[Special Feature: 30 Years of SFC] SFC and Me: The Significance of Studying Nursing and Medical Care at SFC

2020/10/07

"Phew, finally Shonandai..." It took just under two hours one way, transferring trains from Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture. From there, I would head to SFC by bus. On clear days, I could see a magnificent view of Mt. Fuji from the bus window. I entered the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care in 2001 as a member of the first graduating class. Although it was a long commute, I was healed by the scenery around SFC and went to campus every day with excitement.

Students of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care spend most of their time in the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care Building, which is about a 10-minute walk from the main SFC campus zone, as many classes are held there. During my first and second years, I wanted to study subjects other than nursing, such as languages, so at the beginning of each semester, I would look at the timetables and syllabi of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies to research interesting classes. However, I repeatedly had to give up because they overlapped with required subjects in the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care or because it was difficult to move between buildings during break times (currently there is a shuttle bus between the main zone and the nursing zone, but at that time, walking was the only option). However, even in classes held at the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, there were subjects where faculty from the Faculty of Policy Management or Faculty of Environment and Information Studies gave lectures, or where seniors from those faculties and graduate students from the Graduate School of Media and Governance served as SAs and TAs. I vividly remember being deeply impacted by the interactions with them, their advice from unexpected angles, and our discussions.

In my fourth year, wanting to expand my world further, I took several long-awaited classes in the main campus zone. One that left a particularly strong impression was a class called "Brain Information Science." It was a class about human brain functions, mechanisms of movement, sensation, memory, and thought, but at the end of every lecture, the discussion would shift to, "If we replace this with a computer..." or "In terms of a mechanical system..." Until I got used to it, I had a slight rejection response, thinking, "Humans as computers?!" Looking back now, however, it was an opportunity to learn about the themes of interest that people in other faculties were pursuing. It was an experience where I could feel firsthand their approach to exploring ways to enrich human life using computers and information technology by analyzing the mechanisms of the human brain and body.

It also became an opportunity for me to reconsider what a human being is, and what nursing can and should do regarding various challenges in society. I learned that we must flexibly utilize research and knowledge from other academic fields in the medical and nursing fields, and conversely, we must promote nursing knowledge so that it can be useful to other academic fields.

These experiences from my undergraduate days continue to connect to the present. In nursing, which supports people living healthily and growing, it is important to perceive and analyze subjects from multifaceted perspectives and find solutions. With the aging population, progress in medical technology, and increasing social diversity, the environment surrounding people's lives is becoming increasingly complex. It is expected that challenges that cannot be solved by conventional nursing methods, or challenges requiring more effective interventions, will continue to pile up. Therefore, I strongly recognize the urgent need to create care while creatively building evidence by integrating interdisciplinary knowledge from diverse perspectives and connecting it to the practice of nursing and medical care.

At Keio University, a joint educational program for the three medical-related faculties (School of Medicine, Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, and Faculty of Pharmacy) has been held since 2011. While this is of course extremely important for medical professionals, I believe that learning the foundations of nursing at SFC is equally important. At SFC, where a culture of exploring clues for creative problem-solving with free and rich ideas using cutting-edge technology is established, expanding one's horizons and interests through exposure to diverse academic fields and various experiences, including extracurricular activities, leads to developing the power to creatively challenge social diversification and globalization and lead the future. The significance of studying nursing in such an environment is immense.

Currently, I am involved with students as a faculty member of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care. Recently, when I participated in a report meeting for a fourth-year project (seminar), I was able to hear presentations full of originality, such as students considering collected data from an economic perspective beyond just nursing and medical care, or pursuing their own identified issues from unique angles. I was truly impressed, thinking, "As expected of students from the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care," and at the same time, I was greatly stimulated. A major strength of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care is that there are many faculty members who, since my time as an undergraduate, enjoy and support students' interests and various activities both inside and outside the university.

Personally, I am currently affiliated with the Shinanomachi Campus and primarily use clinical settings as my research field. Unfortunately, I feel frustrated that I haven't been able to engage much in the interdisciplinary activities I've described. However, I hope to work hard to support people's health as a nursing expert while collaborating with people at SFC on research and practical activities in the future.