The present study was undertaken to develop a stressor scale for evaluating stressors to which teachers at nursing schools are occupationally exposed. The author prepared a conceptual framework concerning stressors for nursing teachers by analyzing and reviewing the literature. In a pilot study using this framework, the author asked 50 nursing-school teachers to answer questions using the free entry method. Then, the author prepared a questionnaire on stressors and conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate stressors to which the teachers were exposed. The survey involved 450 teachers working at nursing schools across the country. Responses were collected from 227 teachers. The age of the responders was 41.9 years (mean). On the basis of the results from factor analysis, the author created a stressor scale for nursing teachers composed of 9 factors and 57 items. The 9 factors were "dealing with students", "workshop environments", "teacher's qualifications", "work load", "dealing with problems", "educational methods", "relationships among teachers", "research resources" and "improving teaching skills." This scale was highly reliable (α= 0.82～0.96). The validity of this scale had a close correlation with the other related scales (r = 0.54 with an anxiety scale and r = 0.56 with a burnout scale).

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We undertook a qualitative factor analysis study to clarify some aspects of practical nursing care for chronically ill patients. Using the grounded theory, we conducted on-site observations at 3 internal medicine wards in 2 medium-sized hospitals and interviewed nurses who had worked for 1 to 5 years on this type of ward. We then interviewed nurses working in other fields. The study revealed that when nurses learn skills of practical care for chronically ill patients, the influences of this type of nursing environment shape the core of learning. Phases in learning can be characterized by "learning processes" or "deviations from learning processes". "Learning processes" are made up of "retention cycles" and "processes of progress". The processes of progress lead to acquisition of the "learning contents". In wards where chronically ill patients are cared for, deviations from learning processes and cycles of retention are likely to occur, perhaps making it difficult for nurses to acquire the necessary skills for providing care to chronically ill patients. These findings suggest the importance of adjusting for the influences of nursing environments and intentionally creating processes of progress, to promote acquisition of the nursing skills necessary for the practical care for chronically ill patients.

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To consider the optimal technique for backrest elevation from a supine position to a seated position, we evaluated stresses on the body during backrest elevation, lying in different locations with different knee elevation positions on a Gatch bed in 50 healthy women. When the body was in a more cephalad position (superior anterior iliac spine located cephalad to the flexion point of the backrest), stresses to the upper body (shift of head, shearing force to the scapular region, and load on the back ) during backrest elevation were minimal compared with those in other positions. When the body was positioned on the flexion point, shearing force of sacral region was minimal compared with that in other positions. However, when the body was positioned caudal to the flexion point, shift of the foot was minimal, but stresses to the upper body were the greatest compared with those in other positions. Knee elevation before backrest elevation tended to increase stresses to the upper body compared to the occurring when knee elevation was performed after backrest elevation. Body size (height and weight) and shearing force in the sacral region were positively correlated when the body was positioned on the flexion point, while weight and shearing force of scapular region were negatively correlated, when the body was positioned cephalad to the flexion point.

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The results of education of basic counseling skills in a class of basic nursing for nursing collage students were evaluated. A questionnaire was performed before and after the class in 64 third-year students using a scale of conversational human relationship formation skills consisting of 60 items selected primarily from the Social Skills Scale (Kiss-18) of Kikuchi and Horige (2002) and a scale of basic human relationship formation ability consisting of 50 items selected primarily from the Affability Scale (HIT-44) of Kikuchi (2002). The scores of the third factor (self-consistency) and fourth factor (listening), and the total score of the 4 factors of the scale of conversational human relationship formation skill were significantly higher after the class than before the class. However, no significant difference was observed in the score of the first factor (affirmative considerations) or the second factor (sympathetic understanding) between before and after the class. The score of the fourth factor (sympathy) and the total score of the 4 factors of the scale of basic human relationship formation ability were significantly higher after the class than before the class. However, no significant difference was observed in the score of the first factor (emotional control), second factor (harmonization), or third factor (wittiness) between before and after the class.

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The purpose of this study was examine the relationship between caregiver situation including fatigue and burden in class III, IV Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients of caregiver. Objects are 71 RA patients (7 men, 64 women, average age 64.3, desease period 19.5) and the primary caregiver (48 men, 23 women, average age 61.9). The investigation method performed the listening comprehension investigation and the account type questionnaire (Zarit burden scale and Cumulative Fatigue Symptoms Index) by interview. As a result, (1) primary caregiver was burden average score 16.6, and caregiver fatigue average score was General fatigue 36.5, Chronic tiredness 35.2, Decreased vitality 27.6, Anxiety 23.7, Irritability 23.6, Depressive feeling 20.2, Physical disorders 20.1. (2) A feeling of a care burden and fatigue signs were related closely. and mental fatigue reinforced a care burden feeling, and that it was connected was suggested by obstructing health of the main caretaker.

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This research examined the contents loss experience gives the significance contents, and the process it comes to give the significance process from the words of the wife who lost the husband. The half-composition interview was carried out.
Consequently, the contents loss experience gives the significance contents are husband and wife as sense of security like air whose husband is, a husband-and-wife sense of togetherness, two-husband and wife's world, and a partner. And the existence as husband and wife led to these. The significance is given and the contents are these husbands without actual existence of a wife, and the form, which reconstructed the existence as husband, and wife. Moreover, the process of loss experience begins from the recognition of losing it through which it notices and passes, while death is accepted because there is no actual existence of the husband who is at hand, and the existence as husband and wife becomes clear.
Since stability collapses in the face of the actual self, who lost the husband through death, the relation with the husband after death is reconstructed as a form of the existence as husband and wife, and it can explain as a process, which tends toward gaining self-stability.

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This study aims to clarify how the nursing students' empathy is changed by the nursing education. The subjects were the students of nursing Junior College in 1999 and 2001. The Davis' Interpersonal Reactivity Index compared each academic year cross-sectionally along with each of its results. The empathy of the first year students of 1999 and that of the third year students of 2001 were compared diachronically.
Both cross-sectional studies show that the empathic concern of the second year students was lowest among the three. The diachronic study shows that the empathy of the first year students in 1999 was not different from that of the students who were in their third year in 2001.
It is conceivable that the change of the nursing students' empathy through the nursing education is that the empathic concern becomes lower in the second year and recovers in the third year. In order to foster the empathy, in the education of clinical practice, it is necessary for the nursing students to feel the pain of patients as if it were their own, moreover, it is also necessary to educate them that they feel they would want to reduce the pain of the patients if possible.

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The purpose of this study was to develop SCL (Story-Case Learning) as education method program in oncology nursing. Theoretical framework used three concept that 'adaptation' based on the theory by Margaret A. Newman, 'option' based on the theory by Sheila A. Corcoran-Perry, 'adjustment' based on the theory by Johnson and Morse. The method of education had used the story of paper patient having cancer on the process of lecture and group work. Subjects were 77 students of second-year class in college. These results suggested total 27 codes from three categories. Students indicated eight cords as the option of life in the treatment process of patient that focused the anxiety from insufficiency informed consent in patient life. They also indicated nine cords as adaptation to disease from potential anxiety to actual anxiety in uncertainty process. They indicated ten cords as adjustment on life as the primary factor of influence to life.

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This study was conducted to clarify the subjects' psychological factors and pattern of decision-making when authorizing care as part of psychiatric nursing training. The subjects consisted of ten patients who were hospitalized in the rehabilitation ward and had one or more experiences of authorizing such care. They gave consent to participate in the study. The qualitative and practical study was carried out by asking for participant's observations and conducting semi-structured interviews. The results were as follows: 1) four categories, "satisfaction with care by students" and "expected for nursing training" , "pressure of responsibility towards nursing training" and "student's inexperience in nursing techniques", including eight sub-categories were extracted as psychological factors in decision-making when authorizing such care. 2) decision-making by patients who authorized care was classified into three patterns: the affirmative type, the compromising type, and the mixed type. These results suggest that recognizing the importance of nurses to appreciate patients' decision-making as well as the details in authorizing care will lead a better understanding of the subjects.

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