ABSTRACT
1) The Department of Tourism Medicine was established at Wakayama Medical University in 2006. "Health tourism," a project of the department combining sightseeing with health care, has involved patients with a variety of diseases.<br>2) As a part of training to promote the compassionate care of patients, students participated in an overnight tour for patients with Parkinson's disease and kept the patients company all the time with various types of assistance.<br>3) The students could understand the daily condition of patients with Parkinson's disease, which they could not do in the hospital, and had favorable relations with the patients' families. This experiential practice was an effective means for promoting the compassionate care of patients.
ABSTRACT
1) As part of a training program for compassionate care and community-based medicine, Wakayama Medical University began experiential training for first-year students at local welfare facilities for the elderly in 2006.2) Students were divided into groups of 2 or 3 and sent to welfare facilities for the elderly throughout Wakayama prefecture for 5 days of "on-the-job" training. After the training period, the students completed a questionnaire survey. Survey results from 2006 and 2007 were compared.3) The surveys showed that many students considered the training to be valuable because they could start communicating with the elderly residents of the facility by around the middle of the training period. On the basis of this result, we concluded that the 5 consecutive days of the program enhance the effectiveness of training.