Practical actions of nurses working at community general support centers in Japan: A qualitative study

Objective: To clarify the practical actions that experienced nurses working at community general support centers perform to provide comprehensive community care that supports the lifestyles of residents, including older adults. Methods: The participants were full-time nurses with at least 9 years of experience working at community general support centers in Japan. Semi-structured in-person interviews were conducted between August and December 2023, and the results underwent qualitative descriptive analysis. Results: Ten core categories, twenty-six categories, and eighty-eight subcategories were identified as actions that nurses at community general support centers performed. The 10 core categories were assessment for care prevention, communication that builds trust, networking, promotion of nursing care prevention, coordination of the care team, creation of projects and resources that can be locally implemented, creation of a local care system, teamwork among professions at the community general support center, self-improvement to improve one’s expertise, and operational management for implementing effective support. Conclusions: Nurses performed practical actions to both provide individual support and community development. The results suggested that nurses used the networks they had built through performing their daily work duties, including providing support to individuals, to support community resources. They also utilized community resources in local communities to create care systems in the community.