Nursing Division

Introduction
The lifestyle of cancer patients has been changing recently, not only with regard to receiving cancer treatments in the hospital, but also to living in the society with understanding of what a cancer is. As a result, cancer nursing is required to help patients with their changing various needs. The head division of nursing has the following basic goals:
1. To establish good rapport between the patients and nurses to determine patients' needs adequately, and to provide peaceful nursing care.
2. To search for the essence of nursing and to make constant efforts to grow up the humanity, as an expert of caregiver for cancer patients.
3. To evolve the nursing abilities persistently and creatively in order to be a leader of health care providers for cancer patients.
As nurses, we provide the care focusing on the individuality of patientis need and support their daily activity. In addition, we continuously attempt to improve our medical services for making patients and their families feel comfortable and satisfied.

Routine Activities　
Our staff of 24 Pnurses and 30 nurse's aides cared for 520.6 outpatients per day and 385.7 inpatients per day during the year of 2001. We have ambulatory treatment center having 29 beds, 18 clinics for outpatient, and ten inpatient wards. The hospital stay of inpatient has been reduced from 23.5 to 21.2 days in average, and as a result of the reduction, the number of outpatients who need care in the ambulatory treatment center has increased from 12, 408 to 15,587 in this year.
Patients are assigned to a ward according to the organ affected by cancer, where they can receive intensive care based on their particular diagnosis. This arrangement idea helps us to avoid the decline in patients' quality of life, which is caused by their transferring to ward to ward by the selection of surgical or non-surgical treatment. To provide continually higher quality of nursing care, we set up the concrete objectives every year. Every nursing unit assesses periodically how much attains their objectives to assure the quality of our services. A system of nursing consultation was established in 1995, aiming to support home nursing care based on the training and educating programs for patients and caregivers.

New Developments
1. During a year of 2001, we accepted a total of 25 trainees of nursing care coming from various districts in Japan. They had been practicing the oncology nursing including alleviating pain and stress of cancer patients at wards for two weeks to 12 months. Of the 25, 8 trainees who wished to be a qualified nurse of palliative care studied at the ward of palliative care unit according to the curriculum, which we prepared.
2. Collaborating with the nursing staffs at the National Cancer Center Hospital, we organized The 1st International Seminar on Cancer Nursing with the support of Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Research. Approximately 200 nurses invited as specialists in various districts of Japan, participated in the instructive lectures and fruitful discussion.
3. Japanese nursing association approved our hospital as an official institution for training oncology nurses. Two trainees studied at chemotherapy ward of our hospital for seven weeks from January to March.
4. We accepted 28 students of Noda School of Nursing in Chiba into our hospital for teaching the practice of nursing care from October to November in 2001.
5. After the overseas training project visiting the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA, we had opened the nursing consultation for preoperative patients since November 2000. It is held in the hospital for one hour in every afternoon for the applicants gathering from out- and inpatients who are going to undergo surgery.
6. We reported the results of 13 research projects, described 13 papers published, and performed 15 lectures outside the hospital during a year of 2001.

F. ADACHI

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