Objective: This study investigated the preparations made by mothers of children requiring medical care for enrolling them in local elementary schools and additionally identified the challenges they faced and examined the ways in which public health nurses can support these children to attend school.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three mothers of first- to third-grade children requiring medical care, and qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted on the school preparations made by the mothers in order for their children to attend elementary school.

Results: The mothers 《repeatedly went through trial and error to gain the understanding of educators》, 《clearly defined their non-negotiable points and wishes》, and 《took action to realise their wishes》. However, they felt that 《the mechanism for children requiring medical care to attend school was unclear》.

Discussion: Although the mothers “felt that the mechanism for school attendance was unclear,” they clarified their non-negotiable points and wishes and acted on their own. Public health nurses need to accept the feelings of mothers, draw out their ability to take action, and build a community care system for children requiring medical care that involves educational institutions.

Objective: This study aims to identify factors related to the behaviour of older adults with regards to receiving health examinations and cancer screenings (hereafter referred to as health behaviours), focusing on the media through which older adults obtain information regarding health behaviours.

Method: An anonymous self-reporting questionnaire was delivered by mail to 500 participants aged 65–84 years. Items on the questionnaire were based on the Health Belief Model and included questions about health behaviours and the availability of information about health examinations and cancer screenings. Binomial logistic regression analysis was performed.

Results: There were 264 valid responses. The items that were significantly associated with health behaviours were as follows: “anxiety is reduced” (OR=4.68), “undergoing health checkups/cancer screenings is troublesome” (OR=0.37), “not necessary because of hospitalisation or hospital visit” (OR=0.43), and “government office/public health centres as the medium for obtaining information” (OR=1.63).

Discussion: Perceived benefits of health examinations are important for the health behaviour of older adults. In addition, information from government agencies may have led to older adults trusting the information, which in turn influenced the health behaviours.

Objective: To identify the reasons which influenced the occupational selection of public health nurses among nursing students.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight public health nurses who had worked in local government agencies for a maximum of three years. The interviews were then analysed using the KJ method. The main content of the interview was related to the events that may have influenced the interviewee’s desire to become a public health nurse.

Results: Answers were sorted into eight groups: (1) support from surroundings, such as teachers; (2) desire to be involved in the daily lives of people; (3) diversity of public health nursing activities; (4) meeting a role model; (5) depth of public health nursing activities; (6) seeing not only the individual, but the whole; (7) positive attitude towards building relationships with residents; and (8) feeling the health of the residents.

Discussion: Interest in public health nursing increased due to the growing desire to be involved in the daily lives of people through preventive activities. The choice of occupation was then strengthened by understanding the depth of the work, meeting a role model, and feeling the liveliness of the residents. Therefore, it is necessary to create effective nursing practices. Additionally, the support of teachers has a great influence on nursing students, and it is necessary for teachers to affirm the students.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the factors associated with multiple physical illnesses and disabilities in older people from a foreign background.

Methods: A group survey, using a self-administered questionnaire, was sent to 100 participants who were divided into two groups based on their foreign roots. The first group consisted of returnees from China, and the second consisted of Koreans residing in Japan. All the participants were over the age of 65 years. The objective variable was defined as having three or more of the physical illnesses and disabilities. The explanatory variables were basic attributes, socioeconomic status, social relations, acculturation, and literacy.

Results: Results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that older people with multiple diseases and disorders should only use their native language outside the home (OR=8.09, 95% CI [1.73, 37.83]) and that the risk associated with cognitive decline is high (OR=6.27, 95% CI [1.87, 21.09]).

conclusion : Support for older people from foreign backgrounds with multiple physical illnesses and disabilities should include consideration of the potential risk of cognitive decline in addition to consideration of language.

Objectives: This study investigated the contents of support provided by public health nurses to needy households in adulthood.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with public health nurses (n=10) enrolled in cities with a population of 100,000 or more in a prefecture about the contents of support for needy households and analyzed the results qualitatively and inductively.

Results: We analyzed 16 cases narrated by 10 public health nurses and developed 9 support categories, including the following 3 core categories; (1) visiting households, caring for residents’ health and life, finding the residents’ needs and hints for supporting them, (2) managing needy households’ health and risks of illness, and (3) developing a diverse support team to maintain community life.

Discussion: The results suggested that public health nurses should care about residents’ health and life by visiting them, identifying their support needs, managing their health and risks of illness, and supporting residents in continuing community life by cooperating with them and developing support teams beyond organizational categories.