Annual Report 2022
Department of Nursing
Miho Kurihara, Kazue Hayasaka, Tamae Hiramatsu, Miki Kondo, Megumi Yamagishi, Yoshiko Kaneda, Emiko Yasukawa, Mifumi Nakajima, Emiko Sasai, Harumi Miyazaki, Makiko Suzuki, Nao Katagiri, Aki Yaguchi, Mayumi Hara, Wakana Kitazawa, Chisato Ichikawa, Chiemi Saito, Kayoko Nakata, Yuta Hirano, Michiko Murata
Introduction
Under the nursing philosophy to “contribute as active members of the team working in state-of-the-art cancer treatment, and to participate in the development of cancer nursing at the core hospital providing cancer nursing care in Japan,” the Nursing Division of the National Cancer Center Hospital East (NCCE) conducts activities according to the following basic policies:
1. To provide nursing care founded on trust and reassurance, respecting the patients' rights and dignity of life,
2. To pursue the essential values of nursing and practice scientific and creative nursing,
3. To facilitate clinical studies and disseminate new information concerning cancer nursing, and
4. To promote the development of leadership skills.
The Department of Nursing is responsible for ensuring a balance between providing high-quality medical and nursing care, business management efficiency, and actively participating in and contributing to the management of the hospital.
Routine Activities
1) Nursing activities
To provide the best nursing that is safe and reliable and that embraces the medical advances and the needs of patients and their families, with an awareness and sense of responsibility as nurses of Hospital East, the Department of Nursing actively engages in the following activities: participate in hospital management in a coordinated, cooperative and collaborative manner beyond the boundaries of occupational categories; provide high-quality nursing while expanding the nursing specialty; and ensure appropriate personnel assignment so that we can handle an increasing number of patients and workload each year. We also promote decision-making and the division and transfer of operations in coordination and collaboration with doctors, nurses’ aides such as clerks and assistant nurses, and other co-medicals. We are establishing a system to provide high-quality, efficient and effective nursing services to improve operations, promote team medicine, promote medical cooperation within the region, and develop human resources.
By strengthening the centralization of the bed situation to smoothly operate beds by the head nurse, the occupancy rate has increased by 102.5% (103.6% in 2021), which has resulted from improved management.
We opened as an outpatient Cancer Chemotherapy Nursing, comprised of two full-time nurses certified in cancer chemotherapy nursing in the Department of Cancer Chemotherapy, following the opening of Outpatient WOC (Wound Ostomy Continence) and Outpatient Nursing Care for AYA (Adolescent&Young Adult), and Outpatient Radiology Nursing Care. We established a system in which we can continuously provide supplementary explanations on treatments, risk assessment, prevention and management of adverse effects, etc., including before, during and after chemotherapy, so that patients can complete chemotherapy more safely and easily.
At the Hospitalization Preparation Center, which was established in the outpatient department, we are working to strengthen the hospitalization/discharge support system and PFM (patient flow management). It is now possible to provide multifaceted support, including ethical considerations, even before hospitalization.
A hotel opened on the hospital grounds in July 2022. Some outpatient medical services have been moved to the second floor of the hotel. We also work with hotel operators to develop services that meet the needs of patients and their families staying at the hotel. In the future, we plan to develop accommodation plans that meet even more needs and aim to expand our services.
2) Educational activities
Since April 2019, we have been operating a career ladder system that evaluates the aptitude, fairness, and validity of career advancement based on the background and abilities of individual nurses.
Through this career ladder, it is now possible for individual nurses to work on self-improvement and human resource development while assessing the extent of their abilities, such as specialized nursing skills, practical nursing abilities and nursing management abilities. We expect that the career ladder system will also be an effective tool for human resource development.
3) Nurse specialists and certified nurses
In fiscal 2022, we had the following nurses newly certified: one certified nurse in cancer chemotherapy nursing, one certified nurse in Dementia Nursing.
There are now 12 nurse specialists in two areas, 50 certified nurses in twelve areas, and two certified nurse administrators, who serve as role models in nursing practice in their respective specialties and who provide education, instruction, etc.
Eight people in six categories have completed the specific action training, contributing to the expansion of the role of nurses and the task shift of doctors' work.
The in-house education program for certified nurses in anticancer IV, which was launched to expand the specialties and operations of nurses, has entered its 9th year, and 131 in-house certified nurses in anticancer IV and 19 in-house certified nurses in radiotherapy and intravenous injection are currently working actively in the hospital wards, Outpatient Treatment Center, Department of Radiological Diagnosis, etc.
We provided “Open Cancer Nursing Seminar” Communication skill training” and “Dementia Response Training” to help cultivate nurses outside our hospital. All of these training programs have been attended by many nurses from all over the country and have been highly acclaimed.
4) Operation of certified nurse education courses and training of certified nurses
Our hospital was accredited by the Japanese Nursing Association as an educational institution equipped to educate certified nurses. The association rated us highly for our excellent record of medical and nursing care, rich educational human resources, and the content of our educational programs, in which “certified nurse education courses” have been established within the hospital. We provided “Education course for certification in palliative care” in 2013, “Education course for certification in cancer chemotherapy” in 2016, “Education course for certification in cancer radiation therapy” in 2018, and “Education course for certification in cancer chemotherapy”.
In 2022, 8 trainees in cancer chemotherapy completed the course and are currently waiting for the qualification exam.
Since the education courses were established, 93 trainees have completed five terms of the palliative care course, 59 trainees four terms of the cancer chemotherapy course, and 23 trainees two terms of radiation nursing, respectively. Of these, 93 trainees passed the certification examination by the Japanese Nursing Association in palliative care, 51 in cancer chemotherapy, and 23 in cancer radiation nursing, and they are now actively working in their respective medical institutions as certified nurses, providing high levels of nursing with advanced nursing skills and helping to raise the care skills of other nurses based on the three roles of practice, instruction and consultation.
Research Activities
In fiscal 2022, 31 presentations were made at academic conferences, with support from the clinical research support team at Hospital East, the nursing research support team consisting of nurse specialists and certified nurses, and the nursing research society. These research support teams provided advice during the research process and inspired nurses to take on challenges and tackle issues that arise during clinical practice. In addition, 1 article was published in a journal.
In the future, we intend to further improve the quality of nursing research so that our nursing department can create and promote new, evidence-based methods of cancer nursing.
Future Prospects
As a core clinical research hospital, we are expected to make further progress and become a world-leading base for the development of new drugs and equipment, and to provide pioneering medical care and advanced treatment.
As a member of team medicine, the Department of Nursing, Hospital East will continue to secure, cultivate and appropriately assign nurses as the foundation for improving nursing quality and to adapt nursing to meet the demands of medicine as it evolves. We will also provide pioneering medical care fit for a core clinical research hospital and advanced treatment hospital, promote clinical research and trials, and strengthen the medical safety system.
Recognizing that the philosophy and mission of a cancer research center cannot be achieved without stable management, we will keep improving our management in cooperation and collaboration with other departments.