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.

At Tokyo Women's Medical University, our curriculum for first-year students is designed to teach the dynamics and etiquette of human relations. During the third year, medical students are expected to anticipate and plan effective therapeutic communication and interaction with patients. A discussion group of 6 students and a member of the human-relations committee first clarify the purpose and develop the training; students then independently participate in human-relations training during the summer vacation. After training, experiences are discussed during class. Although this curriculum has been used for some 10 years, its benefits have been assumed but not validated. We used student reports and questionnaires to examine the effects of this curriculum. The results clearly show that planning and training give the students an opportunity to learn how to establish an effective physician-patient relationship.