This study was carried out to clarify the feelings of type 2 diabetes patients living away from family through qualitative factor analysis. We conducted non-structured interviews with 10 participants for continual comparative analyses.
While type 2 diabetes patients living alone decided to live alone for their own reasons, they also adjusted psychological distance from family. The adjusted psychological distance from family is associated with patient preparation for glycemic control and patient feelings about living alone, and patients expressed feelings about living alone more than preparation for living alone. This study also revealed that patient preparation for glycemic control is connected with patient feelings about glycemic control through lifestyle modification, and that psychological distance from family is associated with feelings about family.
The results of this study suggest the need to understand the manner in which type 2 diabetes patients adjust psychological distance from family and the need to provide help in living alone for ideal care because the adjustment of psychological distance from family has a significant impact on patient feelings about living alone and patient preparation for living alone.

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In the field of nursing, the importance of "putting oneself in the patient's place" has been emphasized. However, there is no evidence regarding such a thinking process in nurse. On the other hand, in the field of psychology, there is a term that means "putting oneself in the other's place", "perspective-taking", "the thinking process in which nurses put themselves in the patients' perspective. This study aims to examine how patients' unconscious denial causes their nurses to misunderstand their perspective and how it affects nursing care. Using a case story of a nurse and patient scheduled to undergo colostomy, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 141 nurses working at general hospitals. The results of our study suggest that patients' remarks arising from unconscious denial are likely to mislead nurses to take inappropriately optimistic perspective of their patients. Further, even if new information is provided to the nurses, they tend to stick to their initial assumptions about their patients without modifying them. This tendency is also a likely cause of the nurses adopting inappropriate perspective. With regard to the association between the patients' perspective and nursing care, the results suggest that having inappropriately optimistic perspective incurs the risk of providing inappropriate nursing care.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the structure of critical thinking disposition of nursing students and those in nursing education institutions. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,332 nursing students in the final grade of 49 nursing education institutions using the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (consisting of four categories and 33 items) created by Hirayama. The questionnaire was answered by 715 students, and an exploratory factor analysis and covariance structure analysis were performed.
The results confirmed that the whole critical thinking disposition of nursing students consisted of 4 factors, "inquisitiveness," "analyticity" "maturity for thinking", and "open-mindedness," and 24 items. The findings suggested that the nursing process, which is the main educational content in nursing practice, affects this factor structure. In addition, when compared among nursing education institutions, the structure of critical thinking disposition was different between two-year nursing schools and other educational institutions, the main causes of which were speculated to be the high mean age and influence of work experience of students in two-year nursing schools.

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We investigated the alleviation of postpartum stress with 15-minutes of reflexology in 12 puerperant 28-40 year-old women who had given birth for the first time and delivered with no complications. We used the Japanese short version of "Profile of Mood States" (POMS) to evaluate their psychological reaction and salivary chromogranin-A and salivary cortisol to evaluate their physiological reaction. As a result, while implementing reflexology the Japanese short version of "Profile of Mood States" (POMS) reduced the nervousness (anxiety) and depression (feeling down). When comparing the group in which reflexology was implemented and the group that had rested, the salivary cortisol had decreased more in the former group. These results suggest that relaxation and decrease in depression must be the psychological reactions and alleviation of stress must be a physiological reaction to reflexology.

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This study examines the skills by which visiting nurses understand the will of their home resident elderly patients with regard to terminal medical care. Data were collected from 12 nurses with regard to their method of determining their patients' will concerning terminal medical care using semi-structured interviews. The data obtained were analyzed using content analysis.The visiting nurses' understanding of their patients' will was based on two key factors: status and skill. Status consisted of six categories, such as "it is uncertain when the terminal period starts;" "the patient is unaware that he or she is at the terminal stage;" "the circumstances change;" and "many patients are unable to communicate." Skill comprised eight categories, such as "understanding the patient's will from how he or she would like to spend their time;" "understanding the patient's will through their day-to-day communication;" and "interpreting the patient's will from their lifestyle." Visiting nurses use these skills in coping with the difficult issue of understanding their patients' will.

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This study aimed to clarify the feelings of mothers whose children were emergently admitted to hospital for the first time. We performed an inductive analysis of qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews of six mothers accompanying their children, aged between 0 and 6 years.
　During the period between the onset of symptoms and outpatient visit, these mothers were "anxious and restless because the child's symptoms did not improve" and "satisfied with, and distrustful of medical professionals' handling and response". They also felt "relieved to have support from family members". During the next phase when the child's hospitalization was determined and they were led to the child's hospital room, these mothers felt "worried and relieved about the fact that the child has been hospitalized", as well as "perplexed and reassured that the child is receiving medical treatment". They were, on the one hand, "worried about future prospects" and "anxious in anticipation of life during hospitalization". They also felt "aware of the importance of receiving cooperative support from their surroundings". In the subsequent period until the child's discharge from hospital, these mothers were "sensitive to every change in the child's symptoms" and "concerned about how to deal with possible symptoms in the future". They looked "perplexed about being in a hospital setting". At the same time, however, they were "relieved to receive support from family members". Furthermore, it was found that these mothers became "aware of their own physical conditions" during this period.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify how families of cancer patients receiving outpatient palliative care performed care behaviors for patients. Subjects were the families of 10 cancer patients undergoing pain control in outpatient palliative care. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Analysis was conducted using the modified grounded theory approach. Care behaviors of family members of cancer patients included "understanding the cancer status", "support for patients' life during medical treatment", and "supporting treatment". These care behaviors were affected by "perspectives on the patient with cancer", how cancer patients' families viewed patients in daily life. The above showed that the care behaviors of families of cancer patients receiving outpatient palliative care include both support care behaviors for patients during treatment, who experience fluctuations in physical and mental state, and care behaviors to promote treatment that wishes for recovery.

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This research aims to develop an evaluation scale related to the understanding of children by nursing students attending three-year courses at nursing vocational schools, and to elucidate the scale's reliability and validity. A total of 1456 third-year nursing students attending three-year courses at nursing vocational schools were involved in this research. After selecting the items, factor analysis and principal component analysis were performed. As a result, an evaluation scale related to the understanding of children was constructed, which comprised a total of 30 items and four subscales: 'development of intellectual, emotional and social functions', 'experience of children with health impairments', 'body physiology characteristics' and 'autonomy'. Internal consistency was confirmed with an overall Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of .94 for the 30 items and a Cronbach's α coefficient of .921, which ranged from .751 to .862 within the four sub-domains. This scale is considered useful for educational evaluations conducted from the perspective of understanding children in the pediatric nursing curriculum of three-year courses at nursing vocational schools.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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An investigation of research literature published in the 15 years spanning 1994 to 2008 was conducted for the purpose of clarifying issues surrounding the promotion of the wearing of gloves as a protective measure against infection in medical workplaces.
The search resulted in 870 articles over the 15-year period. In terms of numerical output of research literature, there was a steady pattern of 15-21 publications per annum in the period from 1994 to 1999, increasing dramatically from 2000. The main content was research related to "allergies" caused by wearing gloves, accounting for 181 items (20.8%), followed by 168 items (19.3%) concerning "how to use gloves". In terms of shifts in focus, the increase in "current situation of use" stoodout with a maximum 44 items in 2008, followed by 23 items for "education". From now on, the present situation needs to be used as a base for interventional research aimed at promoting the wearing of gloves. Additionally, studies examining infection (needle-stick incidents, MRSA etc.) caused by not wearing gloves and cost studies related to such infection are important as research evaluating the economic impact of glove-wearing as protection against infection.

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This study aims to review the research conducted on cancer patients' psychological adaptation to recommend topics for future studies. Since being reported by the research in 1983, the state of psychological adaptation to the cancer has not substantially changed to date. The concept of stress management changed the vulnerable image of cancer patients from the 1970's, when the study of cancer patients began emphasizing the patients' strength. The concept of "Meaning" was adopted in the 1990's and thereafter. After searching for meaning, cancer patients reconstruct their self-concepts, give them meaning and then adapt to the new self management of their disease. The process of searching for meaning has been identified in Japan, with results corresponding to those of previous research in Europe and America. The research on cancer patients searching for meaning in Europe and America has evolved to studies on related factors and interventions. In the future, Japan should proceed with similar research.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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This study aimed to examine how factors such as personal attributes, locus of control, and risk-seeking tendency are related to the risk-taking behavior that nurses unintentionally engage in at work, while being well aware of the consequences it would have on their patients. A self-report questionnaire was mailed to 907 registered or practical nurses working at hospitals in Japan with more than 500 beds. Six hundred and ten of them returned valid responses. Analysis of the responses found that, of the nurses who answered that they had engaged in risk-taking behavior, an average of 40.1 percent of them engaged in all of the seventeen types of risk-taking behavior listed on the questionnaire. It also revealed that nurses' risktaking behavior was related to their age, years of nursing experience, locus of control, and risk-seeking tendency in such ways that nurses who were younger were more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior, while nurses who had more years of nursing experience tended to interrupt their work or help patients to walk or transfer themselves violating the two-nurse rule for assistance. The latter group of nurses was also inclined to reflect their loci of control and behavioral tendencies in their daily lives in work.

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