We will continue our activities to improve the quality of nursing education this year as well.

2024 started with the “2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake” early in the new year. This was an event of sadness and hardship, and we would like to pray for the repose of the souls of those who lost their lives, and express our sympathies to those affected.

Under these circumstances, as the chairperson of the board of directors, I would like to apologize for the delay in sending my New Year’s greetings.

2024 will be the 44th year since the establishment of the Academy, and this term will be the second year for the board of directors. Currently, a “representatives/directors election” is being held, and the new organization selected will be inaugurated at the representatives meeting in June. In other words, current members including myself will only be active for another six months. Although the deadline has been set, we are currently working powerfully to achieve our activity goals for this year and build a foundation for future activities.

The purpose of this activity is to ensure and improve the quality of nursing education, but the first goal is to ensure that digitalization takes root, utilize it effectively, and accumulate digitalized materials for the future. This is all to create strategies to use them effectively for our future activities.

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 has forced us to change the way our academic society operated in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. I think a major change for our Academy is that we have been holding meetings, seminars, and academic conferences online. In particular, this has become the norm at meetings and the digitalization of materials has also progressed further. Compared to face-to-face meetings, communication between executives has become a little weaker, but certainly more rational in terms of time and economy. Along with going online, we have also changed the provision of information to members to be delivered via email. This transformation took several years, including storing the meeting materials and other necessary documents that are essential for going online as archives in the cloud, systematizing their use, and creating rules for their use. However, we have been making progress, and we are bringing it to a conclusion now.

To utilize this online site in a variety of ways, it is necessary for all members to register their email addresses. We have been requesting that all members register year after year, but it has not yet been completed 100%. Once again, we would like to ask those who have not yet registered to please register.

At the same time, we changed from a printed academic journal, Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Education, to an online e-journal, which we had been discussing for some time. This is also linked to the flow of digitalization utilization.

The second goal is activities aimed at holding better academic conferences.
Academic conferences from the 30th in 2020 to the 32nd in 2022 were held online due to the influence of COVID-19. Thanks to the efforts of the conference chairs and organizers, the participants benefited greatly from these online events. For the 33rd conference in 2023, we resumed holding academic conferences that were mainly face-to-face with some online participation, and although it was the first time in a long time that we had met in person, we were able to reaffirm the benefits of meeting face-to-face. In this context, the 34th Academic Conference will be held in Tokyo in August 2024. This time as well, we will mainly hold face-to-face meetings, but some will also be held online. We hope that this will be a place where we can actively discuss nursing education with everyone, including lectures, research presentations, and session discussions, as well as new knowledge.

The third goal is to further invigorate each committee’s activities for the Academy’s business in the remaining six months, and to link them to the next activity. This includes a project newly launched this term to consider future initiatives. Although it is important to continue the activities of our academic society, the social situation surrounding nursing education is changing. In response to these changes, we are considering activities that lead to even better education, activities that universally value good content, etc., gathering opinions, and working to connect them to the next step of activities.

In 2024, with this “continuation into the next generation” in mind, there are only six months left, but let’s work together as directors and auditors, as well as representatives, committee members, academic conference chairs, etc.

Dear fellow members of Japan Academy of Nursing Education, thank you for your continued support this year.

November 2022
Japan Academy of Nursing Education
President Yumiko Oshima

Alumnae of the training course of full-time teachers for nursing education had attended the general assembly of the Japanese Nursing Association in 1951. In May of the same year, at the Women’s College of the Japanese Red Cross Society they held discussions on the problems facing nursing. The establishment of the National Nursing Education Research Institute originated in a lecture meeting for nursing education held in July of 1951.

The National Nursing Education Research Institute published its inaugural newsletter in September of 1952. The first three issues of the newsletter used the “Candle and Candlestick” as an illustration.

A commemorative ceremony of the Institute’s 30th anniversary was held in 1981, and a commemorative gift was given to participants, a paperweight featuring the design of the “Candle and Candlestick” (middle and right images below). Since then, this design has become the symbol mark of the Institute and has been used for the newsletter from the 62nd issue published on 25 October 1981, familiar to all members.

The National Nursing Education Research Institute marked the 81st issue of its newsletter in March 1991, and celebrated the 40th anniversary of its establishment. On this occasion, too, the Institute decided to prepare a gift with the same design to commemorate the 40th anniversary. The gift was a bookmarker carrying the “Candle and Candlestick” design (left image below).

The “Candle and Candlestick” design was carried over as the symbol mark of the newly born Japan Academy of Nursing Education.