Online Training for Nurses Taken to Japan
The online training by the Department of Nursing Science of the University of Turku has global reputation.
The Department of Nursing Science offers nurses online training on how to encounter mental health patients. A group of health care professionals from Japan arrived to Finland in August to learn more about the training.
Japanese health care professionals visited
the Department of Nursing Science.
- We offer nurses the means with which to encounter disturbed patients, says Maritta Välimäki, Professor in the Department of Nursing Science.
According to Välimäki, the issue is topical. Nursing personnel often meet violent patients in their everyday work.
The University of Turku has offered this kind of continuing vocational training for two years. The training allows health care professionals to prepare better for patient encounters.
In the Finnish system, it is a common practice to isolate a violent patient. Among other things, the training aims at making isolation less frequent, Välimäki explains.
Example from Turku
Familiarising themselves with the Department of Nursing Science, the Japanese researchers, teachers and nursing professionals seek to gain new ideas.
The training will be implemented into teaching in various Japanese organizations.
Section Chief, Psychiatrist Toshie Noda from Kodaira, Japan, hopes to gain plenty of new information about the course during her stay in Finland.
- The Finnish health care system is very well structured, she says.
According to Tamio Sueyasu, the chairman of a nurses’ association, nurses in Japan do not integrate into the working life.
Furthermore, the number of mental nurses is small due to the country’s legislation.
- Twenty per cent of nurses quit during their first year at work. We have not discovered the reason yet, he says.
Fumiro Yoshihama from Kanagawa University has even higher expectations for his visit to Finland. He hopes that the attitude towards compulsory treatment will change in Japan.
Collaboration with Finnish hospital districts
The online training is already in use in Finland. The training provides nurses with guidance on how to deal with problems as a group, says Raija Kontio, Charge Nurse at the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa.
- From the point of view of a nurse, it is efficient to study online. The course is not bound to time or a location. You can study alongside your work, Kontio explains.
In this autumn, the number of online courses increases.
- We will introduce courses on encountering young people and forensic psychiatry patients, Välimäki says.
Text and photo: Laura Myllymäki
Translation: Jenni Perälä