A Safe Society Pioneered by Nursing Engineering
Summary:
Amid a declining birthrate and an aging population, the shortage of nursing staff is becoming increasingly severe. Although Kawasaki City’s aging rate—at approximately 21 percent—is lower than the national average, the number of nurses per 100,000 residents is among the lowest in the country. Given the current difficulty in significantly increasing the number of young nurses, there is a need not only to support “potential nurses”—those who have left the profession—in returning to work but also to use science and technology to improve the balance between supply and demand for care.
One such solution is “nursing engineering,” which fuses nursing with engineering. It creates an environment where nurses can reduce the time spent on administrative tasks—such as data entry—and instead focus on their core role: staying close to patients and monitoring their physical and mental conditions. Meanwhile, research into “aging control”—including the detection and removal of aging cells and the development of mRNA therapeutics for age-related diseases—aims to extend healthy life expectancy and reduce the number of people requiring care.
However, even if “safety” is ensured through advances in science and technology, this does not necessarily translate into a sense of “peace of mind” for people. Nursing involves the role of providing optimal care by understanding patients’ feelings based on professional observation. The spirit of dedicated nursing practiced by Kazuko Ozeki during the Meiji era remains relevant today. Society now requires that human nurses and cutting-edge technologies—including AI—leverage each other’s strengths to enhance the quality of care.
From the October 10 morning edition of the Kanagawa Shimbun
https://iconm.kawasaki-net.ne.jp/pdf/iconm_column_other7.pdf
