Objective:
To clarify the current status and challenges of community medical liaison through inter-professional work (IPW) in the eastern area of Shizuoka Prefecture, a questionnaire survey using a community liaison scale was conducted by nurses working for administrative bodies, in addition to medical, care, and welfare professionals whom these nurses collaborate with in their communities.
Methods:
An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted by 500 sub-jects. Data was analyzed using SPSS ver. 22.0 to calculate descriptive statistics. Free descriptions were categorized through content analysis, followed by statistical text analysis based on natural language processing using Text Mining Studio vol. 6.0.
Results:
Responses were obtained from 349 (69.8%) subjects. Nurses, public health nurses working for administrative bodies, and care managers in their thirties to fifties with clinical experience of 8 years or longer accounted for 68.8%. On analysis of the descriptions based on the type of profession using text mining to create bubble charts, the roles of welfare and administrative professionals who placed importance on locations and persons, were found to differ from those of other professionals.
Discussion and Conclusion:
The findings of this study, which clarified challenges related to social resources/environments and differences in awareness of IPW among professionals in the eastern area of Shizuoka Prefecture, will be practically utilized in future approaches to establish a community-based integrated care system.