2026 Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 20-30
Purpose
Foreign nurses in Japan under an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) often lack sufficient post-qualification education after passing the national examination. Considering this, the present study argues that adequate opportunities are required to allow them to learn through dialogue. Accordingly, a communication training program was created.
This work reports on an attempt to conduct communication training at a participating medical institution and identifies areas for improvement.
Methods
The study included nine participants: seven EPA nurses (from Vietnam), one nurse educator, and one EPA staff member. The communication training was conducted over two days; the first session involved communication activities, and the second involved sharing workplace experiences. The communication training aimed to set behavioral objectives that would lead to the development of problem-solving skills. The record sheets and questionnaires were transcribed and analyzed.
Results
In the first practical training session, the EPA nurses focused on the date of the message and the circumstances of falls, ultimately striving to convey information accurately. In the second practical training session, EPA nurses, a nurse educator, and an EPA staff member shared their experiences and difficulties with workplace communication, became aware of adaptive challenges, and considered action goals through dialogue.
Discussion
Regarding the appropriateness of the conveyed content, the amount of information needed to be improved, and the difficulty level should not depend solely on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test standards, but the actual communication situations in the workplace need to be taken into account. Previous research has also confirmed the significance of handling incident reports, which are equivalent to communicating the scene of a fall.
Regarding the difficulty level of the transmission conditions, gradually increasing the number of questions and increasing the degree of freedom was effective in raising awareness of the need for clarification. Additionally, improvements were identified that included adding new conditions for non-verbal communication.
Furthermore, from the perspective of career development, the necessity of continuous and long-term training methods for EPA nurses were suggested.
