Perinatal immunization education improved the immunization status of infants, increased the women's knowledge on immunization and intention to vaccinate their infants.

Home care in Japan has developed over the past 30 years. Nurses have taken leadership in promoting home care and at the same time have expanded their roles. The roles of Japanese nurses in the field of home care are presented in the context of the historical perspective and view for the future. Home care nurses have performed care management for their community as well as for individual older clients living in their community. Currently, nurses work as high-tech and personal care providers and are developing a new role in health care enterprises. The number of nurses working as clinical nurse specialists will increase consistently with the rapid increase of master's programs. In the future, nurses should take a lead in developing health policy. The purpose of the article is to describe the current situation of home care clients and home care nursing in Japan. In addition, four issues of home care in Japan are described related to home care for older persons, high-tech home care, terminal care, and home care for psychiatric patients.

Aim: The rapidly rising number of older people has inevitably caused an increasing demand for home visiting nurses. Nursing managers must develop a healthy workplace to recruit and retain a workforce of nurses. This study focused on home visiting nurses' perceptions of time pressure as a changeable work demand. The aim was to investigate perceptions of time pressure and reveal the relationship between perceived time pressure and burnout among home visiting nurses. Methods: From 32 agencies in three districts, 28 home visiting nurses agreed to participate in this study. Two hundred and eight home visiting nurses received an anonymous self-administered questionnaire by mail, and 177 (85.1%) filled out and returned the questionnaire to the researchers. The Job DemandsResources model for burnout, which explains the relationship between a work environment and employee well-being, was used as a conceptual guide. Three survey instruments were employed: questions on sociodemographic variables and worksite environments, including time pressure; the Japanese burnout inventory; and a Japanese version of the job content questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the relationships between time pressure and burnout inventory scores. Results: About 30% of home visiting nurses perceived time pressure frequently. When home visiting nurses perceived time pressure more frequently, they experienced higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Conclusion: Time pressure was often perceived as another job demand and had a significant relationship with burnout. This indicates the importance of lessening time pressure to develop healthy work places for community health nurses.

No abstract

Supervisor support and an appropriate number of people reporting to each supervisor are important factors in fostering work engagement among home-visiting nurses.

Our findings may help public health nurses assess community needs in order to effectively and efficiently manage health care resources.

Homospermidine synthase, catalyzing the formation of homospermidine [H2N(CH2)4NH-(CH2)4NH2] from putrescine and NAD+ with concomitant liberation of NH3, was purified 600-fold over the crude extract with a yield of about 14% to homogeneity from Acinetobacter tartarogenes ATCC 31105. The enzyme had a native molecular mass of 102 kDa, with a pI of 5.0, and was apparently composed of two identical subunits (52 kDa), suggesting that a single protein catalyzes two serial reactions, oxidation of putrescine to 4-aminobutyraldehyde and subsequent reduction of the putative Schiff base formed between this aldehyde and a second molecule of putrescine to homospermidine. The Km values for putrescine and NAD+ were 280 and 18 microM, respectively. 1,3-Diaminopropane and cadaverine were inactive as substrates, and NAD+ could not be replaced by NADP+. 1,3-Diaminopropane and NADH were potent competitive inhibitors. The enzyme had a pH optimum of 8.7, was most active at 30 degrees C, and required K+ and dithiothreitol for full activity. Putrescine and NAD+ protected the enzyme from the inhibition by thiol reagents. The NH2-terminal amino acid sequence was AQWPVYGKISGPVVI. Some of these properties were compared with those of the homospermidine synthases from a photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas viridis and a plant, Lathyrus sativus.

The nurses interviewed described creative and extraordinary strategies used to promote medication adherence and facilitate development of a healthy posttreatment lifestyle. Their approach was patient-centered and culturally congruent. Findings may be transferrable to PHN practice in other regions as care for this economically disadvantaged and marginalized population is a critical need.