Professor and students from the University of
the Philippines Manila visit Yokohama Namiki Rehabilitation Hospital
Columns by Hospital Director
Welcome to Yokohama Namiki Rehabilitation Hospital
February 15, 2016
Director of the Yokohama Namiki Rehabilitation Hospital,
Yoshinori Abe, M.D., Ph.D.
On February 10, 2016, a group of a professor and students from the University of the Philippines Manila visited Yokohama Namiki Rehabilitation Hospital. I gave a welcome speech for them.
The speech is as follows;
Mabuhay.(This means “Welcome” in Tagalog.)
Welcome to Yokohama Namiki Rehabilitation Hospital, and thank you very much for coming. My name is Yoshinori Abe. I am a neurologist and the hospital director, and I will be giving you a brief overview of our facility.
This hospital has three types of wards for patients, depending on their diseases and symptoms; the “Convalescence Rehabilitation Ward,” the “Special Rehabilitation Ward,”and the “Chronic Rehabilitation Ward.”
The Convalescence Rehabilitation Ward provides rehabilitation to patients with stroke and bone fracture who come from our affiliated hospitals after receiving intensive acute care. The ward has 132 beds, which is the most of any convalescence rehabilitation ward in Yokohama, a large city with a population of nearly 4 million people. It plays a central role in this hospital. We believe that all activities of daily life are related to rehabilitation, and we subscribe to the motto “Rehabilitation is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
The “Special Rehabilitation Ward” provides combination therapy consisting of neurological rehabilitation and pharmacotherapy for patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. In the ward, we provide not only combination therapy, but also “respite care,” a type of short-term care that gives relief to the family caregivers of patients during hospitalization.
In the “Chronic Rehabilitation Ward,” we mainly treat stroke patients who have relatively severe brain damage. The ward is for patients who require rehabilitation comprising sustained medical treatment or recuperation services.
The mission of this facility can be summed up by the following two terms: “interdependent medicine” and “non-verbal communication.”
The staff in this hospital currently comprises 409 members, and includes medical doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech-language-hearing-therapists, social workers, pharmacists, laboratory medical technologists, radiologists, administrative staff, accounting staff, medical affairs stuff, nutrition managers, food service workers, and cleaning workers. Everyone works together with a sense of interdependence and trust, and puts forth their best efforts to ensure the well-being of the patients.
Regarding non-verbal communication, Dr. Ray Birdwhistell, an American anthropologist, estimated that “no more than 30 to 35 percent of the social meaning of a conversation or an interaction is carried by the words.”“Over 65 percent of the social meanings of the messages we send to others are communicated non-verbally, commonly called with body language, such as facial expression and gestures.” I would like to stress that, in order to enhance the quality of care we provide, we view both verbal and non-verbal communication equally valuable.
Lastly, our goal is to be the best rehabilitation hospital in Japan.
It is my hope that everyone in attendance today has a fruitful and valuable hospital visit. At the same time, this is the first step for us in the process of promoting globalization in nursing, and in demonstrating that we are all “interdependent.”
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
Salamat.(This means “Thank you” in Tagalog.)
