The purpose of this study is to clarify the meaning of living-donor liver transplantation in childhood, and patients’ lives after transplantation for the better understandings of levels of support needed for children and their families who underwent the transplantation. Two subjects were interviewed using a narrative approach. The interviews revealed three common set of minds: “I keep reminding myself I am a transplant patient”; “I am alive because I was let to live”; and, “I feel the donor seems to be by my side unconditionally.” We came to the following conclusions: Patients who underwent living-donor liver transplant in childhood grow up facing many challenges in their later lives. Particularly during adolescence, they struggle because of being a “transplant patient”, which could restrain them from building self-concepts. To foster self-awareness and self-control as a “transplant patient”, it is necessary to support them before they enter adolescence with transition to adulthood in mind. Finally, the study indicates educating the public on “transplant patients” is also an important way to support them.

  This inductive qualitative study aimed to clarify the processes necessary for pediatric nurses to achieve practice that advocates children’s rights. The participants were 14 nurses, with over 5 years of pediatric nursing experience, from 3 facilities at university hospitals located in the Kanto region in Japan. Findings revealed that the core category in this process is “being able to consider children centrally.” This comprised of the following 4 grades, in the following order: ‘One can act as instructed, but cannot consider things independently,’ ‘One obeys the tacit knowledge,’ ‘One can consider children centrally and can move forward,’ and ‘One carries out practice involving everyone, which takes into consideration the standpoint of the children.’

  Further, three abilities were found to affect the intensity of this developed process : ‘confirmation of children’s power,’ ‘contrivance to convey children’s power,’ and ‘attractive emotion to children.’ This process can help to accelerate pediatric nurses reach practices that advocate children’s rights in clinical settings involving children, basic nursing education, on-the-job training, and research in college.

  This study aimed to describe the experience of mothers with small-for-gestational age (SGA) children of short stature undergoing growth hormone (GH) therapy, and to examine the support from the initiation of treatment and during continued treatment. The subjects were four mothers who regularly visited outpatient departments for their SGA children with short stature who underwent GH therapy. A semi-structured interview was conducted with these mothers, and the data were qualitatively and inductively analyzed. The results of the analysis indicated the following five categories as treatment-related experiences of the participants: “constant self-reproach and desires regarding their children because of their short stature”, “mothers struggling with GH therapy”, “a lack of support in treatment”, “sparks of hope found in treatment”, and “their inexhaustible source of worry”. This study suggested that mothers with children with short stature due to SGA are characterized by constant self-reproach regarding their children, and therefore their strong desire to see their children grow was the impetus to continue treatment. However, it was found that they did not receive adequate support from health care providers. In addition, it was suggested that it is necessary to develop a network consisting of multiple families and establish a support system for each treatment period.

  Objective: To elucidate the process by which mothers of children requiring medical care practice medical care at home.

  Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 15 home-living mothers of children requiring medical care. Data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach.

  Results: The three categories of “realize the foundation of care”, “learn to think analytically”, and “become able to sense changes” were generated. Immediately after the child was discharged, mothers judged the child’s status based on oxygen saturation values. Mothers engaged in exploratory behavior, and “realized the foundation of care”. Mothers were subsequently able to “learn to think analytically” during exacerbation of the child’s status, and to “become able to sense” subtle changes in the child.

  Conclusion: The process by which mothers practice medical homecare consisted of three steps, and appropriate nursing support for each step is necessary. During the final step, mothers became more proficient than experts at providing care to their children, and the nurses’ roles were to provide practical support and to make judgments during emergencies.

  The purpose of this study was to extract the necessary components for constructing the self-care nursing theory for children. Two groups interview had been conducted with educator and practitioner groups. Interview date had been documented and analyzed by the researcher group. The result of iterative content analysis eights components was extracted. Those were “self care appropriate child development” “capturing child as an enable agent” “ability of child as an agent” “meaning of dependency and deficit for the child” “ability of dependent care agent” “culture of child rearing and AMAE” “child and parent relationship” “role of parent”. In order to proceed for development of the theory, description of those components in understandable explanation and making clear framework of theory.

  This study aimed to investigate the current circumstances of families raising children with severe mental and physical disabilities who also require tracheostomy management. It also aimed to clarify the content of the care guidance, provided by nurses, and its associated issues. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey was administered to 76 families caring for severely disabled children requiring tracheostomy management who were receiving home-visit nursing care throughout Japan. Data collected from 41 respondents were analyzed (valid response rate: 100%). The results indicated that respondents felt that they also had physical disorders and wished for a refreshing change; however, they were faced with a sense of responsibility to look after their child. Therefore, an appropriate support system that helps families to continue to care for their child at home while they themselves receive adequate rest is required. Furthermore, families required different features of support from the hospital and home-visit nurses; they also wanted nurses to provide seamless and consistent care at the hospital and at home. It is important that both hospital and home-visit nurses understand the different needs of families. Further, enhancing respective roles and coordination of hospital and home-visit nursing is required.

  The purpose of this study was to clarify the kinds of student learning aimed for the pediatric nursing practice of basic education as seen by Certified Nurse Specialists in Child Health Nursing(CNSs).

  The research participants were seven CNSs with experience as instructors of pediatric nursing practice at a nursing college. A semi-structured interview method was conducted for about one hour usually with three CNSs at a time in group interviews or individual interviews. The data obtained was compared and reviewed, and the important elements extracted.

  CNSs ware thinking to be important that the students come to feel “this is what children are like”. CNSs expected the students come to experience the actual reaction of a child and understand the perspective of the child, coming to realize what a natural reaction for a child is. Further CNSs considered to want that the students come to learn to connect the special circumstances of a child having fallen ill with how they would develop under ordinary mental, physical, and social conditions, in order to understand the children and their families and the students come to realize it is wrong to see children simply as patients. CNSs expected the students come to gain the ability to see what children need to move forward in order to overcome the imposition on their lifestyle so as to not obstruct their personal development.