.This study sought to explore the support provided by home-visit nurses to older adults living in depopulated areas during the transition to living at home. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three nurses working at home nursing stations located in a depopulated area, and support during the transition period to home was analyzed via SCAT. A total of six categories of support were identified, including “care that helps patients and their families facing anxiety develop a commitment to home care” and “providing environmental improvements and advice for home care in underpopulated areas.” Other categories encompassed “individualized support for acceptance of home nursing care,” “providing flexible nursing care tailored to the status of social resources in the community,” “practicing multidisciplinary collaboration to ensure a smooth transition to home,” and “support for caregivers that enables them to fulfill end-of-life care.” Viewing nursing care services flexibly and providing the necessary care so that older adults living in depopulated areas can continue to receive medical care at home are considered important.

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This study aimed to compare facial expression recognition of nursing students wearing and not wearing a surgical mask and to clarify the accuracy of their recognition. In order to understand the tendencies and characteristics of facial expression recognition among nursing students, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 160 students from the first, second and fourth years of a nursing university. The survey focused on perceived difficulty in communication, and facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise) were compared with and without wearing a facial mask. Wearing a surgical mask had a significant influence on the facial expression recognition of disgust, fear, and anger but did not have a significant influence on the facial expression recognition of happiness, sadness, and surprise. Moreover, for students wearing a surgical mask, had no significant differences were found in facial expression recognition based on clinical experience by year or the presence or absence of communication difficulty. The results suggest that future research should focus on the perspectives of nursing students, and that it is necessary to develop accurate facial expression recognition skills even when wearing a surgical mask.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-specific neurodegenerative disease and is the main cause of dementia. No definitive treatment for AD has been established, and non-pharmacological treatments are expected to maintain and improve the quality of life of dementia patients. In this study, we implemented a laughter yoga program for elderly AD patients and examined its effects of stress reduction, determined by measuring salivary amylase activity (sAA), and cognitive function improvement, determined on the basis of cognitive function test scores. The subjects were nine patients (nine females) who were living in a group home and diagnosed as having AD, among which two were in their 70s, five in their 80s, and two in their 90s. We conducted a seven-day intervention with laughter yoga, and the sAA of the subjects was determined by collecting saliva before and after laughter yoga each day. In addition, cognitive function tests were conducted before and after the seven-day intervention, including the Hasegawa Dementia Scale-Revised (HDS-R) and a one-minute word recall screening test. The results showed that performing laughter yoga had the effect of lowering the sAA in AD patients, which means reducing stress, but the effect was only significant on the day the laughter yoga was performed. On the other hand, the seven-day intervention with laughter yoga had no effect on lowering sAA and cognitive function test scores.

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PURPOSE: This study aimed to clarify the relationship between the psychological safety of hospital nurses and the competency of deputy head nurses. METHODS: The participants were deputy head nurses and ward nurses of 20 hospitals in the Kanto region that are affiliated with a nationwide medical corporation to which the researchers belong. The deputy head nurses completed a web survey consisting of a “competency assessment scale for deputy head nurses,” and the ward nurses completed a web survey consisting of a “psychological safety scale.” RESULTS: Eleven hospitals were analyzed, and valid responses were received from 85 deputy head nurses (response rate 56%) and 339 ward nurses (response rate 17%). Spearmans rank correlation analysis of ward nurses’ psychological safety and deputy head nurses’ competencies revealed a positive correlation with the competency item‘ Domain 3 Compliance’(p=0.025). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The results suggest a possible correlation between the psychological safety of ward nurses and the compliance-related competencies of deputy head nurses.

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This study aimed to review reports on educational practice in previous studies that utilized individual narratives, thereby clarifying the characteristics of the teaching methods and providing insights for educational practice. An analysis of 21 reports on education using individual narratives in basic nursing education courses revealed that their most common use was in courses that individuals participated in and in second year courses. The participants were individuals with mental illness, addiction, cancer, and terminal illness. Most of the reports required pre-learning activities for learners such as studying about the illness of the individuals involved, gathering information about them, and considering questions to ask them, as well as post-learning activities like writing reports or completing surveys. Participatory classes are a method for learning about the nature of medicine and society from the perspective of the individual participants themselves, as well as observing how they autonomously and independently conduct their social life. This approach can potentially contribute to the formation of attitudes in nursing professionals. On one hand, depending on the topics of the lesson, there is a possibility of triggering personal experiences or emotions of the learners. Therefore, it is considered beneficial for conducting safe classes to set pre- and post-tasks, group work, and choose teaching materials according to the topic.

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OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between self-perceived usefulness and personal recovery among persons with schizophrenia living in the community. METHOD: A self-administered questionnaire was administered to persons with schizophrenia belonging to 17 facilities. The relationships among personal attributes, self-perceived usefulness, and the Japanese version of the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale with the Japanese version of the Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS) were analyzed by the chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: According to the chi-square test, differences in “use of home-visit nursing services,” “use of daycare services,” “frequency of hospitalization in psychiatric hospitals,” six items in “self-perceived usefulness,” and four items in “self-stigma” were significant. According to the multivariate analysis, differences in six items in “self-perceived usefulness (I feel than I am trusted.)” and “use of home-visit nursing services” were significant. DISCUSSION: Self-perceived usefulness was found to be a factor that enhances personal recovery. These results suggest that supporters’ engagement in enhancing self-perceived usefulness in interpersonal relationships leads to improvement in the personal recovery of persons with schizophrenia living in the community.

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The purpose of this study was to identify the ethical issues that operating room nurses encounter in their clinical practice. The research employed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey of 95 operating room nurses, along with qualitative inductive analysis of the open-ended responses. The ethical issues identified were categorized into 5 groups: [inappropriate language and behavior toward surgical patients], [challenges in practicing surgical nursing], [inappropriate language and behavior from physicians and senior nurses toward nurses], [difficulties in interactions with patients and families], and [the working environment of operating room nurses].　Operating room nurses, as “advocates of patients’ rights,” are required to continuously acquire and skills in nursing ethics while also expressing the ethical issues they encounter. It is crucial for nursing managers to address these ethical concerns not as individual problems but as systematic challenges for the entire operating room. This can be achieved by creating opportunities for interdisciplinary discussions among nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals.

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This review aims to compare dental hygienists' attitudes and practices toward oral management for patients with diabetes in Japan with findings in the United States. A literature review was conducted using Ichushi-Web and PubMed databases. Nine articles met the inclusion criteria. Dental hygienists in Japan acknowledged having insufficient knowledge about the practice of screening and the systemic condition of patients with diabetes, and about 60% were careful in their approach to oral management of patients with diabetes. At the same time, most dental hygienists in the United States were aware of the link between periodontal disease and diabetes and felt that it was important to practice chairside screening for diabetes. Moreover, they spent more time educating patients with diabetes about oral health than other patients. In both countries, dental hygienists acknowledged the need for medical-dental collaboration regarding the oral management of patients with diabetes. The present results may be helpful in considering the actual situation of dental hygienists in Japan. However, it is necessary to consider the scope of practice of dental hygienists in Japan and the United States when interpreting these results.

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OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to get suggestions for the development of VR teaching materials for the use of DX in nursing education.　METHODS: The target literature was 23 items extracted using Ichushi Web. The overview of VR teaching materials in basic nursing education was classified and analyzed. RESULTS: The development and use of VR teaching materials for basic nursing education were triggered by COVID-19, and the VR space of many of them were experienced only visually and audibly. The aims of using these VR teaching materials were to enable learners to develop emphatic understanding, observation and assessment skills, and nursing techniques. Simulation-based education was often used as a teaching method. DISCUSSION: It is assumed that VR materials for basic nursing education were urgently adopted as a response to emerging infectious diseases and were often simplified. The objectives of the materials were universal and highly compatible with simulation education. However, we consider that there is still room for developing teaching materials that satisfy the three elements of VR. CONCLUSION: In basic nursing education, two types of teaching materials need to be developed: those that can be used for simulation education and those that take advantage of the features of VR.

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