This study aimed to examine the nursing management behaviors of nurse managers at Hospital A and to identify challenges in developing nurse managers capable of implementing nursing management behaviors based on the competency model. Individual interviews were conducted twice with nine nurse managers. Newly appointed nurse managers demonstrated competencies related to supporting others, such as “self-improvement and learning ability”. The competencies requiring further development included “interpersonal influence”, which also relates to supporting others. Among nurse managers with more than 4 years of experience, both the competencies they exhibited and those requiring further improvement included “commitment to the organization”, with references to contributing to the overall benefit of the hospital. Newly appointed nurse managers need support in reflecting on their nursing management behaviors by observing and learning from others. Meanwhile, nurse managers with over 4 years of experience require assistance in collaborating with other departments to contribute to the hospital as a whole.

Objective: This review seeks to identify trends and issues in preventing aspiration for the elderly overseas in the hopes of gathering information regarding how a similar level of care may be provided in Japan.Materials and Methods: The authors used the CHINAL Ultimate database to review academic publications from December 2012 to December 2022. Four terms, one from each of four sets of keywords, were combined as search criteria: (1) “dysphagia”, “aspiration”, “choking”, “airway obstruction asphyxia”, “swallowing function”, or “pneumonia”, (2) “aged” or “elderly people”, (3) “nursing” or “nursing care”, and (4) prevention. Papers that did not directly relate to the purpose of this review were excluded.Results: The authors identified fourteen publications regarding preventative care for aspiration in the elderly. According to the reports, preventative care mainly consisted of ensuring proper oral care, screening to assess swallowing function, and taking steps at meals to prevent aspiration.Conclusion: Our research showed that the primary ways of preventing aspiration in the elderly overseas included (1) screening for oral conditions and swallowing function to prevent pneumonia and (2) providing proper oral care coupled with support during meals.

A survey was conducted to determine the current status and issues of dysphagia care in hospitals and long-term care facilities in Gifu Prefecture. Responses were obtained from 14 hospitals, 13 welfare facilities for elderly adults requiring long-term care (WFs), and 13 geriatric health services facilities (GHSFs). Dysphagia teams were present at 12 hospitals, 4 WFs, and 8 GHSFs. The teams primarily consisted of general nurses (hospitals = 12, WFs = 4, GHSFs = 8; same order below), certified dysphagia nurses (11, 1, 0), nutritionists (11, 4, 7), speech-languagehearing therapists (11, 0, 5), physicians (7, 2, 4), and pharmacists (7, 0, 0). Facilities that employed certified dysphagia nurses conducted screening for dysphagia, but many hospitals and long-term care facilities did not review patients’ medications to identify medications that could cause dysphagia. In addition, many hospitals did not educate care workers about assisting with eating and swallowing. This demonstrates a need to improve dysphagia-related screening and educational systems for nurses and care workers at hospitals and long-term care facilities.

The purpose of this study was to verify whether emotional intelligence-based leadership behaviors among nursing administrators were enhanced by using a 38-item Leadership Self-Evaluation Checklist, which was developed by the author in 2017 and included emotional intelligence items. Participants in this study were 17 nursing administrators at Hospital A. Each participant was interviewed after they completed the self-evaluation checklist 4 times at 3-month intervals. Changes in the scores of checklist items on emotional intelligence-based leadership behaviors and changes in what they said during interviews were analyzed. The results were then analyzed to look for changes in the items on emotional intelligence-based leadership behaviors, increases in participant awareness, and other behavioral changes. The average subscale score for the emotional intelligence-based leadership behavior items was increased significantly in 2 participants, and findings of their interviews were further investigated. Participant 11 who showed a 2-point increase in the average subscale score of emotional intelligence-based leadership behavior items was aware that being unable to effectively communicate with staff was their weakness and was consciously taking steps to overcome this weakness. Participant 14 showed a 2.85-point improvement and recognized the need to identify their own shortcomings and change their behaviors, which led to behaviors such as creating an environment where staff felt comfortable expressing themselves. In short, it was confirmed that repeated self-evaluation using the checklist by nursing administrators increased their emotional intelligence-based leadership behavior score.

The purpose of this study was to identify issues with nursing administrator development in the Nursing Division of our hospital. In order to identify issues in the workshops, we conducted a questionnaire survey with chief nurses who participated in a competency workshop for them to become nursing administrators at the Nursing Division of Hospital A, and by reviewing their management behavior, we analyzed the insights they acquired. We used a qualitative, inductive research method that involved administering a written survey to 22 chief nurses who work at the hospital. The survey items were designed to find out what the participants learned, how they intended to put that knowledge to use, and what they felt during the workshop. Our analysis identified two categories of insights: those that would translate into behavior and those that represented new knowledge. The former comprised 22 subcategories and the latter 3 subcategories. Because the issues identified (maintaining conviction, customer orientation, and quality assurance) were limited to knowledge-based insights, these should be improved to become “insights that would translate into behavior” so that they can be put into practice in managing behaviors on the ward.