2023 年 19 巻 p. 1-13
Background: In Japan, students with health impairments who are in hospitals can take part in school education through in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education. However, previous studies have demonstrated that a certain percentage of elementary and junior high students do not receive learning support. The problems involved with the provision of school education through in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education should be addressed, to facilitate students’learning in hospitals.
Objective: This study aimed to clarify the reasons for the unavailability of in-hospital classes or hospitalvisit education from the perspective of head nurses in pediatric internal medicine and surgery departments, and explore issues arising due to the absence of in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education.
Methods: The Japan Hospital Association, Japanese Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, and 576 hospitals with pediatric internal medicine or surgery wards were included in our study. The respondents were head nurses in the pediatric internal medicine or surgery wards. This questionnaire survey was conducted as a postal survey from mid-June, 2018 to mid-November, 2018. The questions for the selection formulas were tabulated and statistical analysis was performed. Subsequently, the card arrangement of the KJ method was used to identify themes and categorize them based on similarities.
Results: We collected data from 252 hospitals, and the final sample comprised 245 hospitals. The most common reasons given for not making use of in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education when these were available were “The families of the elementary/junior high school students in the hospital do not insist on education” When in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education were not available, there were issues, mainly in terms of returning to school and learning.
Conclusion: There were also two types of access issues for elementary and junior high school students: some hospitals had no venues for in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education, while other hospitals had venues for in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education that were unavailable to elementary and junior high school students. In hospitals with venues for in-hospital classes and hospital-visit education, the present findings revealed that several elementary and junior high school students in hospitals did not receive in-hospital classes or hospital-visit education, and that their learning mainly depended on the efforts of others, such as their parents and their original school teachers.
