With the aim of clarifying the current status and issues of educational support methods at facilities accepting foreign nurse candidates (hereafter, candidates) who came to Japan under the Economic Partnership Agreement (hereafter, EPA). An interview survey was conducted with 12 foreign nurses who had already passed the national nurse examination. The study found that the candidates were currently receiving from Japan “OJT support in nursing practices”, “Assistance in adapting to educational, work, and living environments”, “Off-JT support to prepare for the national nursing exam”, “Emotional support”, “In-hospital training courses and support”, and “Support for understanding the system for accepting nurses”. These issues suggest that educational support provided to the candidates in the future should be based upon a foundation embodying “Improvement in contract terms” and “Reinforcement of the educational system and role”, and there is a need to offer spiral learning comprising “Support for improving Japanese language ability”, “Emotional support”, “Assistance in adapting to educational, work, and living environments”, “OJT support in nursing practices”, and “Off-JT to prepare for the national nursing exam”.
