This qualitative descriptive study aimed at clarifying the experiences of people who have undergone diagnosis and treatment of cancer in young adulthood, from their viewpoint. Three male young adults were interviewed three times each. Three themes were revealed: Get out of the vicious circle, but cannot get out from under the shadow of cancer (Mr. A); struggling to distance himself from the cancer in daily living, without accepting the state of being ill (Mr. B); regaining identity while wavering (Mr. C).

After the diagnosis, they experienced the feeling they were separated from the past and could only live in the “now”. They were reduced to the confinement of living in their solitary world. The future they believed would come naturally was no longer possible, they could not imagine how they would be in the future. A question repeatedly arose as to their ability to live and perform as a man.

In an effort to support these young men, nurses need to understand that they have experienced a time that is disparate from time in medicine. In addition, nurses should support them by establishing a relationship of trust by including in their conversations matters unrelated to the treatment, or by other means, to create a trigger for them to start talking about their concerns and anguish. This will help them accept themselves and see new value in themselves.

The aim of this study was to investigate the thoughts and feelings of mothers who evacuated to other prefectures in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, during three periods: before evacuation, during evacuation, and after returning to Fukushima Prefecture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for later qualitative analysis with seven mothers who were raising babies and children initially when they evacuated to outside of the prefecture. Due to widespread panic and anxiety about the level of radiation that was not lessened by the complexity and changing nature of the data supplied by the government, the information provided by the mothers in the community convinced them that any radiation would harm their young children. This prompted them to evacuate as a protective measure. During the evacuation period, in addition to the difficulties caused by their sudden move to an unfamiliar location, they endured the hardships of living separated from other family members while raising their children alone, as well as struggling to fit in socially. After returning to Fukushima, they experienced another struggle in human relations with mothers who had not evacuated. They were also worried that their children might be subjected to discrimination. Their fears about the risk that radiation posed to their children’s health is what motivated them to adopt various protective measures, but this resulted in their being unable to give their children the kind of safe and stable life that children need to thrive. I conclude that the thoughts and feelings of mothers who had returned to Fukushima from evacuation to other prefectures need to be well understood. Supporting them by sharing their concerns while providing necessary information on radiation based on this understanding is desirable.

Purpose: This study aims to describe the collaborative activities of Red Cross-nurse-midwives who worked at a disaster base hospital in the area struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and other nurse-midwives dispatched from elsewhere for reasons of the Red Cross to support expecting and nursing mothers.

Method: A focus group interview was conducted with two hospital nurse-midwives and two relief nurse-midwives to collect data, which was then analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Results: Three themes were identified.

(1) Due chiefly to shared Red Cross affiliations and the cooperative nature of midwifery, the dispatched nurse-midwives fully respected the way hospital nurse-midwives worked: The dispatched nurse-midwives were readily able to closely follow the hospital nurse-midwives’ procedures not only because the skill set of midwifery centers on making accommodations to the situation and the person, but also because of their own experience of receiving disaster support from the Red Cross. The dispatched nurse-midwives experienced no problems working alongside the hospital nurse-midwives, whose commitment was appreciated by the hospital nurse-midwives.

(2) Problems in finding pregnant women and challenges caused by inability to provide the usual healthcare guidance: Hospital nurse-midwives and dispatched nurse-midwives worked together to identify issues and resolve problems concerning support for mothers and children after a disaster.

(3) Dispatched nurse-midwives listened to victims who could not relate their experiences to hospital nurse-midwives: The dispatched nurse-midwives supplemented the relationships between hospital nurse-midwives and expecting and nursing mothers who had both been hit by the disaster.

Conclusion: Partnership of nurse-midwives based on the professional characteristics of midwives and the Red Cross resulted in successful cooperation. There remained, however, a challenge with maternity care in the disaster-hit area.

As the role of college in the region, A college has been considering to provide disaster nursing education as a part of incumbent nurse education in cooperation with nearby medical institutions. In 2017, a disaster nursing seminar was held at A college, there were more participants from distant medical institutions rather than nearby institutions. Therefore, in this research, a needs survey was conducted to understand the contents of disaster nursing education sought by medical facilities in the nearby A college. Survey forms were distributed to 169 medical institutions and 31 responses were obtained (response rate 18.3%). 90% of the respondents were nurses, 41% of whom were nursing directors. Hospitals with more than 100 beds accounted for 48% of the responses, and 16% of them were those with 20 to 99 beds. 33% of the responses were from clinics and those with fewer than 20 beds. The background of target facilities, disaster response manual development ratio was 66%. Disaster drills conducting ratio was 77%, and that of training for all staff was 32%. In high needs training, they were seeking basic knowledge such as the types and features of disasters, and differences based on the number of hospital beds between facilities were observed in improvement of equipment in case of disaster and education of staff.

To elucidate the process by which mid-career nurses overcome leaving-the-workforce crises, semi-structured interviews were performed with five nurses with over 10 years’ experience, and qualitative analysis was conducted on the data.

Mid-career nurses fall prey to leaving-the-workforce crises prompted by “work burden and workplace relations changes,” “home and child-rearing environment changes,” and “changes in work/child-rearing values and self-concept.” With respect to these crises, taking a small “work crisis-induced emergency evacuation” break was a modifier for each of the changes. Moreover, experiencing “realization of surrounding support,” “increased interest in nursing,” and “stable child-rearing environment due to support” leading to “reconstruction of career vision” allowed nurses to overcome leaving-the-workforce crises.

In addition to surrounding support, drawing on nurses’ own inner strengths found of the situation and modification of each change were important to overcome leaving-the-workforce crises. As such, the process of mid-career nurses proactively overcoming leaving-the-workforce crisis while utilizing surrounding support was revealed, suggesting that support that utilizes nurses’ inherent strengths is crucial to avoid interrupted career development.