the later phase of learning (Phase α and Phase β).
2) When physiological burden was estimated based on the rates of changes in Flicker value and those in pinch strength, and by NASA-TLX method, physiological burden was larger in Phase α than in Phase β or γ. This shows that the burden was reduced with progress of learning.
3) The rates of changes in Flicker value and pinch strength, and also NASA-TLX method disclosed that there was a significant correlation between the physiological burden and the learning process.
4) Here, we proposed an indicator to estimate physiological burden in each phase of learning acquisition based on Q value expressing the degree of achievement.

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This study aimed at obtaining the guidelines for caring methods and for the prevention of dislocation and friction after total hip arthroplasty (THA), through clarifying the characteristics of hazard postures liable to cause dislocation under the dwelling environments in Japan. Subjects included 46 healthy male and female volunteers aged 22 to 88, who gave informed consent to participating in the study. The study classified their routine postures in their daily lives by using photographs taken by a camera. Approximately 60% of 862 postures belonged to nine types of postures that might possibly cause dislocation. More than 70% of postures of sitting on the floor were liable to cause dislocation. The forward bending of the pelvis and the lifting of femur accounted for 40% of the total hazard postures. Furthermore, hazard postures were taken more often in a bathroom. This indicates that the dwelling environment typical of Japan makes dwellers take hazard postures. These results suggest that, in order to prevent dislocation and friction, it is necessary for people to have the rearrangement of the dwelling environment and to acquire the methods of safe motions.

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