April Determination — Kiyoka Nozue, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care
April 22, 2025
April is already halfway over. For our new students, I wonder if the university is starting to feel like a place where you belong. I imagine there are many things you may be confused about, but I hope you will settle into your new life and slowly begin your university journey. Your university years are an important time to shape your own identity through various learning and experiences. I hope you will not take things at face value, but will instead accumulate experience by always questioning, verifying, debating with others, and thinking things through.
Now, since I am calling on you to do this, we faculty members must also get fired up and act as a support team, creating the places and situations that make it possible. One area where this determination is needed is in off-campus practicums. During these practicums, situations often arise that seem like "a chance to dramatically deepen one's learning," but creating these chances can be quite difficult and sometimes leaves us scratching our heads. For example, when a student questions or criticizes the care being provided on-site during a practicum. Once, a group of students questioned whether the words and actions of a certain facility's staff member were undermining a patient's dignity. What should a faculty member do in such a situation? The students might discuss it among themselves or ask their supervisor for an opinion. However, the intentions behind the staff's actions can only be understood by asking them directly. But a situation where students challenge the care provided on-site is fraught with tension. As a faculty member, anxieties cross my mind, such as "What if the staff get offended and won't listen to the students' opinions?" or even "What if this makes it difficult for them to accept our students for next year's practicum?" However, I gathered my resolve, conveyed the students' questions to the administrator, and arranged an opportunity to discuss the matter with the staff (they refused at first; making extra time on-site is an extremely difficult task). The discussion was awkward at first, but when the students calmly and politely presented their questions and shared their thoughts, the on-site staff explained the intentions behind their actions, took the students' questions to heart, and considered them sincerely. They even said that the students had helped them recognize an ethical issue. I thought to myself that they were truly care professionals, and at the same time, I was deeply moved by the students' power to change the clinical setting.
By gaining experience in raising issues and engaging in discussions in the field, students not only learn about the content of care but also, I believe, acquire the skill of assertive communication—that is, conveying their own thoughts and feelings to others frankly and in a manner appropriate to the situation. The power of assertion is an essential skill in today's society of diverse values for deepening mutual understanding and respect with people from various cultural backgrounds and ways of thinking, as well as for negotiating, compromising, and finding solutions in situations of conflict. The joy of sharing in the process as students rapidly develop these skills is a privilege of being a faculty member. As we start the new academic year, I want to renew my own determination, not neglect to create such chances, and fully enjoy the spirit of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning."
Finally, the 2025 academic year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care. It will be a year to reflect on the past 25 years and look toward the future. In this sense, too, I want to start this semester with even greater determination.