Tokyo Women's Medical College is the only women's medical school in Japan. It has recently moved to embrace a new philosophy of medical education. A new “M.D. Program” was inaugurated with the entry of the 1990 freshman class. Key changes instituted include: 1) an integrated curriculum over the six-year course which focuses on organ system function, 2) a clear delineation of pedagogical guidelines and goals, and 3) a stress on self-directed, small group, problem -based learning in order to develop the abilities of the individual student to the fullest.

Integration of instruction and more well-rounded curriculum are needed owing to the increasing specialization of nursing education.
In this study we evaluated the teaching of clinical neurology in nursing education from various viewpoints.
1) The clinical neurology curriculum at the Tokyo Women's Medical College School of Nursing for the past 20 years and the results of examinations given at the school.
2) The frequency of test questions on basic and clinical neurology in the past 15 years on the national nursing license examination.
3) Questionnaires on the teaching of clinical neurology filled out by student nurses. Conclusions:
Most nursing students consider the neuroanatomy and pathophysiology of neurologic disorders to be extremely important subjects, while others feel that clinical neurology is difficult to understand.
In the future, the number of elderly persons will increase more rapidly, and highly specialized neurologic teaching will be required in nursing schools.

I took a summer course at the School of Nursing of the University of Delaware in the United States. The 4-week neurology and neurosurgery course had been organized by a clinical nurse specialist. The curriculum was extremely effective because one clinical topic was taught for a certain period of time. This system has been judged to be useful for teaching clinical nursing. A similar program might also be useful for nursing schools in Japan.