1. Current Situation
1) Institution Name Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing
2) Address 1-24-1 Yogi, Naha city, Okinawa prefecture
3) Department and Course Structure
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing
Graduate School of Health Nursing
Special Course in Midwifery
4) Numbers of Students and Instructors (as of the 1st April 2011)
Students: Department of Nursing: 328
Graduate School of Health Nursing: 17 Master and 13 Doctoral
Special Course in Midwifery: 20
Instructors: Department of Nursing: 34 (20 hold another post in Graduate School)
Special Course in Midwifery: 3
2. Characteristic
1) Introduction of Islands in Okinawa Prefecture
Okinawa Prefecture is located at the southernmost point of Japan. It includes 160 scattered islands in a large ocean area which stretches 1,000 km from east to west, and 400 km from north to south. The Okinawa main island and 39 remote islands are inhabited. The remote islands make up 45.2% of the total land area of Okinawa, and 10% of the prefectural population; therefore, 130,000 people live on the remote islands. While the average population aging rate in Okinawa is 15%, the rate in municipalities of Okinawa remote islands is 24%. The remote islands are super aging society.
The islands are characterized by traditional culture and relaxed life space as well as rich nature’s bounty which is represented by a beautiful coral leaf in a sub-tropical climate. Meanwhile, due to the geographical and natural conditions, the Okinawa Prefecture represents lower standard in terms of living environment such as medical care and welfare. Moreover, the prefecture faces many challenges such as a delay in constructing infrastructure for information and communications as well as population aging as a result of a constant outflow of the young.
2) Introduction of Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing
Our institution is a nursing college which is located at the main island of Okinawa, which is an island prefecture that includes 39 inhabited remote islands. As a result of social demand in and outside the prefecture, the college was established in April 1999 as a 4 year program college which aims to train and develop students to be high quality nurses. The graduate school program – Master’s and Doctoral in School of Health Nursing – was established 10 years ago, in 2004.
Chart 1: Introduction of Islands in Okinawa Prefecture
3) Characteristic of Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing
In 2006, the Institutional Certified Evaluation and Accreditation recognized 3 excellent features of the college. Firstly, the college aims to contribute to the people of Okinawa Prefecture which includes many islands. Secondly, the college established a community recommendation entrance system, which maintains entrance of a certain number of students from Okinawa in order to respond to local demand as to comply with the objective of college foundation. Thirdly, among our graduates, 15% of those who are employed within the prefecture work at remote islands, that is, a high rate.
The first president of the college, Professor Emeritus Reiko Ueda, proposed a principle of health nursing. The principle is that “health nursing covers a wide range of individuals and groups – such as family, school, community and state – and provides nursing support by grasping health related phenomena within a cultural framework in relation to life.”
(1) Objective of Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing
The objective of our college is to cultivate rich humanity which respects sanctity of life and to develop talent which can contribute to improvement of people’s health and welfare by providing students with advanced professional knowledge and skills in nursing that enable them to practice nursing scientifically in the fields of health care, medical care and welfare (Code of the School, Article 1).
(2) Admission Policy
In compliance with the Code of the School, Article 1, the admission requirements are defined as follows
① One who is interested in life and health and likes to contribute to society
② One who has ambition and inquiring mind and likes to acquire wide range of knowledge
③ One who is interested in health care, medical care and nursing that include medical care in remote islands and remote areas and is willing to solve problems autonomously
④ One who is interested in discovery of other cultures and is willing to learn nursing with international perspective
⑤ One who complies with the college educational rules and code and commits oneself to learning
(3) Educational Objective
The college defines our educational principle as “in compliance with the objective of college foundation, our education aims to respects sanctity of life; to cultivate rich humanity; to develop nurses who are able to practice nursing scientifically with broad perspective in the diversifying and globalizing society; and to contribute to health and welfare of people.” The following 6 educational objectives are proposed; the 6 objectives demonstrate skills which students are expected to master.
① To cultivate rich humanity with ethics that respect sanctity of life
② To learn a wide range of scholarship, develop intelligence and sensibility, and cultivate creativity
③ To master knowledge, skills and perspective that are necessary for nursing professionals; and to develop problem solving ability and judgement founded upon scientific evidence
④ To share the principle of health care, medical care and welfare; and to develop ability to play nursing roles as professionals in cooperation with other professionals in related fields
⑤ To understand geographical and cultural characteristics wherein people reside; to develop ability to health nursing activities that are embedded in a community; and to be able to conduct health nursing activities with international perspective
⑥ To equip habit of research and investigation; and to cultivate ability that contributes to development of nursing through one’s own health nursing activities
The new curriculum compilation for the fiscal year 2010 is currently underway. The revised curriculum aims to accomplish the educational objectives and to equip students with sufficient ability of nursing professionals. The compilation reflects our efforts to clarify what is expected to the students for graduation.
(4) FD Activity
Our effort for FD has been made since the foundation of college in 1999. The main activities are lectures by Japanese and foreign specialists at the “Nursing Leadership Council,” action research on child abuse, competence at undergraduate and graduate programs, organization of joint sessions for nursing supervisors and certified nurses, “overseas training in Hawaii for younger instructors,” promotion of review discussion on and utilization of the latest foreign journal articles through “Publication of Annual Synthesizer,” promotion of island research and distance education as “Educational and Research Award by President,” and college-wide workshops and study groups as an “Examination of New Curriculum Compilation.”
(5) Self Assessment and Evaluation
Our self assessment and evaluation has been implemented since the foundation of college (in 1999). The self assessment and evaluation are initiated by the president as the chairperson along with external examiners.
The results of evaluation are reflected in improvement of education, development of teaching ability and committee activities. The following is the list of main self assessment and evaluation activities.
○ Self Assessment and Evaluation Committee of Undergraduate Program (1999 ～)
○ Students’ Course Evaluation (1999 ～)
○ College Education Evaluation by Current Students and Graduates (2001 / 2005)
○ Evaluation of Practicum by Independent Institutions and Graduates (2005)
○ College-Wide Self Assessment and Evaluation Committee (2005 ～)
○ Instructor’s Self Evaluation and Evaluation Report of Committees (2005 ～)
○ Institutional Certified Evaluation and Accreditation (2006)
○ Advisory Meeting (Function of Third Party Evaluation) (2006 ～)
○ Trial Practice of External Evaluation with Instructor Interviews (2008) |
