Nursing Students' Experiences in Consecutive Clinical Interprofessional Education in Japan: Application of the IPE in Nursing Colleges.

AIM: To document nursing students' experiences of continuous participation in a clinical interprofessional education (IPE) program with the Faculty of Pharmacy of other universities in Japan, which had been incorporated into the existing practicum program, and consider how to develop a one-shot clinical IPE program. METHODS: The study participants were two nursing students from a single-department college; they were participating in a clinical IPE program-the first IPE program they had ever participated in-during an area-based practicum in Year 3. Subsequently, in Year 4, a semi-structured interview was conducted, and these interview data were qualitatively and inductively analyzed. RESULTS: Seven categories were identified, and it was found that through continuous participation in the IPE program, there was a change from "clinical IPE is stuck at the back of their mind as a bitter experience" to "the process of clinical IPE stimulates their maturity as a nursing student" and "cultivates attitudes necessary for cooperation". CONCLUSION: Consecutive years of continuous clinical IPE helps students deepen their understanding of learning content by reducing the physical and mental burden of multidisciplinary cooperation and collaboration. For difficulties with regard to step-by-step IPE, it is suggested that one-shot clinical IPE can be conducted for the upper grades along with continuous reflection activities for teams and individuals.

Development of an interprofessional competency framework for collaborative practice in Japan.

Rapid aging of the population necessitates improved collaboration among healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, interprofessional collaboration has yet to be implemented effectively in Japan. Therefore, we aimed to develop an interprofessional competency framework for Japanese healthcare professionals. The project was conducted as a four-step process, starting with initial categorization of potential competency domains,, followed by guiding principle and prototype development, feedback on the prototype, and final consensus. First, authors (JH and MO) collected opinions about competency in interprofessional collaboration at two academic meetings of the Japan Association for Interprofessional Education (JAIPE) and then analyzed the data thematically. Second, a project team consisting of JAIPE and University representatives extracted the domains and statements as prototype 1. Third, seven representatives from professional organizations joined the project team and developed prototype 2. We then called for feedback on the revised prototype 2 at both an open symposium and via public comments. Following revision of prototype 2, a new project team including 20 university, professional organization and health practitioner representatives finally discussed prototype 3, developed the final draft and reached a consensus. In analysis after collecting the data, we extracted 11 themes. We developed four key principles which applied to six domains as prototype 1-3. Finally, our competency framework included two core domains of "Patient-/client-/family-/community-centered" and "Interprofessional communication", and four peripheral domains of "Role contribution", "Facilitation of relationships", "Reflection" and "Understanding of others". We developed an interprofessional competency framework in Japan which consists of two core and four peripheral domains. The interprofessional competency framework is likely to affect the understanding of "high-context" and "relationalism" in Japanese healthcare. We hope that our interprofessional competency framework will encourage the systematic implementation of interprofessional education and collaboration in Japan.

Development of an interprofessional competency framework in Japan.

This article presents a project that aimed to identify a set of competencies (domains and statements) to prepare Japanese students and healthcare practitioners for collaborative practice. The Japan Association for Interprofessional Education (JAIPE) has started a government-funded project to formulate its interprofessional competency framework, in cooperation with professional organisations (e.g. Japan Society for Medical Education) in healthcare and social sciences. This three-year project is underway as part of the Initiative to Build up the Core Healthcare Personnel programme of Mie University. This project consists of five stages: literature review, data collection, prototype development, consensus formation, and finalisation. Our efforts will culminate in Japan's first interprofessional competency framework, with consensus from relevant academic societies and other stakeholders. We hope that the involvement of stakeholder participation will improve the usability of the final interprofessional competency framework.

[Living areas considered by healthy elderly people living in the suburbs of a metropolitan area].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify living areas perceived by healthy elderly people living in A, a Metropolitan city. The study also focused on the influences of age, gender, and family structures, residence period, the level of instrumental activities of daily living (the IADL), and frequency of weekly outing of the elderly upon their perceptions. METHODS: The inclusion criteria for the study subjects were: (1) elderly people aged 65 and over living in A city, and (2) not receiving Long-Term Insurance services. The survey period was between January and February in 2005. Self-administered questionnaires were sent to 4,000 randomly selected elderly people by mail and 3,070 (77.0%) questionnaires were returned. 2,692 (67.3%) of these could be analyzed. RESULTS: The majority of respondents perceived the entire area of A city and the local center's area as living areas. Junior high school districts and primary school districts were stated by less than 3% of all respondents as within their living areas. Regarding gender, men were more likely to respond that the local center's area was their living area, whereas women considered that the whole area of A city was included. However, there was no statistically significant difference. In terms of age, respondents aged under 79 included the whole area of A city, whereas those aged 80 and under stated that their areas of self-governing body/neighborhood association were their living areas, indicating reduction in living areas with aging. Regarding the family structure of the respondents, the most frequent answer was the entire K city in subjects in all types of households except those consisting of the subject and parents, who most frequently regarded local center's as the living area. Respondents who were living 10 years and over in K city perceived that the whole area of the city was included, but respondents residing for under 10 years perceived the local center's area to be their living area. With regard to the level of the IADL, independent elderly responded the entire city, whereas dependent elderly responded the local center's area. Moreover, the living areas of respondents became smaller with decrease in the frequency of weekly outing. CONCLUSION: The living areas perceived by elderly people differ depending on their attributes, including age and gender, IADL, frequency of weekly outing, and the period of residence. In order to provide support to facilitate the elderly staying at home, we need to consider their backgrounds and thoughts. Further investigation is necessary to identify the influences of the characteristics and environments of communities upon the elderly perception of living areas.