Abstract
Prognoses for cancer patients have been extended due to advances in medical treatments, and end-of-life care has shifted from acute medical institutions to the community, through outpatient clinics and home-based care. Transitional care is necessary, depending on the patient’s condition, and has been recommended for chronically ill patients and the elderly. However, transitional care should also be provided for cancer patients. Especially in transitional care, information is important when cancer patients are discharged from the hospital or deciding where to stay at the end of their life. During cancer recurrence and terminal stages, patients and their families face psychological distress regarding prognosis and changes in the patient’s condition; thus, support from health care professionals is important. Further, decision-making support is important in choosing treatments and where patients should stay at the end of life. In Japan, a long-term care insurance system for elderly people and a community-based comprehensive care system have been established since 2007, and visiting nurses provide end-of-life care for cancer patients within this system’s framework. Visiting nurses provide a wide range of support, not only for cancer patients but also for elderly individuals and people with mental disabilities. Visiting nurses need to accumulate advanced knowledge and experience to provide highly specialized care. Further, nurses and certified nurse specialists need to cooperate with visiting nurses when discharging patients from hospitals and contribute to advanced cancer care in the community. In this paper, we discuss issues of the medical and welfare systems in Japan, as well as nursing practices related to the shift from medical treatment in hospitals to community-based palliative care. Additionally, we discuss the current status of Western-medicine-centered practice in relation to complementary and alternative medicine.
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Majima, T., Kusunoki, J., Otsuka, T. (2021). The Role of the Home-Visit Nursing System in the Treatment of Terminal Cancer Patients in Japan. In: Silbermann, M. (eds) Palliative Care for Chronic Cancer Patients in the Community. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54526-0_49
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