1.The effects of off–campus classes for students in a school of health sciences
Kazumasa Nakagawa ; Keiko Yamada ; Yasuyoshi Asakawa ; Tohru Yoshida ; Mitsuko Ushikubo ; Yumi Sato
Medical Education 2011;42(6):337-345
In Japan, community–based education remains uncommon in undergraduate programs for students in schools of health sciences. The purpose of this study was to examine how students are affected by their participation in off–campus classes, which are considered as a main course of community–based education at the School of Health Sciences, Gunma University.
1)Reports submitted by students after participating in off–campus classes were broken down into sentences (with care being taken that each sentence made sense). The extracted sentences were carefully consolidated by means of the Kawakita Jiro method (affinity diagram).
2)A total of 972 sentences were extracted and were categorized into 3 categories: "enjoy going out to the community," "increased activity through experiences," "awareness of what one wants to be and one's insufficient abilities." Five middle–sized categories and 10 small categories were obtained.
3)Experiences in off–campus classes are expected to increase the activity of students and to have synergic effects with on–campus classes.
4)Community–based education might be effectively included in undergraduate programs for students in schools of health sciences.
2.Usefulness of“Tablet PC application for Pain Memory”on cancer pain assessment
Hirotaka Hirazawa ; Shoko Ando ; Takako Mitsuyuki ; Yoko Yamamoto ; Hiromi Kuroda ; Kazumasa Yamada ; Goro Obinata
Palliative Care Research 2015;10(1):312-317
Objective:The previous study was to develop the“Itamikei”, a small machine which patients can use to record their subjective level of pain. And new assessment tool“Tablet PC application for Pain Memory”, which enable the user to visualize and record the pain levels both instantly and over time. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Pain Memory as a pain assessment tool for patients with cancer pain. Method:12 inpatients prescribed analgesics for cancer pain, were instructed to input their pain level into Pain Memory over a 2-week period, and the resulting graph was reviewed by the patient and staff. They also completed a questionnaire evaluating the design, function and pain assessment of the tool. Result:The patients input their pain level into Pain Memory 5.25 times/day(Md), which provided increased opportunities to ascertain the patient’s pain level compared to that“Itamikei”. The design and function of the Pain Memory were given approximately rate 4 using a 5 point scale by both patients and staff members. Moreover, using Pain Memory, the patients highly rated the parameter“I understood changes in pain”, and the staff members highly rated the parameter“Patients participating in the treatment of pain”. Conclusion:We found Pain Memory could be useful in the assessment of pain. It provided more opportunities to ascertain the pain level of patients, and enabled the visualization of the pain level through a graph.