Anxiety and difficulty in administering medication to nursery school children has been reported among nursery school teachers. This study aimed to elucidate these issues and explore the possibility of pharmacist support and collaboration. We conducted a postal survey in September 2019 among nursery schools in Tokyo that are categorized as government-authorized schools, certified childcare centers, and prefectural governor-certified schools. A total of 1,537 schools responded to the self-report questionnaires (response rate: 41.2%), and 1,533 responses were analyzed. Of these, 1,488 schools were asked if they would accept requests to administer medication to their school children, and 60.1% of the nursery schools responded that their staff (including teachers and nurses) found it difficult to administer medication. The issues identified included psychological burdens (such as nervousness and pressure about giving the correct medication), staff shortage, insufficient time with the children, and human factors (such as personal perceptions of medication). Additionally, excessive requests to administer medication, caregiver behavior such as low awareness of children’s health and appropriate medication, and poor medication adherence at home were identified as issues. It was suggested that pharmacists could help alleviate these problems through their daily work at the pharmacy. Approximately 49-62% of schools responded that they would request the collaboration of community pharmacists to conduct training sessions for nursery school staff, provide health support for caregivers, and provide general health and medication consultations. The collaboration between nursery schools and community pharmacists may gain importance in the future.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the use of goreisan for headaches caused by weather and atmospheric pressure changes, and to clarify issues in promoting treatment with goreisan. The subjects were men and women in their 20s to 40s who developed headaches due to changes in weather and atmospheric pressure. Medication was used by 58.0% of the migraine group and 42.5% of the other headaches group. Among them, 27.5% of the migraine group and 15.1% of the other headaches group had used goreisan. Regarding the method of use of goreisan, the most common answer for the migraine group was “used after feeling a sign that headache is likely to occur,” whereas for the other headaches group, the most common response was “used after headache has occurred.” In the migraine group, the most frequent premonitory symptom was “stiffness in the shoulders and neck.” More than 80% of both groups were satisfied with the use of goreisan. In addition, 77.8% of migraine group and 59.5% of the other headaches group of those who had never used goreisan answered that they would like to use goreisan for headaches caused by weather or atmospheric pressure changes in the future. As a reason for not wanting to use goreisan, over half of both groups answered that they did not like the taste of herbal medicines. It is necessary to offer tablets to patients that do not like the taste.

Although the fees for the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship (AS addition) were newly established in the 2018 revision of medical fees, more detailed activities and issues of pharmacists at facilities calculating AS addition have not been clarified so far. Therefore, to understand the current status of AS activities and problems, we conducted a questionnaire survey of facilities that calculate the additional fee for infection prevention measures 1 and investigated whether there are differences in AS activities between facilities where pharmacists are full-time employees and facilities where non-pharmacists are full-time employees. The results showed that the number of antimicrobial agents used by full-time pharmacists was larger than that by non-pharmacists. In addition, the frequency of AS was lower for non-full-time workers than for full-time workers, with most full-time workers performing AS every day, while non-full-time workers performing AS two to three days a week. In addition, non-full-time workers lacked human resources and work time, and did not have sufficient work materials. The survey revealed that AS activities’ current status and problems differ between full-time and non-full-time employees.