助産婦教育における学生の適応 --オーストラリアと日本との比較--

Abstract

The education system for nurse-midwives in Japan is simlar to that in Australia: three years of education for nurses after graduation from high school is followed by one year of education for nurse-midwives. The requirement for admission to an Australian midwifery school is one year clinical experience as a registered nurse after graduating from a nursing school and passing the State examination. We had an opportunity to observe student nurse-midwives in Australia and found that this clinical experience requirement was related to their enthusiasm for subsequent studies on special fields. During our stay in Australia for a month, we carried out a questionnaire to 200 students in 8 courses of the Queen Victoria Medical Center and Royal Women's Hosiptal in Melbourne on adaptation to education. Replies were obtained from 52.3% of the students. They entered the school with the firm intention of making mid-wifing a lifetime career and rated the education after entrance very highly as did the japanese students. The major stress common to the Australian and Japanese students in the process of adaptation to curriculum was physical and psychological one due to overcrowded lectures and training, especially training in the night. However, the stress associated with the contents and levels of education was less frequently experienced by the Australian students than the Japanese students.