Diploma Policy and Curriculum Policy of the Nursing Faculty, Iwate Prefectural University

Diploma Policy

The Nursing Faculty aims to cultivate human resources equipped with the abilities and skills in accordance with the University’s founding principles, as well as character and purposes of education and scientific research:

1. Highly motivated professionals possessing strong interest in themselves and others, capable to assess and support people’s health, including the physical, mental and social aspects;
2. Nursing care professionals who, in addition to possessing the ability to judge situations and solve problems based on scientific thinking, are also familiar with international practices and possess a broad international outlook;
3. Specialists who after graduation would proactively accumulate professional experience in the field, explore nursing science, work on self-improvement throughout their life and are able to perform a leading role in further advancing nursing care practices.

Students who have been enrolled for a prescribed number of years and have obtained the number of credits in accordance with the graduation requirements set forth in the faculty regulations are recognized as persons who have acquired the “skills and abilities the student should acquire before graduation” and are therefore conferred with the bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Skills and Abilities the Student Should Acquire Before Graduation

1. Ability to understand the needs and feelings of the nursing care recipient from various viewpoints, including such ethical aspects as respect for life, human dignity and human rights protection, as well as improvement of QOL (Quality of Life) and the perspective of international practice;
2. Ability to practically apply and adapt professional nursing knowledge, methods and principles of nursing care techniques based on scientific evidence;
3. Ability to help in the process of building a support network that would allow individuals, families and local communities to fully exert their advantages (strengths) and proactively tackle health problems in everyday life;
4. Proficient ability to work as a member of a cross-disciplinary professional team in various areas of public health, medical care or welfare by ensuring reliable communication and collaboration based on acquired fundamental learning skills with high adaptability to social changes and a broad vision;
5. Ability to continually work on self-improvement with the purpose of contributing to advancement of scientific research, progress and development of nursing, as should be required from a professional nursing specialist.

Curriculum Policy

The four-year curriculum is compiled as follows based on a practical approach with the focus placed on investigating and clarifying the topics considered most important in nursing practice:

1. Specialized Courses (mainly from the first year to the first semester of the third year)
   The curriculum has a structure that, while facilitating students’ interest towards nursing science from an early stage after enrollment, allows them to gradually elevate the level of specialty from the basics to advanced topics with Basic Specialized Courses, Core Courses and Integration Courses.
2. Practical Training Courses (the second semester of the first year to the first semester of the fourth year)
   Practical training sessions are optimally distributed throughout the curriculum. Students will undergo “Basic Practical Nursing Skills Training” aimed at building up basic nursing skills in the second semester of the first and the first semester of the second year, practical training sessions in each separate professional field (Maternal Health Nursing, Child Health Nursing, Adult Health Nursing, Gerontological Nursing, Mental Health Nursing and Community Health Nursing) from the second semester of the third year to the first semester of the fourth year, and the Comprehensive Nursing Practice training, which allows students to cultivate proactive advanced practical nursing skills based on a teamwork approach in the student-selected field, in the second semester of the fourth year. Furthermore, specific requirements are set regarding pre-sessional training before attending practical training to ensure systematic application of knowledge and techniques obtained in the classroom in the field.
3. Graduation Research (the fourth year)
   Besides lectures and nursing practical training, the students are engaged in graduation research, both in the first and second semesters.
4. Qualification Acquisition
   Those student who, in addition to being eligible to take the National Examination for Nurses, wish to acquire one of the qualifications from (1) to (3) below, may select one of the related educational courses while they are in their third year. Then, during their fourth year, they will attend lectures, seminars and practical sessions required to obtain the chosen qualification.
   (1) Eligibility for admission to the National Examination for Public Health Care Nurses
   (2) Eligibility for admission to the National Examination for Midwifery Specialists
   (3) Teacher’s Certificate (School Nurse Certificate, Teacher’s Certificate for High School [Health Care])

Educational Principles and Educational Goals of the Nursing Faculty, Iwate Prefectural University

Educational Principles

The Iwate Prefectural University’s Nursing Faculty, in addition to allowing students to obtain a broad fundamental education with advanced knowledge and techniques based on nursing practical training, places particular emphasis on cultivating the ability to independently develop nursing assistance while standing in the position of nursing care recipients and making decisions based on scientific knowledge.

Six Educational Goals

• Cultivate rich sense of humanity and compassion nurtured by acute emotional sensitivity, deep human understanding and firm ethical values.
• Cultivate proactive practical nursing skills and ability to contribute to advancement of the nursing field.
• Cultivate professional responsibility awareness and capabilities to exercise leadership.
• Foster investigative disposition, cultivate ability to make comprehensive judgments and capabilities to contribute to advancement of nursing science.
• Cultivate high flexibility and adaptability to social changes through continued life-long self-education aimed at personal growth, as well as eagerness to actively contribute to society.
• Cultivate ability to act based on broad international perspective.

Introduction to the Curriculum

Specialized Courses Curriculum has been partially changed since fiscal 2012. (○＝Compulsory Courses)

(Click here for Curriculum in PDF Format)