A Survey on the Actual Condition of Occupational Health Nursing in Japan Part II Continuing Professional Development and Continuing Education

Introduction
It has been recognised that occupational health nurses’ (OHNs’) practices are becoming more important in Japan. With such change, the need of continuing professional development (CPD) and continuing education (CE) becomes more important in the provision of appropriate care for workers. The purpose of this study in part was to clarify the outcomes of OHNs’ CPD and CE in Japan.

Methods
A questionnaire was sent to 2077 OHNs belonging to Japan society for occupational health. The response was 846 (40.7%). 91 were excluded from the study. The majority of those excluded were retired, or had returned incomplete questionnaires. The remaining 755 OHNs were examined. The questionnaire included items about; the number of nursing association memberships held, conditions of attending CE such as cost and time; the number of attendances at any form of CE, and any difficulties with practice as OHNs including self-development. Analyses were performed using SAS ver. 9.1. The research period was from 1st November to 3rd December 2010. The approval of the Ethics Committee of Yokkaichi Nursing and Medical Care University was received before the study was conducted.

Results
Over the last decade OHNs having no membership of associations has decreased from 36% to 4.8%. The average of attendance time for any form of CE was 3.38±3.93. 56.2% received leave to attend CE as on duty, with leave payment at 53.4%. Exploring workplace difficulties revealed obstacles of CPD and CE especially concerning the physical conditions of being able to attend as well as some unsuitable content of training provided.

Discussion
Although results show increasing awareness of CPD and CE, the suggestion remains that there is need to adopt environments more conducive to CPD and CE for OHNs, and for more appropriate education content.