The research objective was to discover criteria contributing to nursing students' judgment of the quality of nursing clinical practicum instruction and to obtain suggestions to improve said quality. Participants were 864 students enrolled in a basic nursing curriculum, who completed a questionnaire that included a open-ended questions, which asked if students felt nurses' instructions were “good” or “not good.” Content validity of the questionnaire was established by conducting two pilot studies. Content analysis for nursing education based on Berelson's methodology was applied. Of the 531 surveys returned (return rate = 61.5%), 515 were valid responses and used in analyses (valid response rate = 59.6%). Analyses identified 46 categories, representing criteria contributing to nursing students' judgment of the quality of nursing clinical practicum instruction. Categorical reliability was confirmed by calculating agreement rates using Scott's formula (all > 70%). The results indicated that the following four aspects contributed to students' judgement of the quality of instruction from nurses: a) criteria related to instruction directly involved in achieving clinical practicum objectives, b) criteria related to support directed at smooth progression of clinical practicum, c) criteria related to nurses' attitudes and behaviors accompanying the instruction, and d) criteria related to securing and improving the learning environment. It is highly likely that nurses can implement effective instructions by both prioritizing achievement of clinical practicum objectives and providing instruction considering these criteria.

This study aims to conceptualize the experiences of nurses with clinical instructor experience, and to identify their characteristics. Nineteen research subjects who had been in the role for at least one year or had experience in a nursing role within the past two years were appointed as clinical instructors. Using semi-structured interviews, we obtained data from those with clinical instructor experience and saturation was confirmed. The Methodology for Conceptualization of Nursing was applied to this data and analysis created 16 concepts expressing clinical instructor experiences. They included: (a) Having a good overview of training and providing instruction in order to achieve to goals, (b) Being sceptical of, but still complying with, hospital/educational institution training policy, and (c) Engaging in continuous learning/ self-evaluation to apply to their work and improve clinical instructor quality. To discover these characteristics, we compared with instructor behaviour from previous research. Characteristic 1 had the same quality of experiences as behaviour in 6 of the 16 concepts including (a). This indicates that clinical instructors speak of their experiences and express it in their actions, perceiving it as an important role. Characteristic 2 had differing qualities to behaviour in 4 concepts including (b) which shows that when instructor opinion differs with that of the institution training policy, perception of experience such as scepticism of/compliance with training policy is not shown in behaviour. The 6 concepts of Characteristic 3 including (c) are experiences that are not shown as behaviour. The results of this research can be used so that clinical instructors objectively understand their work situation and to clarify goals and challenges towards an even better execution of roles.

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable scale, which can be used for evaluating staff nurses' Hatarakiyasusa, a Japanese concept which reflects their perceptions of their work or work environment. Based on the criteria contributing to staff nurses' Hatarakiyasusa in hospitals, 38 items were developed. Content validity of the items was confirmed through discussion with nurses and a pilot study. Refined scales were sent to hospitals throughout Japan, and 459 valid responses were statistically analyzed. The Cronbach's alpha of the scale was 0.935, and the test-retest reliability correlation was 0.872. All hypotheses were verified by using known-group techniques. Moreover, significant positive correlation between the score of the scale and scores on a satisfaction scale, and between the score of the scale and the results of direct questions were shown. The reliability and validity of the scale were confirmed.

The purpose of this study was to develop a self-evaluation scale on ethical behavior of nurses that can be used for improving one's ethical behavior as a hospital nurse. The study was comprised of three phases. Phase 1 was that items were made based on the result of preceding qualitative and inductive study. Phase 2 was that content validity of the selfevaluation scale was estimated through two pilot studies and by a panel of experts, then the scale was corrected. Phase 3 was that reliability and validity were estimated through two surveys. The scale contained 31 items is 4-point Likert scale.
In the first survey, the Self-evaluation scale on ethical behavior as a nurse and characteristic investigation questionnaire were used. The questionnaires were sent to 1,404 hospital nurses. The responses were 674 (response rate 48.0%) and 606 valid answers were analyzed. Cronbach's alpha of the scale was 0.93. This result supported internal consistency of the scale. In addition, nurses who had experience of participating in study group on nursing ethics had higher ethical behavior than those who had no experience of participating (t=3.93, p<0.001). At the same time, nurses who knew the nurse's code of ethics had higher ethical behavior than those who did not know (t=2.30, p=0.02). The total score of the scale was significantly high, and these results supported construct validity of the scale by known-group method. In the second survey, the instrument packets were distributed to 100 conveniently selected hospital nurses for examining stability and 33 valid answers were analyzed. Test-retest reliability was 0.61 (p<0.001), and the result showed that standard of the stability was not satisfied. While these results remained issues of the stability of the developed scale, it approximately supported reliability and validity of the scale.

The purpose of this study was to identify and discuss clinical instructors' measures to prevent medical accidents involving nursing students during the nursing clinical practicum. This study is a secondary analysis using the data collected from the previous study. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,309 clinical instructors. This study used open-ended questions asking about the measures they undertook to prevent medical accidents and their personal characteristics. A content analysis for nursing education based on Berelson's methodology was applied, and 665 valid responses were analyzed. As a result, 29 categories were identified, for example, “Informing nursing students about rules that they should strictly observe to prevent accidents during nursing practice, in line with rules which govern the instruction of nursing students”, “Assigning nursing staff shifts and asking nursing students to vary their practice time to ensure that a clinical instructor or staff nurse member will be present during nursing students' practice”. The reliability of categories was confirmed by calculating agreement rates using Scott's formula. All categories exceeded 70%. The results suggested that clinical instructors' measures to prevent medical accidents while participating in nursing clinical practicum demonstrate 8 characteristics. This study can be used to help clinical instructors appraise themselves objectively and improve their own measures.