Kiyomi Itonaga Assistant Professor Department of Nursing Faculty of Fukuoka Medical Technology University
She has many years of experience in clinical settings as a nurse. Since 2008, she has been researching "irrational beliefs" at the Kyushu University of Nursing and Welfare Graduate School, and in 2017, she became a part-time training Teaching Associate at the same university's Faculty of Nursing and Welfare. From 2021, he will be teaching at Teikyo University Faculty of Fukuoka Medical Technology. Currently, her main research interests are life science in general, and she is particularly engaged in intensive research in geriatric nursing and community nursing. We are broadening our perspective on the state of nursing in the community by increasing collaboration among many professionals.
To summarize this report ...
Many professionals are involved in medical care, but there are cases where mutual cooperation does not work well.
Misconceptions and ``cognitive distortions'' called ``irrational beliefs'' often impede such collaboration.
This is a ``must'' mindset that is often seen in professionals, and is a phenomenon in which a sense of responsibility narrows one's perspective and causes one to lose tolerance for things outside of one's own job.
For example, nurses can perform medical procedures, but caregivers cannot. However, caregivers can clearly see the troubles faced by elderly patients. Even if they know they should work together, nurses are overwhelmed and cooperation doesn't go well.
It has been found that ``shared experiences of joy'' can help improve this situation.
For example, we were able to achieve good results in a competition through sports that we share the same hobby.
The same can be said for the SDGs. "Irrational beliefs" exist everywhere, in countries, companies, consumers, and regions.
``Shared experiences of joy'' can help improve this situation. Professor Itonaga's research holds great hints for solving the SDGs.
Interprofessional collaboration issues
I once had the experience of working in the Medical Welfare Collaboration Office due to a personnel change at my workplace. My main job is human resources that mainly involves collaboration, such as supporting inpatient admissions and discharges from the hospital and coordinating between hospitals and facilities. Collaboration among professionals such as doctors, nurses, and caregivers is important in hospitals, but it is also a challenge. For example, there are cases where caregivers are involved with hospitalized patients. Caregivers often come into contact with elderly patients on a daily basis, and notice a variety of things. Typical examples include the timing of changing gauze and the status of IV drips. However, since there are many cases that only a nurse can treat, a nurse will be called in as appropriate. Nurses, on the other hand, are busy with other duties and may end up being late in communicating. Nurses tend to develop a sense of ``I want you to consider my own convenience,'' while caregivers may have mixed feelings about ``Isn't the patient my first priority?'' As a result, rifts remain between professionals, and above all, the results are not good for patients. This is an issue that needs to be solved. We also investigated various solutions. It was there that I discovered research into ``irrational beliefs.''
What is Irrational Belief?
"Rational" means "rational" in English. The word ``irrational'' means ``irrational.'' "Irrational beliefs" is often translated as "irrational beliefs" and is now applied not only to medical care but also to various fields. For example, humans are creatures that make mistakes, but there are also cases where people believe that they can never make a mistake and are unable to act properly. This can also be a factor that harms mental health.
Research has now shown that nursing and teaching are among the professions in which ``irrational beliefs'' are especially strong. For example, teachers have a professional responsibility to be fair, conscientious, and do their job for the benefit of their students. On the other hand, their personalities in their private lives should be more diverse. However, according to conventional wisdom, teachers tend to feel that their private lives are also a matter of good behavior, which tends to increase their mental stress on a daily basis.
This also applies to nurses. Even in their private lives, they tend to fall into the mindset of having to act and behave like nurses, which makes it difficult to release stress. However, if you do not maintain your mental health, you will not be aware of the true needs of students and patients, and you will not be able to support your colleagues. The phrase ``irrational beliefs'' perfectly summed up the difficulty of intra-hospital collaboration that I had faced. When I learned about this research, social recognition was low, and there were not many researchers in Japan. At that time, I met a professor who was conducting research from a broad perspective of health care and health promotion. I was very interested in him because he was conducting surveys to assess patient satisfaction and research to understand the needs within the hospital.
A shared experience of joy
So, how can we improve the problems in mutual cooperation caused by ``irrational beliefs''? Various studies are currently being conducted around the world. What is clear is that ``shared experiences of joy'' are effective. For example, the most familiar thing to do is to "laugh together." It has been shown that engaging in recreation and sports at work, working up a sweat and laughing together is highly effective. By doing radio calisthenics together, by setting goals and achieving them in groups that enjoy common hobbies, and by sharing positive experiences, each person's strong commitment becomes mutually exclusive. It is expected that problems with mutual cooperation will be improved by easing the above.
As a premise, we first need to be aware that we have ``irrational beliefs.'' In recent years, young carers have been successful in promoting awareness. Young carers refer to children who are responsible for daily tasks such as housework and caring for family members, which are normally assumed to be the responsibility of adults, and the declining birthrate and aging population are becoming serious social issues. It's in the background. Research has progressed rapidly over the past few years, and a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2020 found that 1 in 17 public junior high school students and 1 in 24 public high school students have no one caring for them at home. There were so many responses that there were. Of course, not all of them are young carers, but if you include the reserve army, the impact of these numbers is huge. Importantly, young carers did not just appear out of nowhere. It's a story that's been around for a long time, and it could happen to anyone in the future. Young carers have strong 'irrational beliefs'. For example, you may have to work while going to school to take care of a sick parent, you may have to take care of young siblings in place of a working parent, or you may have to give up your career path. This means that one's hope for the future is lost due to a strong sense of responsibility. Naturally, this can lead to mental instability and stress, which can often lead to health problems. However, with the creation of the term "young carer" and social recognition, it has become easier for those involved to become aware of their own situations, and they have started to seek advice from the community of people in such situations, and people around them have begun to act to provide support. A situation has arisen. The importance of awareness-raising activities can be seen here. By not only making the person aware of their ``irrational beliefs,'' but also creating a situation where those around them can understand, people in the community and blood relatives can think together. By creating a situation where everyone takes care of the child and leading to a new shared experience of joy, it is thought that this will lead to an improvement in the situation of young carers.
chain of value
From our research, the SDGs are too large in scale, but we feel that the essential issues are the same. For example, even before the term SDGs was used, there are people who have always been aware of the issues and are working to solve them. Looking at the industry as a whole, we are tackling waste issues and energy issues, and working to solve each issue one by one, while also confronting needs that arise one after another. However, the general public remained indifferent to these matters. Meanwhile, climate change is progressing rapidly, increasing visible crises and increasing social unrest. Converting the various issues faced by human society into a language called SDGs and creating a common recognition has the extremely important meaning of creating a common sense of crisis in society and understanding our own situation. In addition, by doing activities such as volunteering for a common purpose, you can foster a sense of collaboration in tackling problems. For example, when solving food issues, collaboration between different industries that do not normally interact and contributing to solving a single issue can break down the barriers between fields and create important value for creating new social value. There is a gender. This should lead to the creation of new shared experiences of joy.
The ``irrational beliefs'' we face are narrow in scope in the medical field, but that is precisely why research is progressing steadily. It may be possible to think of it as a template for solving the SDGs. One of the great attractions of this field is that research progresses at a fast pace because it is a medical field that involves many people with specialized knowledge. ``Irrational beliefs'' are not about specific people. These are beliefs that arise from countless factors that we humans have, such as preconceptions and constraints due to education. However, this solution should allow society to become more free, more productive, and gain new possibilities. By simply reconsidering the world a little bit based on the knowledge gained in the medical field, we should be able to deepen our understanding of the SDGs. I would like to pay close attention to what kind of shared experience of joy that improves society is, and what kind of value will spread to society.
