Purpose：To clarify the learning items of stepwise communication skills for each grade stage in a bachelor of nursing course.

Method：A questionnaire survey was conducted three times using the Delphi method. Requests for participation in the study were sent to 103 nursing faculty members with ≥10 years’ experience and involvement in communication skills in nursing universities. The subjects were 60 of these faculty members from whom consent was obtained. In the first round, 53 communication skills items were extracted from books used in nursing education. Twenty-six items extracted from free description were added, and 79 were used in both rounds 2 and 3. Communication skills items for which ≥50% of subjects responded were necessary in each academic year were judged to be items for which “agreement was obtained.”

Results and Discussion：The skills that need to be acquired by students at each grade level were shown. For first-year students, there were 21 items, including grooming and appearance and salutations, and they are necessary as skills for human relations in society. For second-year students, there were 2 items related to understanding of patients. For third-year students, there were 8 items that are utilized in nursing professionalism and that promote conversation. For fourth-year students, communication skills that incorporated consideration of patients’ conditions, rather than acquisition of new skills, were necessary.

This study aimed to clarify the learning experiences of students during a nursing practicum in which students visited operating rooms and observed actual adult surgical patients. Data collected from semi-structured interviews with students after their visits were qualitatively analyzed. As a result, six categories were identified：“practical understanding of surgical stress”, “correction of preconceived notions of the operating room”, “amazing of human vitality”, “a view of operative nursing that values the patient”, “increased interest in operative nursing”, and “increased devotion to patient care”. Through the observation of actual patients during operating room visits, students’ learning structure expanded from the knowledge level to the emotional domain. In addition, learning through operating room visits was found to promote students’ personal and ethical maturity in nursing. These findings suggest that it is necessary to identify methods and techniques of instruction that help to increase students’ interest and improve students’ care experience, and that it is important for nursing students to consider additional methods of educational guidance to supplement their learning in the operating room.

〔Purpose〕The purpose of the this study is to clarify the state of the reflective practice of nursing students confused over their relationship with patients in practical training.

〔Methods〕Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 20 students. The state of “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action” based on D. Schön’s theory were extracted using the KJ method, and the reflective process was examined.

〔Results and Conclusion〕The themes of “reflection-in-action” extracted were “confirmation of patients’ conditions and their reactions to oneself, and awareness of changes,” “actions and expression of emotions to secure solutions,” “analyses of the mental state of patients, oneself, others and help, and considering methods of help,” “self-awareness and acquisition of new perspectives,” “implementation of patient-centered help,”and others of these the core theme to promote reflective practice was “confirmation of patients’ conditions and their reactions to oneself, and awareness of changes,” of which process was supported by “actions and expression of emotions to secure solutions.” Meanwhile there were also cases of “assigning priority to one’s own emotions and implementing actions according to the others’ opinions” based on “reactions of patients and emotions arising in situations encountered.” For “reflection-on-action,” three themes were extracted：“difficulty of understanding patients and confusion over how to help, and ongoing feelings of regret,” “reflection on the understanding of patients and one’s own approach to helping patients” and “learning the fundamental approach to nursing, and self-awareness and acquisition of new perspectives.” It is suggested that the promotion of reflective practice calls for providing surroundings in which students can express their thoughts and emotions, and encouraging students to be conscious of and reflect on the relationship between themselves and the situation, so that they can obtain awareness.

The purpose of this study is to review the role of liberal education by studying the teaching staff’sawareness of liberal education at universities that offer a nursing program. A questionnaire survey was conducted at the nine universities that offer nursing education and consented to participate, and the form was sent to 493 members of the teaching staff who held a position of associate professor or higher and who taught general, basic specialist or nursing specialist subjects. Two-hundred-and-fifty-one responses were returned （return rate：50.9%）and analyzed. The results showed that the majority was female. They were most likely in their 40s or 50s, held a professor’s tenure, and specialized in nursing （56%）.These members of the teaching staff were aware that there is an association with liberal arts subjects, although fewer than half of them had any experience in inter-subject coordination, concerning such matters as duplication of lesson content, making connections between subjects, aligning the subjects and creating a timetable. Review of the differences in the awareness of concern about liberal education among those responsible for general, basic specialist or nursing specialist subjects revealed a higher interest held by the nursing teaching staff than the teaching staff in Medicine, Dentistry and pharmacology, elucidating an inter-specialty difference. Many members of the teaching staff were aware of issues with general education, and such tasks as developing an appropriate curriculum, coordination between teaching staff, university-wide efforts, working with the students, and so forth, were identified.