Nursing scholarship in Japan: Development, facilitators, and barriers

Abstract

This qualitative study sought a contemporary view of the development, facilitators of, and barriers to nursing scholarship in Japan from the perspectives of the scholars. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 scholars across Japan, which were digitally recorded, and the data were subjected to content analysis. Five themes emerged: a spirit of collectivism; a lack of nursing control; a lack of English ability; a high workload; and collaboration. The participants considered that culturally based consensus and communication behaviors, as well as the control and dominance by the medical profession, were hampering nursing scholarship. Furthermore, Japanese nurses were not in control of the profession in a period of unprecedented growth in university nursing education and a growing nursing shortage. A lack of English-speaking and English-writing abilities hindered collaboration with scholars internationally and the writing of international publications. Most of the participants felt unable to compare the extent and nature of Japanese scholarship with that of their Asian neighbors. The Japanese scholars need to grasp opportunities to learn English, collaborate with other nurses nationally and internationally, learn assertion and political skills to give them the confidence to take control of nursing education, and be more involved in research collaboration and international publications.

An Explorative Study of Australian Nursing Scholars and Contemporary Scholarship

“…These were digitally recorded, around 45 to 90 min in length, and transcribed verbatim. The interview schedule was designed by the researchers of the larger study and has been used in all eight countries to develop both national and collective understandings of scholarship in the Asia‐Pacific region (Turale et al, 2009). The schedule was derived from a range of literary sources, informed by what is presently known about various aspects of scholarship (Thorne et al, 2004).…”

“…The schedule was derived from a range of literary sources, informed by what is presently known about various aspects of scholarship (Thorne et al, 2004). Four international scholars piloted and refined the schedule outside Australia (Turale, Ito, Murakami, & Nakao, 2009). In‐country references and idioms, as well as small grammatical variations, have been made from country to country to assist analysis, translation, and cross‐translation.…”

“…Regional goodwill is also generated as scholars learn from one another and strive to influence the development of international nursing scholarship (Arthur, 2007). Around the world, scholarship is in various stages of development, including the Asia‐Pacific region, where an eight‐country qualitative study has so far investigated the views of 105 scholars about contemporary nursing scholarship (Turale, Ito, Murakami, & Nakao, 2009; Turale et al, 2010). The findings of the Australian component of this study are presented here.…”

Asia‐Pacific nursing scholarship development: qualitative exploration of nurse scholars in Taiwan (Republic of China)

“…Now there are growing numbers of nursing doctoral degrees in the region, largely based on North American frameworks and providing advanced preparation for the development of scholarship. These have been offered in South Korea since 1978 (Wood 2006), Japan and Thailand since 1984 (Kunaviktikul 2006, Redman 2007, Turale et al. 2009), Taiwan and Hong Kong from 1997 (University of Hong Kong 1999, Tsai 2000), People’s Republic of China since 2005 (Waldron 2004) and India from 2007 (Abraham 2007).…”

Bibliometric awareness in nursing scholarship: Can we afford to ignore it any longer?

“…At least one study has suggested that while most citations in nursing research are to journal articles (particularly medical journals) (Oermann et al ., 2007), there has also been an increase in citations to websites in recent years (Oermann et al ., 2008). Nursing research is not undertaken in the same way in every country, however (Polit & Beck, 2009), while the environment for nursing scholarship and its relationship with performance measures in research has also has been shown to vary by region (Ketefian et al ., 2010; Turale et al ., 2009). This has led to some additional challenges, particularly regarding the potential dangers of developing an “obsession” with performance metrics (Johnstone, 2007).…”