Toho University School of Nursing

Thomas Jefferson University Jefferson College of Nursing Study Tour Report

Study of Overseas Seminar Programs for "Development of Integrated Education Courses Including Overseas Seminars at Toho University Graduate School of Nursing

Toho University Graduate School of Nursing Yumi Tomioka, Yukiko Mochizuki

I. Introduction

In addition to the thesis course, the Graduate School of Nursing has established CNS (Cancer Nursing and Pediatric Nursing), Practical Midwifery, and Advanced Practical Public Health Nursing courses for the development of advanced practical nurses. The aim of this course is to develop a new curriculum for the graduate school of nursing. The four aims of this course of study are: 1) to improve leadership skills through organizational management including healthcare policy and multidisciplinary collaboration, 2) to develop the ability to respond to global health issues, 3) to acquire advanced nursing practice skills for subjects with complex health problems, and 4) to improve the ability to support health disparities and vulnerable groups in the community. The program was designed to achieve these aims. In order to achieve these aims, we visited Jefferson College of Nursing (JCN) and its related facilities in the U.S., where advanced education is being provided, to study an overseas training program for the subject matter.

Based on these aims, and after preliminary discussions with the professor in charge of graduate training at JCN, the main facilities that were visited as candidates for training facilities are listed below.

II. Facilities to be Visited

1. "Maternal Addiction Treatment, Education and Research (MATER)

The facility is designed for the treatment of drug addiction and social reintegration of mothers, and provides an opportunity to learn how to deal with drug addiction of mothers and children (including withdrawal of the child) and support for mental health related to addiction. Furthermore, the program provides an opportunity to deepen understanding of a comprehensive program that supports rebuilding family (mother-child) relationships and rebuilding lives toward social reintegration in a multi-professional environment.

2. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Maternity Ward (Photo 1)

As a center for perinatal care, it has an integrated care system from pregnancy to delivery and postpartum period, and offers the opportunity to learn management of painless delivery, which is rapidly being introduced in Japan, as well as delivery management and team medicine led by American Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs). Graduate students will have the opportunity to learn the reality of midwifery in the United States through shadowing a CNM.

Chinatown Clinic

The clinic, which provides free or low-cost medical care to immigrants and low-income people, mainly of Chinese descent, living in the surrounding area, is operated by nursing and medical school students, nursing faculty, and physicians who volunteer their time. Students, doctors, nurses, interpreters, and volunteers work together in a team medical care setting, where they can learn the actual practice of comprehensive care in which multiple professions work together, as well as how to support vulnerable groups such as the uninsured, low-income, and homeless, and to assemble support according to life background within limited clinic resources.

　Furthermore, for graduate students in the public health nursing program, this will be a valuable opportunity to consider how to provide support that links medical care and daily life from the perspective of community-based life support.

III.　Determination of Exercise Facilities

In a meeting with the JCN graduate training professors, the following facilities were selected for the exercise.

• MATER (Maternal Addiction Program)
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Obstetrics Ward and Outpatient Department
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Cancer Ward, Outpatient
• Chinatown Clinic
• JCN Simulation Center (Neonatal Resuscitation Program)
• Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware (wards, NICU)

IV. Proposed Exercise Program (Figure 1)

A common feature of MATER and Chinatown Clinic is that they provide comprehensive, patient-centered care through the collaboration of multiple professions. These settings are positioned as general studies, providing an opportunity to learn the role of the nursing profession in patient-centered team care and ethical considerations for immigrants, addicts, and other socially vulnerable populations. On the other hand, clinical exercises in wards, outpatient clinics, and other settings are positioned as individual theory-based learning, and graduate students are assigned tasks in their own specialty, which they are required to solve after completing preliminary study. After the completion of the general theory and individual theory exercises, the students will have a review with Japanese nurses and share the results in reports and presentations after returning to their home countries in order to deepen their learning.

thanks

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Japan Association of Private Nursing Colleges for the opportunity to study overseas exercise programs for the "Development of Integrated Education Courses Including Overseas Exercises."