Objective: In pharmacy school, most faculty members use generic names when discussing medicine; however, in clinical clerkships, most staff members use brand names. This sometimes leads to poor communication and understanding between the students and medical staff.  The purpose of this study was to clarify the need for a tool to improve communication and understanding in relation to drug information.  Based on the findings of this survey, our secondary aim was to develop and subsequently evaluate such a tool.
Methods: To clarify the need for a self-learning tool, we conducted a questionnaire survey on 58 faculty members who teach courses on drug informatics.  Based on their responses, we then developed a self-learning tool that was subsequently evaluated by a total of 78 undergraduate students.
Results: Most of the faculty agreed concerning the necessity of a self-learning tool for drug information, particularly in regard to the establishment of a more user-friendly system and reduced user fees for students.  The faculty also believed that students should be able to associate the generic drug name with various kinds of information, including its safety, efficacy, and brand name.  All students agreed that the tool was helpful, very easy to use, and could be learned during their commute to school.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that most faculty members support the idea of having a tool capable of promoting a better understanding and grasp of drug information.  Therefore, our self-learning tool should be helpful in promoting increased knowledge concerning drug information for students in clinical clerkships.

In Japan, community–based education remains uncommon in undergraduate programs for students in schools of health sciences. The purpose of this study was to examine how students are affected by their participation in off–campus classes, which are considered as a main course of community–based education at the School of Health Sciences, Gunma University.
1)Reports submitted by students after participating in off–campus classes were broken down into sentences (with care being taken that each sentence made sense). The extracted sentences were carefully consolidated by means of the Kawakita Jiro method (affinity diagram).
2)A total of 972 sentences were extracted and were categorized into 3 categories: "enjoy going out to the community," "increased activity through experiences," "awareness of what one wants to be and one's insufficient abilities." Five middle–sized categories and 10 small categories were obtained.
3)Experiences in off–campus classes are expected to increase the activity of students and to have synergic effects with on–campus classes.
4)Community–based education might be effectively included in undergraduate programs for students in schools of health sciences.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of continuous patient education on pain control in outpatients based on changes in pain intensity scores and occurrence of opioid-related adverse effects. Methods: The education intervention was conducted in the following phases; 1) interview at the first visit for opioid introduction, 2) telephone follow-up at home 3 to 7 days after introducing opioid analgesics, and 3) interview at the next visit. Pain intensity scores; frequency of rescue dose; and occurrence of adverse opioid-related effects such as constipation, nausea, and drowsiness were compared among the three intervention phases. Results: When comparing data at phase 2 and 3 with those at phase 1, daily maximum pain score decreased significantly, frequency of rescue dose and opioid dosage increased significantly, and occurrence rates of constipation decreased. Conclusion: Continuous patient education by pharmacist intervention based on not only patient visit interviews but also telephone communication on non-visiting days can improve the pain intensity scores and reduce the rate of opioid-related adverse effects for cancer outpatients.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the length of hospitalization of elderly patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) in an acute care hospital, where general practitioners treat the majority of them.Methods: Subjects were patients aged ≥ 65 years with UTI who were admitted to our hospital between April 2019 and March 2021. The primary endpoint was the length of hospital stay on an acute care ward. Factors associated with the primary endpoint were detected using logistic regression analysis with several explanatory variables (patients' baseline characteristics, laboratory findings, and interventions during hospitalization).Results: In total, 143 cases were eligible for analysis (88±7 years old, 37% male). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that: Charlson Comorbidity Index ≥ 6, complex UTI with urologist's assessment, and the score of the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) on admission were significant factors correlated with the length of hospitalization (odds ratios: 5.07, 0.13, and 0.30, respectively).Conclusion: In older patients with UTI, CCI≥6, UTI without urologist's assessment, and a lower score of FOIS may prolong the length of stay in an acute care hospital.

Purpose and Method: It is known that people have insufficient recognition about hospital-based palliative care units (PCUs). Patients with cancer and their families are probably not well informed about PCUs on its admission. To understand the situation of patients and their families before and after PCU admission, a questionnaire survey was performed and evaluated by PCU nurses. Result: As a result, two points regarding PCU admission have become clear. First, about 55％ of the nurses reported that prior to PCU admission, patients and family members lacked proper information about PCUs; about 62% of the nurses felt that PCUs had not been appropriately explained to the patients; and about 37% of the nurses felt that family members had not received an appropriate explanation of PCUs at the time of PCU admission. Second, before PCU admission, the main concern of patients and their families was proper utilization of PCUs. After admission, their main concerns were the extent of treatment provided in the PCU and the progress of the disease. Conclution: These results suggest that appropriate information on PCUs, including the scope of treatment provided to patients and the requirements for PCU admission, is necessary for general ward staff as well as for the patients and their families prior to PCU admission.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine common experiences among patients and primary family caregivers as they transition to hospice and palliative care units (PCU), with focus on the perspectives of cancer patients and their primary family caregivers. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews using a questionnaire with a purposive sample of 5 terminal cancer patients and 9 primary family members of patients who were admitted to the PCU from November 2005 to December 2006. The questionnaires consisted of questions about the PCU, and semi-structured interviews inquired about perceptions of the PCU. We analyzed interview contents from 14 participants (mean age ±SD; patients, 77.2±4.0 years; family members, 53.7±14.6) by summarizing content analysis. The Aiwa Hospital Institutional Review Board approved the present study. Results: Content analysis identified common perceptions about the PCU. Perceptions prior to the transition were summarized into 2 categories for patients and 5 categories for families, including general impressions of the PCU, PCU environment and equipment, treatment, cost, and other patients. After being admitted to the PCU, perceptions were summarized into 3 categories for patients and 7 categories for families, including general impressions of the PCU, PCU environment and equipment, treatment, staff, cost, other patients, and religion. Conclusion: Identification of these themes from patient and family perspectives suggested that patients transitioned to hospice with no particular impressions about the PCU, while families perceived the PCU as both “a place to relax” and “a place where one only waits to die” before entering the PCU. These results may aid in designing interventions that consider patient and family needs and desires during the transition to the PCU.

Objective: In this practical study, mindfulness-based “Loving-Kindness and Mindfulness Meditation” was carried out for breast cancer patients. Methods: 60-minute meditation sessions were carried out every two weeks for a total of four sessions. At Month 1 and in the period up to Month 3 after intervention, changes in quality of life (QOL) were assessed using SF-36 v2 for a total of five times. Participants were taught to practice meditation at home, and their daily meditation experiences were written down as records. Results: Participants were divided into two groups, with two subjects in the intervention group and one subject in the non-intervention group. RCS based on SF-36 v2 were in the intervention group, and could be maintained or improved even one month after completion of intervention compared to before intervention. The records were divided into “Introduction phase” (for meditation in the first intervention); “Acquisition phase” (in and after the second); “Stable phase” (in and after the third); and “Establishment phase” (in and after the fourth). Correspondence analysis was performed for the fourth term by Text Mining. Conclusion: During early intervention at the “Introduction phase,” intentional concentration on what is occurring is carried out. As meditations continue, a change in the sense of self-consciousness, which cannot be experienced in daily life, is thought to occur.

We investigated the effects on medical education of early exposure of undergraduate students to a summer camp for children with asthma. An objective evaluation by the editorial staff found final improvements in the following areas (in descending order of frequency): learning of basic medical behavior (91% of students); cooperative attitude of medical staff in general treatment with the patient and the patient's family (88%); understanding of childhood growth and development (80%); knowledge of childhood asthma (69%); and mastery of basic techniques for therapy and examination (41%). The differences in the ratio of improvement (%) before and after visiting the camp, were (in descending order of frequency): cooperative attitude of medical care staff in general medical treatment with the patient and the patient's family (47%); understanding of childhood growth and development (45%); knowledge of childhood asthma (38%); learning of basic medical manner (34%); and mastery of basic techniques for therapy and examination (25%). These findings suggest that a summer camp is useful for exposing undergraduate medical students to children with asthma and is effective for helping them understand patients and family-oriented pediatric medicine.

Current evidence for the usefulness of prophylactic antiemetic drugs in opioid-induced nausea and vomiting (OINV) in cancer patients receiving opioid analgesics is limited. Further, antiemetic prophylaxis is not considered necessary in the Guideline for Cancer Pain Management by the Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine. However, prevention of side effects such as OINV is important when opioid analgesics are administered for adequate pain management and to maintain adherence. Cancer patients expect us to study factors affecting OINV and effective prophylactic measures for the condition. We retrospectively analyzed electronic records in our hospital. We found that female sex and the use of prophylactic antiemetics, chemotherapeutic agents, and steroids were statistically significant factors associated with opioid-induced nausea, and that female sex and radiation therapy were significant factors associated with opioid-induced vomiting. Especially in females, the frequency of nausea was significantly reduced in the group that received chemotherapy with antiemetics on the same day of receiving opioid analgesics, compared to the groups that did not receive chemotherapy, or that did not receive antiemetics but received chemotherapy. These results suggest that, especially in females, administering chemotherapy along with antiemetics on the same day may be one possible prophylactic measure for OINV.

Students in all years, including those in lower years, were prohibited from coming to campus because of COVID-19, which began to spread in January 2020. However, we believed that a hospital tour and observership would be important practical training for first and second year medical students as part of the early exposure program, which aims to increase student motivation. Thus, we decided to conduct a virtual hospital tour and a virtual observation of medical doctors’ work. We used Zoom to conduct a virtual hospital tour for first-year students in June, and a virtual observation of physicians’ work for second-year students in December. Although this offered less of an opportunity to experience the reality of the clinic, there have been benefits in terms of increased learning content, fairness of learning opportunities delivered, and the promotion of independent learning. With regard to a “Hospital Tour” and the “Observation of Medical Doctors’ Work” , we believe that hybrid forms, which are able to skillfully combine the strengths of the two methods, would be effective.