Evaluation of an Education Program on Community Orientation among Community Health Nurses in Fiji.

AIM: The study objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an education program to improve community orientation among community health nurses in Fiji. A 1.5-day education program was developed that enabled participants to learn a concept through discussion, as they reviewed their experiences. DESIGN: This study used mixed methods research. METHODS: The education program involving 78 community health nurses and supervisors was conducted. The 30-item Community Orientation among Community Health Nurses scale, six-item program evaluation questionnaire, and participant reflection sheets were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. RESULTS: Program evaluations demonstrated high satisfaction among participants. The content analysis of participant views on community orientation revealed three categories; utilizing community intelligence in community activities, relationships with community members as a community health nurses, and human resource development tool. Our findings suggest that this education program should be held regularly, in conjunction with on-the-job and off-site training.

Video Review System for Sharing Tacit Knowledge of Clinical Nursing Practice.

Nursing practice conducted in a clinical setting remains within the facility, giving no opportunities to be shared widely. This study was conducted to record practical knowledge of clinical nursing, to build a video database for nursing skills education to share that knowledge, and to assess the systematic operation of such a database. We conducted pilot practice for simplified creation of teaching material contents and for evaluation of the Saei system operation. Saei means "to scrutinize self-made videos". In Saei, as regular submissions for academic journals, we presupposed that nursing skill videos of one's own creation would be submitted to make them available to others. We assumed that the skill videos to be submitted are "mainly video manuals for nursing or medical care skills, recognized their safety and reliability, and shot to be a reference for clinical nursing, nursing skills training and nursing education using methods to satisfy ethically considered Nursing Art". This report describes relevant results.

Study of Learning by the Virtual Patient Case Created.

We develop the Virtual Patient Creation Format to perform the process online and to verify the operational effects. Having nursing students create virtual patients by themselves enabled us to imagine patients in the nursing process.

Activities and health status of dispatched public health nurses after the great East Japan earthquake.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to elucidate the actual activities conducted by public health nurses during their dispatch and their health status during and after dispatch to the three prefectures most severely affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. SAMPLE: A survey request was sent to a total of 2,237 facilities. Of these, 778 facilities returned questionnaires from dispatched public health nurses. RESULTS: The participants of this study were 1,570 dispatched health nurses who participated in activities mostly at evacuation centers, followed by evacuees' homes. After dispatch, an earlier postdisaster phase at the start of dispatch was independently associated with poor subjective well-being, low mood, worsened sleep state, and intense fatigue. Work hours per day were associated with poor subjective well-being and intense fatigue after dispatch. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the factor that most strongly affected the postdispatch health of the nurses was the phase that they began their dispatch.

[Survey on public health nursing education-in the comparison of nursing education courses, universities, advanced courses for public health nurse with junior nursing colleges, and public health nursing school].

PURPOSE: Changes in public health nursing education have been consideration. Theses changes include a dramatic increase in the number of public health nurses (PHNs) who have enrolled for nursing courses at university. This study was conducted to assess the current status and future of public health nursing education as perceived by teachers and students at three types of schools: universities offering nursing courses, advanced courses for PHNs with junior nursing colleges, and public health nursing schools. METHODS: Questionnaires were distributed to teachers and students by mail. The questions that were sent to teachers asked which subjects were required to become a certified PHN, which lecture methods were employed to teach public health-particularly community health assessment methods, and what was the level of awareness of the activities of PHNs. Students were asked about their motivation to be a PHN, their understanding of public health, their views of public health activities and their images of PHNs. RESULTS: Responses were analyzed and differences between questionnaires from different schools were noted. These included the number of subjects and the total number of hours spent doing practical training and field experience in universities and the other types of schools, and the number of teachers. Differences also were noted among students at three types of schools about their age, methods of public health activities, knowledge about activities undertaken by PHNs, and their images of PHNs. No differences were observed among the schools with respect to the students' conceptual understanding of public health. CONCLUSION: Student age, practical training and field experience were found to contribute to their level of understanding of public health and public health nursing. It is thus necessary to consider the teaching methods employed by universities that administer nursing courses and the effectiveness of courses offered by graduate schools.