This study was designed to evaluate the relationships between subjective well-being and working condition, lifestyle or work-related stress among female nurses in a general hospital. A self-administered questionnaire survey on the related determinants was performed among 318 female nurses with the occupational career of one year or more (age : 35.6±11.3 years). The subjects were divided into three groups based on the degree of subjective well-being (high, moderate, and low). Work-related stress was grasped by using a new version of the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (New BJSQ). Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. High subjective well-being was significantly related to the scores of suitable jobs (odds ratio, 1.83), coworker support (odds ratio, 1.24), support from family and friends (odds ratio, 1.30) and career development (odds ratio, 2.54) among job resources (p<0.01 or p<0.05). High subjective well-being was significantly related to the scores of vigor (odds ratio, 1.24), depression (odds ratio, 0.87), family life satisfaction (odds ratio, 3.03) and work engagement (odds ratio, 1.05), among outcomes (p<0.01). These results suggest that high subjective well-being of female nurses with the occupational career of one year and/or more is significantly related to job resources.

[Objective] We aimed to clarify details of the relationship between assertiveness and burnout among female novice nurses.

[Methods] The directors at 17 hospitals agreed to a request for cooperation. During a three-month period from September to November 2015, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to novice nurses. The Novice Nurse Assertiveness Scale (NNAS) and the Japanese version of Maslach Burnout Inventory (J-MBI) were employed as scales.

[Results] To exclude effects of gender and specialization on the means (NNAS & J-MBI), we determined to analyze 645 female novice nurses among the respondents. The mean age, NNAS and MBI was 22.60±3.07, 67.4±10.1 and 11.3±2.2, respectively. The adjusted R2-value was 0.46 giving a 46.0% explanation rate. The multiple regression analysis showed that all subordinate scales were related to burnout : persons who showed passive and superficial self-expression towards acceptance of improper evaluations by others (acceptance of improper evaluations : β＝0.10, P<0.01) ; superficially reserved, non-assertive self-expression to show consideration towards others (non-assertive : β＝0.13, P<0.01) ; with inappropriate, unresponsive, and aggressive self-expression to ensure own interests (unresponsive or aggressive : β＝－0.11, P<0.01), had β values above 0.1. Other variables where β was above 0.1 were workplace satisfaction, intention to leave, and workload.

[Conclusion] Non-assertive novice nurses tend to develop burnout more easily. Expressed differently, novice nurses with self-expression characteristics such as “superficial acceptance of improper evaluations”, or appearing as “non-assertive”, “unresponsive and aggressive” may be the more exposed to develop burnout.

Interviews were conducted with 5 relatively new nurses who have worked more than 6 months at a general acute hospital to qualitatively clarify what kind of support they received to overcome any negative feelings they experienced from attending at a patient’s deathbed, then learn and lead the support to develop their working skills. Interview contents were coded and summarized into 7 categories : [Realizing that a lack of knowledge is dangerous], [Defining the experience of attending a patient’s deathbed is an important process in a nurse’s development], [Understanding the importance and practicing of being involved with patients and their families with respect], [Being able to develop my skills through the precise evaluation and guidance of senior nurses], [Practicing what I can], [Setting the goal of being like the senior nurses] and [Being able to maintain a safe and positive feeling from the atmosphere of the hospital ward]

To let new nurses to learn and develop from their deathbed attending experiences, it is absolutely imperative to guarantee a place where they can feel comfortable as part of the nursing team in their ward. Such a guaranteed place provides the comforting feeling of being an able team member even if they cannot do much as an individual and obtain help from senior nurses when they have problems. Additionally, they can adequately accept their superiors’ guidance and education with full understanding. Then, with enough nursing practice they’ll develop an attitude allowing to see the deathbed attending experience as an important one when reflecting back on their own training by superior nurses. This allows new nurses to hold their superiors as an ideal while nurturing the belief that their deathbed attending experience was an important facet in their development. New nurses who try to increase the items they can be proficient in, including making an effort to gain knowledge, and repeatedly practicing and enforcing their skills, can positively define their position in their ward nursing team.

To clarify characteristics and related factors of recovery attitude of nurses at psychiatric institutions, a self-administered questionnaire was administered to 455 nurses working for two psychiatric institutions. The investigation items were as follows : 1) attributes, 2) recovery attitude (Japanese version of the 7-item Recovery Attitudes Questionnaire : RAQ-7), 3) recovery knowledge (using Japanese version of Recovery Knowledge Inventory : RKI), 4) awareness of recovery, 5) interest in recovery, 6) training attitude, 7) recovery training experience, 8) Number of people who know mentally disabled people in the recovery process, 9) presence of support experience based on recovery concept, and 10) optimism (using optimism scale consisted of two factors of “Maemukisa” ［positive thinking］ and “Kirakusa” ［easy going or not warrying attitude］).

There was a total of 315 subjects (valid response rate : 69.2%) ; 55.8% were women and 44.2% were men, mean age (mean±SD) was 40.4±9.8 years, mean nursing experience was 16.9±10.0 years, mean psychiatric institutions experience was 13.1±9.1 years. RAQ-7 total score was 27.2±2.7 points; by item, the score for “People differ in the way they recovery from a mental illness” was the highest (4.3±0.6 points), and “All people with serious mental illnesses can strive for recovery” was the lowest (3.3±0.9 points). Among 315 samples, 198 persons were aware of the concept of recovery. Only 12 persons-3.8% of all samples and 6.1% of those who were aware of the concept-conducted support based on the concept. However RAQ-7 score was significantly higher in persons who knew about recovery in comparison with persons who had recovery support experience, persons who actively participated in training, persons with an interest in recovery, and persons who did not know about recovery. RAQ-7 score was not correlated with RKI score, and a weak positive correlation (r＝0.194) was observed only for “Maemukisa” optimism.

Although the number of persons with recovery support experience was small, RAQ-7 total score was higher than in previous studies targeting general psychiatric professionals. The attitude of nurses who support the social reintegration of patients appears to lead to high recovery attitude. However, nurses emphasize individuality in recovery but are more likely to be pessimistic. Thus, education concerning recovery is important.

In order to improve the recovery attitude of nurses, it is important to cultivate an attitude to ambitiously incorporate intentionality into learning, and to promote understanding of the concept of recovery. It also appears that consideration of “Maemukisa” optimism and education incorporating a more practical program are necessary.

We have continued to hold addiction seminars at the university in the Kanto area targeting university students who are members of society. In order to examine the significance and usefulness of the addiction seminar, we conducted a focus group interview with students who continued to participate in these seminars. The interview guide included the question : “What did you learn and experience through the addiction seminars?” We analyzed the contents of interview qualitatively and inductively. As a result, we found six core categories : “the addiction as a problem familiar to everyone,” “know the essence of addiction” “being able to see what was not seen,” “feeling the threat of addiction again,” “knowing the possibility of recovery,” “the advantage and problems in the future of the addiction seminar,” in addition to the sixteen categories attached to them. The students participated in the seminar out of concern regarding the addiction problem and for people who had it. While learning about addiction and its case studies, they realized that addiction is neither others’ problem, nor that of the addicted person himself. Additionally, they learnt about addiction’s triggers, patterns, and that it is an illness. Furthermore, they realized the threat of addiction after the experience of being able to know what was previously unknown to them, including awareness of their own problems and the change of viewpoints regarding the phenomenon. Moreover, they realized that one can recover from addiction because it is an illness. They were explained the process of recovery, the meaning of contents covered in the addiction seminar, and the expectations regarding the seminar. As they were linking their learning from the addiction seminar to social issues such as enlightenment, the usefulness of the addiction seminar for university students who are members of society is suggested.

Objectives : To clarify the elements promoting collaboration among professionals and administrative officials and local residents involved in community-based integrated care.

Methods : Based on the description of eleven cases of “The community-based integrated care system case collection”, phrases that could judge the contents concerning the promotion of collaboration were collected. We analyzed the phrases qualitatively and inductively.

Results : One hundred seventy nine phrases from the description of the report were derived, and they were summarized in 38 codes, 10 subcategories, and 4 categories. The categories are : “existence of various foundations necessary for community collaboration” and “intentional approach capturing opportunities in the community” with two subcategories respectively, “activity development to practice high quality community-based integrated care” with four subcategories, and “positive relationship formation toward the same purpose” with two subcategories.

Conclusion : It has become clear there are four elements promoting collaboration among individuals involved in community-based integrated care. Collaboration, which was induced by “intentional approach capturing opportunities in the community” via administrative officials, more easily move with “existence of various foundations necessary for community collaboration”, and these two categories are the elements that induce and move collaboration in the community. With the basic philosophy and attitude of community-based integrated care, stakeholders offer the support to the local residents according to the present situation as “activity development to practice high quality community-based integrated care” through “positive relationship formation toward the same purpose”, and these two categories are the elements that activate community collaboration.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the present situation and related factors of employment of and intention to employ novice nurses by home-visit nursing stations in a city.

An anonymous questionnaire survey was mailed to the managers of all 248 visiting nursing stations of Yokohama City in March 2016. Of them, 66 replied. Moreover, 37.9% stations answered that “We want to employ novice nurses” or “We intend to employ novice nurses.” Three stations had the experience of employing novice nurses. There were no statistically significant factors related to the intention to employ novice nurses among the characteristics of stations surveyed. Intending to train hospital nurses and employ novice nurses tended to associated.

More studies are needed to identify ways to increase the employment of novice nurses at home-visit nursing stations.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in 45 elderly people who participated in public hall activities (exercise and cooking activities etc.) in Kurayoshi city, Tottori prefecture, to clarify the actual state of knowledge of locomotive syndrome and any preventive behavior in the elderly in local cities. The percentage of persons who knew the term “locomotive syndrome” was 65.9%, which was higher than the national average of 44.4%. There was a difference in exercise habits between the group of persons who knew the meaning of “locomotive syndrome” and the group of persons who did not know the term. After practical education about locomotive syndrome, the percentage of persons who understood the meaning of “locomotive syndrome” became higher, and most of the subjects began to consider exercising at home. The practical education about locomotive syndrome was effective in establishing exercise habits that could result in the prevention of locomotive syndrome.

Purpose : This study aims to investigate the current situation of research into negative feelings nurses develop towards patients and measures to take against such feelings.

Methods : We searched the Ichushi Web databases, using the key terms : “nurses” and “negative feelings”, “negative emotion”, or “Geriatric Health Service Facility” published from 1985 to July 2017, and identified and analyzed forty articles related to “negative feelings” of nurses towards patients. The articles were organized by author, purpose, subject, methods, and results. The forty articles included studies that define the concept of negative feelings, and some related to scales to measure negative feelings of nurses towards patients. Further, the contents of the articles were classified for situations where negative feelings are likely to occur, the conditions preceding the occurrence of the negative feelings, the negative feelings described in the articles, situations that caused the negative feelings, and coping methods when negative feelings have been experienced.

Results and Discussion : Studies of negative feelings of nurses towards patients first appeared in 1995, since then the number of research reports on this topic has gradually increased. For classification by ward, 65% of the articles found for this study focused on nurses in psychiatry departments, and 35% were with nurses in other departments. No articles that focused on nurses working outside hospitals were located. When qualitatively analyzed, the negative feelings of nurses were categorized by the conditions preceding the occurrence of the negative feelings, the types of negative feelings, situations that caused the negative feelings, and coping methods when negative feelings have been experienced. We found only one scale, developed by Matsuura et al¹¹⁾, related to negative feelings of nurses: “Developing a negative feeling toward patient frequency scale”. It is necessary to develop scales to measure negative feelings that reflect the characteristics of nurses as reported in previous studies. As the number of quantitative studies in this topic is small, it may be difficult to conduct empirical research into this topic. However, these findings suggest the necessity to conduct empirical research into the negative feelings of nurses that identify related and influencing factors. Further, it may be desirable for nurses to be aware of the conditions leading to the development of negative feelings towards patients, and with an awareness of the negative feelings, attempt to cope with the stress as well as to try to solve the problems giving rise to the situation.