Monitoring Function in daily Nursing Care for Older Mentally Ill Patients with Somatic Complications

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The purpose of this research was to identify the monitoring function in daily nursing care for older mentally ill patients with somatic complications. Particularly, this research was focused on the diagnostic and monitoring function of the nurses who take the physical care of long-stay patients with schizophrenia. Two researches conducted. The first was a survey for 48 psychiatric wards in 12 hospitals, Fukushima Prefecture. Subjects were 1,495 in-patients who take major tranquilizer more than 20years. As the result, 27.8% of the patients had somatic complications (diabetes, ringworm, hypertension, etc.). The second research was conducted by interviews for 19 psychiatric nurses. Fourteen cases with ileus and 10 cases with cancer were described by the nurses. The data was analyzed by a qualitative method. Three patterns of discovering the physical problems through everyday nursing practice were emerged from the interview data; nurses' observation, appearing the symptoms, clinical examinations. The results will contribute to develop the diagnostic and monitoring function for older mentally ill patients with somatic complications.