大学病院における診療看護師の導入と活動

Introduction and Activities of Nurse Practitioner in Japan in a University Hospital

ナース・プラクティショナー（NP）は米国で1965年から開始された制度であり，職務内容は州法と病院ごとの業務プロトコールにより定められている．その業務は病歴聴取，診察，検査オーダー，診断，治療など多岐にわたり，資格を取得すれば処方も可能になる1）．医師の負担軽減のみならず，医療の質の向上にも寄与し，米国ではなくてはならない職種となっている．

Nurse practitioner （NP） is widely known to be an essential position of medical team in the United States, but has not yet been established as an official qualification in Japan. NP in Japan （NP-J） is accepted instead of NP, but they are not the same. We summarized the actual activities of NP-J at our hospital and had an insight into the roles of NP-J in a university hospital and the problems of introduction of NP in the future.

The benefits of working as a NP-J at a university hospital are the safe acquisition of procedures at an educational institution and the involvement of various departments. In the future, the education of NP-J in a university hospital may lead to the training of NP-J working in public and private hospitals.

The problem of introduction of NP in the future is the legislation. The importance of task shifting and education of NP-J in a university hospital may lead to the spread of NP in the future in Japan.