[Education systems for occupational health nursing in the basic education course for public health nurses in Japan].

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to clarify the education systems for occupational health nursing (OHN) in the basic education course for public health nurses (PHNs) in Japanese nursing universities. METHODS: An anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 234 nursing universities with PHN courses. We surveyed the outline of PHN/OHN curricula, clinical practicum in OHN, and the skill achievement levels of students in OHN clinical practicum according to the "Minimum Requirements in PHNs Education 2004" (MR2004) developed by the Japan Association of PHN Educational Institutions. The data were analyzed using a t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. All statistical analyses were carried out using IBM SPSS ver. 21.0. RESULTS: In the analysis, we used data from the 80 respondent schools (response rate 34.2%). In 39 schools (48.1%), lectures related to a clinical practicum in OHN were offered as independent subjects in the school curriculum; of these 39, two schools (2.5%) offered OHN as multiple independent subjects. In 49 schools (60.5%), clinical practicum in OHN was designated as a part of PHN training. In colleges that had a clinical practicum in OHN, the number of lecture hours related to OHN was 9.7 ± 11.6 hours, which was more than that in colleges without such a practicum, although the difference was not significant. We compared the skill achievement levels between the groups where the number of days in the OHN clinical practicum was up to two and up to three or more. There was a tendency for the skill achievement level to be higher in the group with the greater number of days, with a significant difference in 16 of 19 items. CONCLUSIONS: We clarified that the PHN curriculum is offered with many variations in colleges, and that the lectures and clinical practicum in OHN are developed according to each college's policy. We observed the following tendency: the more days in the OHN clinical practicum, the higher the student's skill achievement level. These findings suggest that guaranteeing a certain number of days in a clinical practicum in OHN is important for realizing high-quality PHN training.

The evaluation of public health nursing students' skill achievement levels by educational improvement.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the educational improvement outcomes after introducing undergraduate public health nursing electives from the perspective of students, teachers, and public health nurses. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: Post-test design with control group was used. We surveyed three groups of participants on the relevance of achieved skill items. These groups were as follows: fourth-year students, teaching staff from seven universities, and public health nurses from special districts of Tokyo who had pioneered the introduction of public health nursing electives. MEASURES: The three participant groups were surveyed in 2013 and 2014 to compare the students' levels of achievement in the 98 skill items presented by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare. Practical training introduced educational reform in 2014. Anonymous self-administrated questionnaires were used. RESULTS: The mean achievement rates of the 98 items in 2013 and 2014 were 67.9% and 72.6%, respectively, for students; 40.9% and 59.7% for teachers; and 44.4% and 59.4% for PHNs. A significant difference was observed between ratios of 2013 and 2014 in all three groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that the introduction of educational reform increased the achievement rates of students through the electives.

Evaluation of skill achievement levels and practical experiences of public health nursing students before and after the introduction of the public health nursing course as an elective.

Objective To equip public health nurses (PHNs) with higher qualifications, PHN education is shifting from an integrated curriculum for PHNs and registered nurses to a specific elective system of undergraduate or postgraduate programs. Most colleges in the special wards of Tokyo introduced the elective system in 2014 before the remaining areas. The outcomes of this must be evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate the achievement levels and practical experiences of PHN students at seven colleges in the special wards before and after introduction of the PHN course as an elective.Method Self-administered, anonymous questionnaires were completed by senior PHN students at seven colleges in the special wards who underwent training in 2013, the last year of an integrated curriculum, and in 2014, the first year of the elective system. The target numbers of participants were 663 in 2013 and 136 in 2014 with 20 students from each school exposed to the elective system. Our study focused on whether they achieved the 98 "technical items of PHN training and achievement levels at the time of graduation" required by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The study also determined whether participants obtained practical experience in 15 items developed by the special wards based on the standards set for training.Results In 2013, there were 348 total responses (52.5%) and 310 valid responses. In 2014, there were 136 total responses (88.2%) and 120 valid responses. The average achievement rate at which the student answered, "I was able to arrive at it," at an arrival degree level for the 98 technical items was 72.6% in 2014, an increase compared to the 67.9% obtained in 2013. Moreover, the average practical experience rate at which the student answered, "I was able to have an experience," regarding the 15 items was 85.7% in 2014, which constituted an increase compared to 70.5% attained in 2013. However, the number of items with an achievement rate of more than 80% remained at 31 (31.6%) in 2014.Conclusion Increasing percentages of average achievement and experience rate suggest that the lecture and training have improved, and highly motivated students could have been selected in the PHN program. However, students did not achieve the target rate for many of the items. Thus, there was a time limit to experience the technical item/the experience item.