A Study of the Education of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Public Health Nursing and In-Service Municipal Public Health Nurses

2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 14572247
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 基礎・地域看護学
• Research Institution: Okayama prefectural university
• Principal Investigator: ONO Tsuruko Okayama prefectural university, Hygienic welfare department, Professor, 保健福祉学部, 教授 (10020025)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NINOIYA Kazue Okayama prefectural university, Hygienic welfare department, Assistant professor, 保健福祉学部, 助教授 (70347607) ; OKADA Yumi Okayama prefectural university, Hygienic welfare department, Assistant, 保健福祉学部, 助手 (70364099)
• Project Period (FY): 2002 – 2004
• Keywords: Competence development in public health nursing / In-service training / Newly appointed public health nurse / 新任期保健師

Research Abstract

As the proportion of elderly people in our population rises, and as the birthrate declines, importance of the community health activities provided by municipalities increases. Added to the conventional set of routines were assessment of local health problems, planning and implementing health promotion programs and developing multidisciplinary collaboration.
In the meantime, the curriculum of the university was expanded to include public health nursing, which used to be a post-registration course.
What kinds of ability to practice such public health activities are necessary for public health nurses to cope with the current problems and issues.
This study was aimed at proposing an effective approach to teaching public health nursing to pre-registration students and an ideal in-service training program. In 2002 interviews were conducted with 12 newly appointed public health nurses working in prefectural offices who were asked to comment on their professional tasks and problems. In 2003 a questionnaire was mailed to newly appointed public health nurses working in 15 prefectures to investigate their views about public health nursing practices. Three hundred and eighty-four nurses completed and returned the questionnaire. In 2004 a questionnaire was given to teachers teaching at educational institutions to clarify what is emphasized in public health nursing education.
The results revealed that the nurses in their first and second years were apt to think mostly of the present and cope individually with their own situation, while the nurses in their third year of employment began to work with their attention directed to the whole community, although not sufficiently. It was also found that the teachers were not satisfied with the current educational system, which was not working well in training public health nurses, but proposed that public health nursing education move into postgraduate education.