Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare delivery worldwide, including dental services. In Japan, the burden and age-specific patterns of dental anesthesia use have not been quantified. We aimed to describe national trends in dental sedation and general anesthesia (GA) in Japan from fiscal year (FY) 2019 (pre-pandemic baseline) through FY 2023 using aggregated claim-level data from the National Database Open Data Japan and interpret these trends in the context of COVID-19-related healthcare constraints. We compared the age distributions of patients who underwent GA in dentistry and medicine. Methods: This analysis used aggregated claim counts from the National Database Open Data (FY 2019–FY 2023). Sedation and GA categories were defined using reimbursement codes: inhalation sedation (K002), intravenous sedation interpreted as conscious or moderate sedation (K003), intravenous anesthesia interpreted as deep sedation (L001–2), and GA (L008). Outcomes were annual claim counts, relative indices standardized to FY 2019 (=100), and age-stratified distributions in 5-year groups (0–4 years to ≥90 years). Age distributions for GA were visualized as mirrored pyramids in dentistry and medicine. No inferential tests were performed. Results: Inhalation sedation increased by approximately 7% in FY 2023. Intravenous sedation increased substantially by 68%. Intravenous anesthesia declined sharply in FY 2020, the first pandemic year, and then plateaued. Dental GA decreased in FY 2020, recovered, and expanded to 110,000 claims by FY 2023 (relative index: 122.3).Dental GA showed a bimodal age distribution (peaking at 5–9 years and 15–29 years), whereas medical GA were concentrated at 70–85 years, indicating distinct modality- and sector-specific demand structures. Conclusion Using claims tabulations spanning the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and “with-COVID” phases, we found heterogeneous trajectories in dental sedation and GA in Japan, characterized by robust growth in conscious or moderate sedation and recovery and expansion of dental GA after an initial 2020 decline. The divergent GA age distributions between dentistry and medicine underscore fundamentally different demand profiles.Interpreted within the context of COVID-19, these modality- and age-specific patterns highlight the adaptive and resilient responses of Japan’s dental anesthesia services under pandemic-related constraints and provide a foundation for future policy and workforce planning.

The purposes of this study were to describe nurses’ difficulty with cancer care and explore factors related to the difficulty of cancer care. Self－reported questionnaires were distributed to 512 nurses who are engaged in cancer care at Tohoku University Hospital. Responses from 344 (67％) nurses were subjected to analysis. The results revealed that nurses felt that “communication” was the most difficult aspect of cancer nursing followed by “hospital system and regional alliances” and “knowledge and skill.” Nurses did not feel that “collaboration with doctors” “disclosure and explanation of disease” or “death and dying” had particularly high levels of difficulty, however, their levels of difficulty could be improved. Greater difficulty with cancer care was reported by nurses working on the general ward and nurses with limited cancer care experience in the last year. Communication skill training,education (especially for less experienced nurses), expansion of palliative care, and restructuring of discharge planning and regional collaboration systems might contribute to decreasing nurses’ difficulty with cancer care.

Purpose: This study was to develop a scale to measure difficulties encountered by cancer care by nurses and to evaluate the reliability and the validity of the scale. Methods: Self-reported questionnaires were administered to nurses who are engaged in cancer care in Tohoku University Hospital. Results: Of 512 questionnaires distributed to nurses, 356 were completed and returned 70%. We selected 49 items in 6 domains, including "communication" "knowledge and skill" "collaboration with doctor" "disclosure and explanation of disease" "hospital system and regional alliances" and "death and dying" using explanatory factor analysis. Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.68 across domains and ranged from 0.69 to 0.74 for each domain. Construct validity was demonstrated and the scaling success rates were 100% for all domains on multitrait scaling analysis. In terms of the known groups validity, the score for the nurses in the palliative care unit was significantly lower than for nurses on the general wards. Conclusion: This study showed that the scale has sufficient reliability and validity. This scale may contribute to cancer nursing by assessing hospital nurses' perception of cancer care and as a method of determining outcomes of educational or organizational interventions.