We investigated the state of contamination by microorganisms in 173 library books and found the surfaces of the books to have contaminants ranging from <12 to 4.9 x 10 ⁴ colony-forming units (cfu)/ cover. We found 81.5% of the books tested to have the range of contaminant load counting 0 to 960 cfu/cover; the mean number of contaminant ± standard deviation was 1,261 ± 4,482 cfu/cover. The main contaminants included some environmental bacteria, such as Bacillus atrophaeus and Bacillus cereus, and a skin microbial flora consisting of coagulase (-) staphylococci and Micrococcus spp. On the other hand, methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus was detected in 4 (2.3%) of the 173 books, and the numbers ranged from 12 to 420 cfu/cover. We did not detect any coliform bacteria or Pseudomonas aeruginosa on the books that were sampled. We found the library books investigated in this study relatively clean.

In this study, in order to outline what home-visiting nurses are worried about home medical equipment on and find factors related to their anxiety, a web-based questionnaire survey using a self-administered and unmarked form was conducted among home-visiting nurses in one Japanese region. As a result, valid responses were obtained from 87 respondents. Home-visiting nurses had some anxiety about syringe pumps and artificial respirators in use. Factors related to their anxiety were specified as gender (being female), being a manager at the home-visit nursing station, difficulty in asking questions to medical equipment vendors, difficulty in troubleshooting of home medical equipment, and situations where multiple medical devices are needed. To resolve these anxiety by home-visiting nurses regarding home medical equipment, it is necessary to arrange for accompanying technicians with expertise in home medical equipment, to establish a system for easily contacting medical equipment vendors, and to enhance an education of home medical equipment to them.