Transcending Cultural Barriers
FPB’s New Collaboration with Japan’s Aichi Medical University Demonstrates That the Role of Nurses Knows No Bounds
In 2008, FPB signed a landmark partnership with Japan’s Aichi Medical University to establish the first graduate-level acute care nurse practitioner/flight nursing program in Asia. This collaboration will revolutionize nursing throughout Japan and enable its advanced practice nurses to confront medical emergencies with greater knowledge, autonomy, and skill in critical care.
These medical emergencies typically occur in what are termed as “unstructured environments,” which encompass those that follow natural and technologic disasters like roadside accidents, earthquakes, and even terrorist attacks. Flight nurses, who are acute care nurse practitioners that transport critical patients via helicopter, are among the first responders to such emergencies. Christopher Manacci is the founder and clinical director of the National Flight Nurse Academy at FPB, and it was his vision that is set to change the traditional role of nurses in Japan, just as it has in the United States.
“How close you live to a tertiary care center will make the determination of whether you survive your heart attack or other traumatic event,” he explains. “What our program does, by training people at the graduate level, is eliminate the seven-year gap between academic research and clinical practice. Armed with the newest knowledge, acute care nurse practitioners can prescribe medication, make a diagnosis, and give the patient the immediate level of care that is needed out on the field.”
In the fall of 2008, Manacci visited Aichi Medical University College of Nursing to discuss this concept to its faculty and students. His experience there solidified his belief that nurses, despite the considerable language and cultural barriers that may exist, can always unite to work for the betterment of human health. As the Academy’s first international affiliate, Aichi provides both the opportunity and, in Manacci’s trademark humility, “the privilege,” to change the way nursing and health care are delivered across the globe.
In Japan, the concept of a nurse practitioner is still fairly new. Japan has long been among the world’s most industrialized and technologically advanced nations, and its universal health care system is no exception. However, Japanese nurses still lag behind their American counterparts in terms of clinical education and authority. FPB’s new collaboration there is set to prove once again that nurses are just as capable as physicians in bringing innovation and progress to the science and delivery of health care.
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Satomi Suzuki with FPB Dean May L. Wykle |
Currently, flight nurses in Japan are not a household name, but public awareness is steadily rising. Now, with the government’s ambitious intervention, the number of acute care nurse practitioners will be growing substantially as well. “Right now, there are only 14 areas in Japan that are dedicated to flight nursing, but we plan to increase that number to 47 throughout the entire country,” says Satomi Suzuki, one of the nursing faculty at Aichi Medical University College of Nursing. This number matches the number of Japan’s prefectures, signifying that flight nursing centers will be appearing from major metropolitan areas to more remote regions of the mountainous nation. Ms. Suzuki continues, “In flight nursing, the foremost issue is safety and security. Nurses can effectively protect the patient only when they are able to practice in the best and safest way. In Japan, there is a growing demand from flight nurses for these improved practices.”
With FPB’s relationship with Aichi Medical University now firmly in place, slowly but surely the world is destined to witness that nursing truly knows no bounds. “Being a nurse is probably the greatest privilege that anybody could have, and our new Japanese colleagues clearly understand this,” Manacci says. “Acute care patients may not even know your name but rely on you for help. And it’s not just help in getting a task done, but help to survive. I don’t think it gets any more powerful than that.”
October 2008
