JNA News Release2018 March Vol.24

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/

Greeting from JNA President Toshiko Fukui, RN, RNM, MBA, PhD
It will soon be a year since I became JNA President. JNA
celebrated its 70th anniversary last year and renewed its resolve
to look toward tomorrow and the future.
2018 is a year in which reform of the healthcare and long-termcare provision system will be greatly promoted through thereformulation of insured medical and long-term care service planin each region of Japan and the simultaneous revision of medical
fees and long-term care fees. Given the trend of policy measures
in Japan, the power of nursing is needed not only in hospitals but
in all sorts of settings. In the days ahead, we envision nurses will
use their skills in caring individual patients back to health andrehabilitating them back into the community, which can be described as the origin of nursing, to help
support people to live better in the community and contribute to the attainment of people’s better lives inevery settings where nursing is needed.
In fiscal 2018, JNA plans to continue to focus on the priority policies previously identified as policy issues,
namely (i) the promotion of reform of the basic nursing education system, (ii) the establishment of a system
for nursing service provision in the community based integrated care, (iii) the promotion of work stylereform for nurses, and (iv) promotion of the role expansion of nurses and development of human resources
for nursing. I look forward to collaborating with you all in the future.■

JNA’s 70th Anniversary
On November 20, 2017, JNA held aceremony

tocommemorate

its70thanniversary. The ceremony was attended byHer Majesty the Empress of Japan and by
450 other guests including Michiyo Takagi,
State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare
and Toshiei Mizuochi, State Minister ofEducation, Culture, Sports Science andTechnology.
At the ceremony, JNA President Toshiko Fukui

Her Majesty the Empress attended at the ceremony, in the middle,
and JNA President Toshiko Fukui delivered a speech, center right.

stated that JNA owes its development to theefforts of her predecessors and the cooperation of members. She expressed the resolve to ensure furtherenhancement and development of JNA’s activities as a nursing professional organization so that
individual nurses are encouraged to think and practice dynamically in order to pay full attention to life and1|

JNA News Release2018 Vol.24

to provide safe, high-quality nursing. The president also announced JNA’s new tagline created tocommemorate its 70th anniversary: “Live life, together we create.”
JNA was established in 1946. Before then, midwifery, nursing and public health nursing organizations
had each engaged in activities separately, but each of these organizations was dissolved and integrated
into a single organization, leading to the establishment of JNA. At the time of its establishment, JNA had
1,323 members. It had no office and initially borrowed a room in hospital. It subsequently put anorganizational structure in place and created its current structure. The current president is JNA’s 13 thpresident.■

The 5th China Japan Korea (CJK) Nursing Conference
JNA, Chinese Nursing Association (CNA) and Korean Nurses Association (KNA) agreed to hold the 5th
CJK Nursing Conference in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2018. The three nursing associations of Japan,China and Korea have built up a long history of exchange as the nursing associations of neighboring
countries. The CJK Nursing Conference will provide an opportunity for the nursing associations to share
their organizational initiatives and also for nurses working on the frontline nursing in each country to share
their knowledge and experiences. It is expected that the conference will help further strengthen
exchanges between nurses in the three countries and lead to the formation of new networks and thecreation of evidence. ■Death Confirmation utilizing ICT
The easing of death confirmation regulation, as requested by JNA to the government in 2015, wasrealized during fiscal 2017. Guidelines on the Framework for Death Confirmation Utilizing ICT wereissued, and the development and training of nurses began. In Japan, only doctors can certify deaths and,
unless a patient dies from a disease for which he/she is being treated within 24 hours of consulting adoctor, a post-mortem examination by a doctor is required in order for a doctor to confirm the death. The
recent ease of regulations means that, in cases where certain conditions are met, death confirmation can
now be undertaken based on a report from a nurse without conducting a post-mortem examination by adoctor. Previously bodies were preserved for long periods of time for post-mortem examinations ormeasures such as urgent transportation
for admission to hospital in the final stagesof life were taken on the assumption that adoctor would not be able to come for a

Requirements for utilization of ICT for death confirmation etc.
a.
b.

post-mortem examination. The National
Institute of Population and Social Security
Research estimates that due to populationc.

aging, the number of deaths in Japan isexpected to peak in 2040 and annual
deaths will be 1,679,000. The recent eased.

of regulations provides a framework thatencourages nurses to provide support tothe end of life in the preferred location of
the individuals receiving treatment andtheir families.■
2|e.

Based on the course of direct face-to-face treatment by adoctor, imminent death is expected.
There is sufficient communication between the doctor andthe nurse and the patient and/or family has given consent,
for example, agreement about the end-of-life care plan has
been reached in advance.
Despite coordination efforts among doctors and medical
institution/nursing care institution, prompt face-to-face postmortem examination by a doctor would be difficult.
A nurse who has received a certain level of forensic science
training can promptly report the information needed for adoctor to reach a judgment, for example, matters agreed inadvance with the doctor, including the three signs of death.
The doctor who received the report from the nurse is able tocombine this report with an ICT-based communication tools
such as a videophone to grasp the situation of the patient
and thus confirm that the patient is actually dead and that
there is nothing out of the ordinary.