The Perceived Need for Japanese Nursing Faculty Members to Learn English: Issues Related to Career Development

Abstract

In Japan, nurses are increasingly expected to use English in various settings. English language proficiency is indispensable in almost all aspects of the clinical experience and for career development of Japanese nurses. This article introduces the idea of Japanese nurses learning the English language to enhance their career development and provides succinct survey results about the perceived need for learning English, based on responses from 145 nursing faculty members across Japan. Analyses showed that most faculty members considered English language proficiency important for nursing expertise and career development. Overall, the results indicated that Japanese nurses require continuing English language education. Further study of their need to learn English and ways to implement English education programs is required.

Use of Online Machine Translation for Nursing Literature: A Questionnaire-Based Survey

“…The problems created by language differences can become a serious barrier to success for nurses in non-English-speaking countries, such as Japan [4-6]. English reading skills are perceived as highly important [3], and the need to read articles written in the English language has been recognised among Japanese nurses [7-9]. Nevertheless, no association between the reading of English technical literature and the language barrier has been examined.…”

Online Machine Translation Use With Nursing Literature

“…5 The language barrier can be a significant obstacle for nurses in non-English-speaking countries such as Japan, because most major research journals are published internationally in English. 5,6 At the same time, however, Japanese nurses do not often use English on a daily basis, providing little incentive to learn English, even though they understand the need to review research published in English. In fact, it is more important for Japanese nurses to be able to obtain nursing information quickly to provide quality care than it is to spend time mastering the English language.…”