BACKGROUND: Advanced medical care, especially care that focuses on the cranial nervous system, is increasing throughout Vietnam. Improvement of nursing quality is critical for proper functioning of advanced medical care, but there are several gaps between Vietnam's national goals and the implementation within nursing. METHOD: To address the gap between the national goals and the nursing implementation, we used a descriptive case study design to investigate perceived issues in nursing practice among nurses working at a leading neurosurgical care unit (NCU) in Vietnam in order to develop an effective in-service training program. RESULTS: Eighteen NCU staff nurses participated in the study. Major perceived issues were categorized as relating to knowledge, skills, or attitudes. Issues of knowledge comprised 13 subcategories including physical assessment, pathophysiology, and operating ventilators. Issues of skills comprised 20 subcategories including assessment, planning, patient care, education and communication with patients and families, and collaboration with colleagues. Issues of attitudes comprised six subcategories including passivity, ignoring procedures, lack of helpfulness and difficulty embracing the nursing profession. CONCLUSION: The main findings of this study indicated that skills, including assessment, planning, and implementation, were the most important topics of perceived issues for nurses. Area-specific weaknesses were presented by nurses. However, the present model of neurosurgical training is too general and neurosurgical area-specific training should be introduced based on nurses identified needs. Issues of nurses' attitude toward work were a result of their beliefs and values and influenced the quality and safety of patient care.

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This study examined the effectiveness of a new program for the elderly that aimed to enable individuals to live till the end of life in the local community by their own values. The program was held by an enhanced function visiting nursing station and was evaluated by mixed methods in a longitudinal study. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations were performed by questionnaires and group interviews on home care. The participants of the program were the elderly (n = 45, mean age = 78.4). Participants’ knowledge about visiting nursing and care significantly increased after the program compared to before the program (p < 0.001). Conversely, concerns of the participants on end of life care at home significantly decreased after the program compared to before the program (p < 0.001). Evaluation of the group interviews resulted in six categories such as "the participants begin to discuss end of life care with their family," and twenty sub-categories. The participants cultivated a better understanding of the end of life in the local community by communicating their thoughts with each other in the program. The efficacy of this program was confirmed by the quantitative and qualitative evaluations.

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Eating meals is an indispensable act for the maintenance of life as well as mental and physical health. This research focused on “Biting Force” a factor of the judgment of oral cavity function. For this purpose, atomic bomb survivors who received a health checkup were divided into two groups, the early elderly (65-74 years old) and the late elderly (75 years old or older), and the biting forces of the two groups were compared and the factors affecting biting force were clarified. The survey was conducted targeting 302 atomic bomb survivors who received a health checkup (158 early elderly and 144 late elderly). As a result, 1) the biting force of the early elderly was significantly higher than that of the late elderly, 2) the factor affecting the biting force of the examinees was the number of remaining teeth, and the number of remaining teeth was higher in the early elderly group than the late elderly group, 3) a significant difference was observed in hemoglobin levels between all subjects and the early elderly group and this difference was also related to the number of remaining teeth, and 4) the biting force of the examinees was higher in females than in males. It is important for the examinees to prevent the reduction of biting force, just the same as other elderly persons. Therefore, it is required to take necessary actions, including explaining the importance of increasing the duration of chewing at an early stage before the weakening of the chewing action becomes obvious.

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