McMaster hosts students and instructors from Japan
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Japanese_delegation.jpg” caption=”Professor Midori Shimazaki, lecturer Akihito Kubota and lecturer Chie Takatsuji of Saitama Prefectural University in Japan visited McMaster University last week. Photo by Martin Wissenz”]What happens when nursing students from Japan get a chance to learn side-by-side with Canadian students in a problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial at McMaster University? Their whole world opens up.
That's what happened last week as the Faculty of Health Sciences' International Health Office hosted students and professors from Niigata University and Saitama Prefectural University.
Four nursing students and two professors from Niigata University visited McMaster to learn about nursing education in Canada, meet with experts and tour Hamilton Health Sciences.
A professor of social work from Saitama Prefectural University is also a guest at McMaster along with two lecturers — one from the department of social work and another from the department of physical therapy.
“The value of these exchanges is that they represent the importance of a global dialogue in education and the mutual exchange of approaches to evaluation, learning techniques and educational methodologies. It also highlights the continued global interest in McMaster's educational expertise” said Dr. Andrea Baumann, associate vice-president, Faculty of Health Sciences, International Health.
While the nursing students are more accustomed to listening quietly to lectures, they had only praise for the more open dialogue that occurs in PBL.
“It was wonderful. Students have their own opinions and speak them loudly,” said Maki Otabe, a first-year nursing student.
“The students are full of life and their self-esteem is very high,” added Kimiko Vehara, a second-year graduate student in nursing.
Their trip to McMaster was designed to give them broad exposure to nursing education in Canada. To accomplish this, they attended nursing classes, toured the University and visited McMaster's Institute for Applied Health Sciences.
They were impressed with the scope of resources available to McMaster students, such as the Faculty of Health Sciences library, and the opportunities for self-learning outside of the classroom.
Visitors from Saitama Prefectural University, whose interests are in interprofessional education, were equally impressed with the advances McMaster is making in promoting collaborative work in health care through its teaching of students in different faculties.
Professor Midori Shimazaki and lecturers Chie Takatsuji and Akihito Kubota had the opportunity to learn first-hand how interprofessional education works at McMaster, talked to students in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program, met the co-chair of the Interprofessional Student Council and toured the campus.
They heard about the challenges and benefits of interprofessional education in nursing and medicine from Dr. Patty Solomon, professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science and director of Interprofessional Education (IPE), Dr. Baumann and Dr. Alan Neville, assistant dean, Education Services and undergraduate MD program. In return, they offered a presentation on their program in Japan.
Shimazaki said a pilot study on interprofessional education has been running at her university for three years and will be launched officially in 2009. She added that they will take home expertise from McMaster on ways to effectively evaluate their program. In addition, key insights they gathered on the School of Nursing's simulated patient program will also be considered for a similar program just getting started at Saitama University.
These visitors are part of an exchange program between McMaster and Japan that started more than 15 years ago.
