Abstract
This study was conducted to elucidate the trends in research into the maintenance and improvement of practical nursing competence among nursing educators, and to use the results as the basis for investigating issues that should be addressed in future research, in pursuit of achieving maintenance and improvement of practical nursing competence among nursing educators. The Igaku Chuo Zasshi online database was searched using the keywords “educator” and “nursing practice” to identify Japanese articles published between 1983 and 2015 categorized as“ original articles” or“ conference minutes.” Data creation was done using an analysis form composed of“ number of studies and annual trends,”“ type of research,”“ research content” and other data. Berelson's technique for content analysis was used to code the objectives, methods, and results of each study and to categorize codes based on similarities in semantic content. Eighteen articles on studies were subjected to analysis. The annual trend was one to three articles per year and qualitative studies accounted for 55.6% of the total. Twenty content-related codes were extracted from the 18 articles and five categories were reveale d. The content of research with these five characteristics suggested that research was being conducted from three aspects: current state and evaluation of educators' continuing education for nurses, educators' self-awareness, and the relationship with educator characteristics. The findings of this study suggested three points for future research topics, including“ elucidating the actions required to maintain and improve practical nursing competence among nursing educators.”
