Establishment of Nursing Discipline Through Analysis of Change of the Degree Name in Japan

Friday, March 27, 2020

Yoshiko Wazumi, PhD, RN1
Shinobu Saito, PhD, RN2
Toshie Yamamoto, PhD, RN, PHN2
Shu Chun Chien, PhD, RN3
(1)Center for Education and Research in Nursing Practice, Graduate School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
(2)Graduate School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
(3)Center for Education and Research in Nursing Practice, Graduate School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba-shi, Japan

Purpose: The first university level nursing course was established in Japan in 1952. Although the degree name given to the first graduates of this course was "Bachelor of Nursing", it was immediately changed to "Bachelor of Health Care and Nursing" in 1957. After that, it was altered to "Bachelor of Health Sciences", again in 1980, it was returned to "Bachelor of Nursing" along with the first "Master of Nursing". As the degree name is generally recognized as the social acceptance of a certain discipline, analyzing the reason of this change would help us to understand how nursing discipline was established. The purpose of this study was to clarify the process of establishing the nursing discipline from the reason of change of the degree name at the dawn of Japanese university based nursing education.

Methods: All relevant literature concerning the degree name of university based nursing education from 1952 to 1980 was collected. Then we analyzed the rationale behind the change of the degree name based on related persons.

Results:

We identified three shifts in rationale behind the degree name changes.

1. The first, "Bachelor of Nursing", was provided by a prefectural university, “A”. “A” was a pre WWII women’s medical college which failed to meet the modern, post WWII standard and being aware of the GHQ policy of nursing education improvement. Recognizing an opportunity, they consequently named the degree "Bachelor of Nursing", without official objection.

2. The second, "Bachelor of Health Care and Nursing" was provided by a national university, “B”. This was established in its faculty of medicine. Professors of medicine claimed the word “nursing” lacked science and added “health care”. Unsatisfied, even with this addition, they finally changed the degree name to "Bachelor of Health Sciences".

The third, a National University, “C”, the first national university to establish an independent faculty of nursing in 1975. When they established a master course, they demanded to provide "Master of Nursing". A national level of official committee was convened where one member alone, who held a nursing license, successfully proved that the discipline of nursing has original purpose, subject and methodology. Thereafter "Bachelor of Nursing" along with "Master of Nursing" was officially admitted.

Conclusion: Establishing the nursing discipline was accomplished by the solitary member who could prove that the discipline of nursing has original purpose, subject and methodology in the Dawn of University Based Nursing Education in Japan.