JNA News Release2012 March Vol.8

JNA News Release
Japanese Nursing Association
5-8-2 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, JAPAN

Tel: +81-3-5778-8559

Fax: +81-3-5778-5602

http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/index.html

Greeting from Suga Sakamoto, President
Nine months have already passed since I took
office as the President of Japanese Nursing
Association.

I would like to express myrenewed gratitude to all who have supported
JNA activities following the Great East Japan
Earthquake.
Last year, I recognized the high capabilities ofnurses more than ever.

Local nurses in theaffected areas took powerful efforts to fulfill their
responsibilities, putting in a number of ideas totackle interrupted essential utilities and scarcerelief goods. Disaster relief nu rses gathered from all over Japan, and started off courageously to the affectedareas from in front of the JNA building. I myself as a nurse , take great pride in all such nurses. The numberof registered disaster relief nurses increased from 4,800 in 201 0 to 6,300 in 2011. Participants in disasternursing seminars also increa sed to 4,000 in FY2011. This reflects the increased awareness among nurses
for disaster preparedness.
In 2012, JNA seek s to take additional effort toward improvement in the working environment for nurses,
achieving certain results while continuing with the support activities. We will also issue a warning to Japan’s
exhausted health care system, and promote the establishment of the credentialing system for specified abilityof nurses, as a legal framework for expanded roles of nurses.
JNA believes that it is essential to identify and satisfy frontline needs with “ant’s eyes” and “bird’s eyes”.

It isalso our goal to further strengthen collaboration between n urses and other health professionals, and toproactively refer to trends in other countries, thereby pursuing the establishment of a better health service
system and proposing policies that contribute to people’s improved satisfaction. ■Promotion of Multifunctional Long-Term Care in a Small Group Home Basedon Visiting Nursing
Japan is a super-aged society with the populationa high requiremen t for medical treatment, du e toaging rate of 23.1% (as of October 1, 2010).

A

shortened length of hospital stay. There is alarge number of citizens hope to continue their life inlimitation of the service provision based on thetheir familiar communities.

premise of family’s nursing power, because changing

There are also an

increasing number of home care patients who have1|

familystructures

have

ledtoincreasing

JNA News Release2012 March Vol.8

single-person households of seniors and families

It has been confirmed that this combined service iswhere senior takes care of another senior . This iscapable of providing a flexible mix of differing

why an even greater collaboration is required

services, in accordance with the user ’s conditions.

between health care and long-term care services.

Also the system is able to respond the users who

JNA have proposed, to the Ministry of Health, Labour

have just left the hospital or who suffer from unstable

and Welfare, a service that combines visiti ng nursing

conditions. As a particular benefit of this system, it

and multifunctional long -term care in a small grouphas been clarified that effective and efficient carehome, targeted at providing integrated nursing andbecomes possible through s haring of information

long-term

and care policies between nurses and long -termcare to seniors who have a highrequirement for medical t reatment.

This combinedcare workers.

service will be implemented in this April. JNA has

We offer supports and provide information on theundertaken pilot projects toward the establishment ofestablishing and operating know -how, so that visiting

this system, and has verified concrete results of thenursing stations across Japan can proact ively start

service.

the combined service. ■Multifunctional long -term care in a small group homeThis nursing service provides seniors mainly with“day service” at a nursing facility, combined with“visiting service” to the ir home and “short stay” ata facility, as appropriate and in accordance withthe senior ’s conditions and requests,

thusenabling the senior, who has a medium to highrequirement for long term care, to continue life athome.

Before this combined service wasestablished, the “day service”, “visiting service”
and “short stay” services were respectively
provided by different facilities. This new systemenables the same staff to provide differing careservices on a continuous basis, and is evaluatedhighly particularly for its capability to provide
flexible care to seniors with dementia, whoseconditions vary day after day.

Formulation of Training Guidelines for Newly Graduated Midwives
The environment that surrounds midwives in Japaninsufficiency in obstetricians, and a changing service

hasandprovisional system of perinatal care. As one of thedemanding, in accordance with the declining

JNA’s main policies and projects in FY2011,birthrate and increasing high -risk pregnancies andupgrading

deliveries, introduction of mixed service by morepregnancy, delivery and child rearing by active use ofthanmidwives, JNA has promoted In-Hospital Midwife-led

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becomeone

increasingly

departments

incomplicatedmaternity

wards,

safeandsecureenvironmentforJNA News Release2012 March Vol.8

Care System at hospitals and clinics and thecompleted by the end of FY2011, as a more practicalestablishment of an education and training systemand specific version of the existing

based on career paths and ladders for midwives.

Guidelines for Newly Graduated Nurses, specialized

At present, formulation of Training Guidelines forfor new midwives with clarifying the desirable status

Newly Graduated Midwives is in progress to beand required competency of midwives. ■Training

Training Guidelines for Newly Graduated Nurses
Following the revision of the Act on Public Health Nurses, Midwives and Nurses and other related laws in2009, nurses were required to tak e best efforts to receive clinical training, starting April 2010. To prepare
for this, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare formulated the Training Guidelines for NewlyGraduated Nurses in December 2009. Subsequently, a necessity was pointed out to formulate guidelines
regarding training for midwives, targeted at providing them w ith basic practical competency. Thus targeted
levels of midwifery skills and other related provisions were added to the Training Guidelines for Newly
Graduated Nurses in Febr uary 2010.

CEO Benton from ICN and Executive Officer Ogawa from JNA visited anaffected area by the Great East Japan Earthquake
David Benton, CEO of ICN, who visited Japan at the end of January, together with Shinobu Ogawa, Executive
Officer of JNA, visited Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, one of the areas affected by the Great East Japan
Earthquake. They were received by Kyoko Takahashi, President of Fukushima Nursing Association, and o thermembers, and visited the tsunami -hit areas and a local hospital. ■Iwaki●Mr. Benton with Ms. Takahashi, president of Fukushima
Nursing Association at Tsunami hit Hisanohama area
Fukushima

Tokyo3|

JNA News Release2012 March Vol.8

Nursing in JapanQ What activities do visiting nurses undertake?
Visiting nursing is a service covered partly by medical insurance and partly by long -term care insurance, toprovide care by nurses at the home of a sick or disabled person, so that the person can lead a life based on
the person’s own and/or the person’s family’s requests. The scope of service ranges from babies to seniors,and support is also provide d to their supporting families.
Major services of visiting nurses include the following; check of temperature, pulse, blood pressure etc.;
observation of hea lth conditions; treatment guidance; maintaining the person’s body clean; nutrition
management; management of medical device; respiratory care; palliative care; nursing guidance.
Visiting nurses do not need to have a special qualification in addition to their nursing license, though a written
order must be is sued by the primary care physician of user before a visiti ng nursing service is provided.
The visiting nursing service is mainly provided by visiting nursing stations and by hospitals and clinics. Thestations are offices specialized in visiting nursing, which are designated by governors of respective
prefectures. Nurses are authorized to open a visiting nursing station. As of March 2011, there areapproximately 5,700 stations across Japan.

Standards for opening a visiting nursing station
One dedicated full -time public health nurse or nurse isAdministration

required (may have another position concurrently , as long as
there is no administrative problem).
Public health nurses, nurses, or assistant nurses

NursesAt least 2.5 members in terms of full -time equivalents must beemployed, one of which should be a full -time member.

Staff
Physical therapists
Occupational therapists

As appropriate

News Topics in Japan
Credentialing System for Specified Ability of Nurses
On December 8, the proposed outline of the “credentialing system for specified ability of nurses” was approved inmost parts at the Medical Treatment Subcommittee, Social Security Council, Ministry of Health, Labour andWelfare. Thus our efforts toward the establishment of a specified nurse system (tentative name) have achieved astep forward toward credentialing of specified ability.

At the time of the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, JNA placed an ad in the newspaper on March
11th as follows.

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http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/index.html