Students from a top Japanese university are enjoying an insightful summer school with De Montfort University Leicester’s (DMU) School of Nursing and Midwifery.
The group of seven are studying to be nurses at Juntendo University in Chiba, and are on campus experiencing a taste of nursing practice in the UK, as well as improving their English.
Megumi Ikeda, Associate Professor in Nursing at Juntendo University, accompanied the group and said: “I think it’s been a really positive experience. Our students can understand more English little by little and I am glad to see their achievements as the summer school goes on.
She added: “They have all been given English buddies to give them the chance to communicate and share their own country’s practices, including the differences between nursing here and in Japan.
“It’s a good relationship with DMU. The environment for students at DMU is so nice and the lecturers and staff are so supportive. We are happy to be here.”
Yui Misono, one of the student nurses from Japan said: “I am having a good time. It was hard for me to get English before, but now I can understand more.
“It has also been good interacting with the manikins, and I like that different skin colours are represented.”
The School of Nursing and Midwifery has been delivering summer schools for five years, and they include clinical sessions in DMU’s mock wards, English tuition and the legal aspects to nursing in the UK.
Theresa Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Nursing at DMU, who coordinated the two-week school said: “We deliver clinical sessions during the summer school which we would do with our own Nursing students, with a mix of theory and practice.
“The mock wards, or clinical skills labs, at DMU provide a safe environment for students to develop their clinical skills and competency, allowing for some fun too.
“This supports the real-life clinical environments in which students are exposed, under the supervision of nurse mentors.”
During an afternoon of clinical sessions, the group were introduced to DMU’s sensory room, home to toys and lights used to stimulate and calm both adult and child patients.
Tomomi Nagasawa said: “We don’t have sensory rooms in Japan. It was really interesting and I liked it. I am having a good time with the summer school.”
Part of the sessions also covered the lifting and handling of patients.
Minami Asano said: “I enjoyed learning how to lift a patient. It was good fun as well.”
In the UK, nurses are now trained to let a patient fall if they are walking with them, to help ensure that they don’t cause further injury to the patient or themselves. This is different to current practice in Japan.
Yuka Miya added: “I was surprised. I was afraid that if patients fall by themselves they might break a bone, but I understand this now.”
One of DMU’s senior Nursing lecturers, Alan Wood, ran clinical sessions with the group and said: “This school fits in really nicely with the tenets of #DMUglobal, and helps spread the word about DMU internationally. I am keen to get involved with this kind of activity.”
#DMUglobal is the university’s ambitious programme providing students with valuable international experience during their studies.
Posted on Thursday 27 August 2015