2020 年 55 巻 4 号 p. 385-398
In Japan, there has been a confirmation system for a registered recipient transplant coordinator (RTC) since 2011. However, a systematic educational system for RCTs has not been established yet. An inter-institutional training program for RCTs among a limited number of University hospitals was made and conducted with the aid of financial support by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) from 2014 to 2019. It was a part of the whole program applied by the Kumamoto University Hospital to train liver transplant professionals including surgeons and pathologists. In total, eight trainees, who were all active registered nurses in the university hospitals, enrolled to the program. The curriculum was set as one year for each trainee, and consisted of lectures, web conferences, and on-site learning among the different institutions. Some lectures were held combined with the congress of related academic societies to save the time for learning.
It was hard to recruit the trainees because the program had no incentives and no official confirmation for the completion of the program. However, this program could enhance the motivation of not only each trainee but also the currently working RCTs in charge of instruction. On-site training in different institutions was effective to realize the practice, and also could build an inter-institutional community of RCTs and trainees, or future RCTs. This first trial to make such an educational system for RCTs in Japan was introduced in the Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation in 2017.
In conclusion, this prototype of a training system for RCTs in Japan was effective to increase reserves for the next generation concurrent with the formation of an intimate communication system. However, a more strict and permanent system is necessary to create more standardized qualified RCTs authorized with an official or public confirmation.
