Japan to Revise Nursing School Curriculum

A survey of nursing schools has found that more than 80 percent of nurses in Japan receive inadequate training prior to graduating.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that an alarming number of nursing school graduates lacked proper ability for such basic critical care procedures as providing artificial respiration and cardiac compression.

The number of accidents caused by new nurses has spurred a team at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which will meet this week to revise Japan’s curriculum for nursing education, the first such revision in ten years.

The poll, taken by the Japanese Nursing Association, surveyed 692 three-year nursing schools, the newspaper said. Among the findings were students who did not know how to change bed sheets or properly steer a stretcher.