Nursing Division
Introduction
Several important events and improvements took place in the Nursing Division
in 2001, the most important of which was the First International Seminar
on Cancer Nursing entitled For Progress in Clinical Practice on Cancer
Nursing held in March 2001 inviting three speakers from the USA and the
UK. During the two-day international sessions, 200 discussants, who are
active in the front lines in oncology nursing, participated in heated
discussion for improvement of QOL of cancer patients.
In April, the National College of Nursing opened as the first college
under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and 100 students were
admitted. The new college programs are designed to give students high
quality education on nursing, aimed at training nurses in four years to
prepare them to work in national centers. National Cancer Center (NCC)
is one of the institutions that accept the students for their clinical
training and we held an 8-week teaching course for instructors who will
train the students in the NCC. Two additional instructors will be staffed
to coordinate clinical practices in the hospital with education program
in the college.
One nurse took a special course for prevention of in-hospital infection,
who is expected to play a leading role in managing the problem in the
NCC after she finishes the course and passes the qualification test for
prevention and control of nosocomial infection.
Routine Activities
Five additional nurses were positioned in April 2001 and three twilight
shift nurses are working now in each ward, instead of two in 2000, so
that more time can be put into procedures and care in the evening. To
avoid medical accidents, especially needlestick injuries, we aimed at
zero needlestick injuries , and special caution and lectures were given
for education of proper handing of needles that helped to decrease the
number of such accidents to zero for 6 months. We also made continuous
effort to provide safe and comfort care for patients, improve QOL of patients
in everyday practice, which resulted in good feedback from patients. The
average hospital stay is now 20 days. To maintain the maximum possible
number of inpatients to secure the income source for the hospital, we
improved procedures and forms for their record, and utilized female private
wards for accepting male patients in urgent cases.
Educational Activities
Two nurses were sent to the Mayo Clinic in 2001. A new educational program
for nursing of patients undergoing peripheral blood stem-cell transplantation
was started and one nurse was sent to the Nebraska State University.
An increasing number of qualified nurses are working in Japan, specializing
in oncology, clinical psychiatry etc. In the NCC, there are qualified
WOC (wound ostomy continennce)? nurses who take care of ostomates.We need
to place more emphasis on educating nurses to pass the qualification test
for WOC nurses to enforce their activity.
Research Activities
The number of lectures and contributions to journals are increasing. In
addition, we have a task to develop the cancer information network system
as a national hospital through which all the hospitals treating cancer
patients share the same information and practice consistent care throughout
Japan in the future.
The First International Seminar on Cancer Nursing in March 2001 was a
great success and it gave us an opportunity to discuss issues related
to oncology nursing from an international point of view.
As the number of graduate nurses increased in our hospital, more nurses
give presentations in academic meetings or submit research papers. There
were seven presentations at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Scociety
of Cancer Nursing from our center and 35 papers were accepted in journals.
The NCC will host the 19th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Scociety of
Cancer Nursing. We set up a working group to organize the meeting.
K. NAGAMAE
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