1.End-of-life care by expert clinical nurses for non-malignant chronic illness patients in genelral hospitals
Mariko Tanimoto ; Yoshiyuki Takahashi ; Tomoko Hattori ; Yoshiyuki Tadokoro ; Akiko Sakamoto ; Mai Sudoh ; Harue Masaki
Palliative Care Research 2015;10(2):108-115
This study clarified practices in end-of-life care for non-malignant chronic illness patients by expert nurses in general hospitals. Interviews with 7 chronic illness specialist nurses on practice cases were conducted, and final labels were elicited using a qualitative synthesis method(KJ method). As patients’ conditions deteriorated, nurses defined the necessary interactions to support patients’ decision-making for living their own way of life and accompany patients and families based on their experience, and using patients’ restoration of self-esteem, sense of satisfaction, and acceptance as indices. In general hospitals, measures to cope with pain for patients not receiving life-prolonging treatment were insufficient;and while it was difficult to agree on care between medical professionals and to maintain care in other facilities, expert nurses grasped patients’ wishes on a daily basis and made arrangements for them to permeate through family and community care systems. In end-of-life care in treatment settings, it is necessary to be supportive so that the family and medical professionals can continue the patient’s care. Medical professionals who have been involved from the initial diagnosis stage need to improve their awareness and support skills as medical professionals to be involved purposefully from an early stage to the final stage.
2.Current situation regarding the provision of medical information on the official websites of 54 local governments in Aichi Prefecture
Mai HATTORI ; Chiaki NISHIMURA ; Michiyo HIGUCHI
Journal of International Health 2019;34(3):185-194
Objectives To describe the current situation regarding the medical information provided for foreign residents by the official websites of cities and municipalities in Aichi Prefecture and to investigate associations between the characteristics of each city/municipality and their provision of online medical informationMethods Using a checklist of 24 items, the official websites of all 54 cities and municipalities (hereafter local governments) in Aichi Prefecture were checked. Each item was descriptively summarized. Associations between three selected items and local government characteristics were analyzed by Fisher’s exact test.Results The official websites of 49 local governments (90.7%) were translated into at least one foreign language. An automatic translation system was used by 43 websites (79.6%). Information on emergency medicine was translated into at least one foreign language on 45 websites (83.3%), child health checkups on 44 websites (81.5%), and adult health checkups on 42 websites (77.8%). However, only eight local governments (14.8%) provided information on where child health checkups were available, and 23 (42.6%) translated a list of medical facilities where adult health checkups were available. The provision of a link to the Aichi Medical Information System was significantly associated with the size of the local government and the number of foreigners. Ten (76.9%) out of 13 local governments categorized in the highest quartile for proportion of foreigners had not translated the list of medical facilities for adult health checkup.Conclusion Many local governments rely on the automatic translation system, which does not have the capacity to manage all the information accurately. Compared to information on emergency care, access to information on child health checkups and adult health checkups, which will be increasingly needed in the future, was poor and limited. An external website for shared use was not fully utilized, in particular, by smaller local governments.