Give the elderly motivation to live in their local communities! What should nursing care be like in the “with-Corona” era?

Megumi-en Hiro, a day service and short stay nursing care facility in Kure City, not only working to prevent infection but also launching new initiatives, with unchanging passion!

“Habits” protected the elderly

Interviewer：What measures did you take at your nursing care facility in response to the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Mr. KAMAYA：Initially, the users of our facility did not understand about the novel coronavirus. Some of them even said, “Is that the name of an insect?” Only the staff members were nervous.
In such a situation and with very little information about COVID-19, it was very hard to take various measures. To ensure that users can stay comfortable as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, we first installed partition boards to prevent droplet infection, and prepared a handbook titled “COVID-19” containing a list of measures to prevent infection. We also worked to ensure adequate ventilation and sterilization of the facility, and constantly alerted users of the risk of infection. As a result of such efforts, we were surprised that even users with dementia became able to wash their hands for 30 seconds each time as a habit.

Let the new “winds” blow in the nursing care industry

Interviewer：Did you make any changes to your working style due to COVID-19?

Mr. KAMAYA：Yes. We thought we should take new actions. For example, we transmitted video programs for physical workouts, brain training and finger exercises via a video sharing website to allow everyone to try the workouts at home. We showed the videos to the users of our facility and they loved them. This also helped reduce our workload. As an attempt to support local businesses, we purchased box lunches from local hotels and sweets from local confectionary shops. We introduced new technologies for the nursing care operations, such as teleconferencing, non-contact thermometers, automatic locking systems, and user information management using tablets, which enabled us to improve the efficiency of our work while implementing anti-coronavirus measures. By using new technologies, we hope we can communicate the attraction of nursing care work to the younger generations.

Aiming to make our facility a fun place

Interviewer：What do you think is important in taking care of the users?

Mr. KAMAYA：I think it is most important to make the users feel happy to be in this facility. We want the elderly people in our local communities to feel motivated to live their daily lives in good health, and live a long time. We hope also that elderly people who have completed their rehabilitation at hospital and have returned home will look forward to coming to Megumi-en for recreation. Our aim is to make our facility a place that can provide the elderly with motivation to stay healthy.

Day Service Center Short Stay Megumi-en Hiro, Nishinihon Denko Co., Ltd.

1-3-24 Hiro-ohshingai, Kure

+81-0823-36-7652

www.megumien.net

Interview with

Director: KAMAYA Shinji

We conducted interviews!

MIYATA Naho（Yasuda Women’s University）：I rediscovered the importance of welfare!

MAEKUBO Kanako（Hiroshima Jogakuin University）：Nursing care facility introducing leading-edge technologies!

ISHIZU Koyuki（Yasuda Women’s University）：The facility makes users feel at home!

Comment from editor

The COVID-19 handbook and droplet protection partition boards made by the facility staff members helped the users, staff members, and all the other related people live healthy lives. They are working harder than ever before to enhance preventive care, leading to a higher quality of welfare. I therefore think they are contributing to SDG Goal 3. Also, the presence of facilities like Megumi-en, which respect the individuality of the users, can make elderly people feel secure to live in their local communities for a long time, and I think this will lead to the establishment of communities that people can continue to live in throughout their lifetimes.