Hiroki Fukahori: Nursing Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2022/06/17

While browsing Twitter, I came across an editorial by Dr. Jackson (University of Technology Sydney), the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. In this editorial, she reflects on approximately 200 papers related to COVID-19 published to date from an editor's perspective. Inspired by this, I would like to look back on three activities I had the opportunity to engage in during the pandemic.

First is a survey I conducted as a member of the COVID-19 Nursing Research Response Committee of the Japan Academy of Nursing Science. We asked members to cooperate in a survey regarding the impact of the pandemic on their research activities and the support they sought from the academy, receiving responses from approximately 1,500 people. We undertook a new initiative to recruit researchers from among the members to analyze the data and write papers; as a result, three papers with members as lead authors have been published to date.

Next is an international collaborative study conducted by researchers from 10 countries participating in the Southeast and East Asian Nursing Education and Research Network, a network of nursing researchers in Southeast and East Asia. We were able to show that while students and faculty at nursing schools in these 10 countries felt the impact of COVID-19 on education, they were generally satisfied with new forms of learning. This was an international collaborative project conducted without any face-to-face meetings, and I learned a lot from this first-time experience.

Finally, I also engaged in information dissemination activities to support staff at elderly care facilities, together with co-researchers specializing in gerontological nursing from the University of Tokyo, Chiba University, and Osaka University. Around April 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic, we collected, translated, and published documents on COVID-19 measures in elderly care facilities released by government and research institutions both in Japan and abroad on our website. We also established a consultation service for staff at elderly care facilities. While I have worked with these co-researchers on many activities before, the sense of speed in this initiative—driven by the motivation to provide rapid support—was unlike anything I had experienced.

Looking back on these three activities, I realized they share two common points: 1) utilizing existing networks, and 2) taking on new challenges. Moving forward, I want to continue valuing connections with people in research and education (and perhaps in daily life as well?) while continuing to take on new challenges to the extent possible.