The purpose of this study was to clarify changes with school years in the characteristics of nursing students' communication skill experience in clinical practice. After the completion of clinical practice, nursing students were asked about factors associated with the success and failure of their establishment of communication with patients and communication skills requiring improvement. The described contents were qualitatively analyzed.
1) Concerning factors associated with the success of the establishment of communication, the category most frequently described was “topics” in the first year, “patient's condition” in the second year, and “ways of talking” in the third year. In addition, “non-verbal communication” was frequently observed in the first year.
2) Concerning factors associated with the failure of the establishment of communication, ‘inadequate understanding of patients’ and ‘one-sided questions’ as subcategories of “ways of talking” were commonly observed in the 3 years. As subcategories, “intensity/speed of voice” was extracted in the first year and “i mmature coping with patients' anxiety” in the second and third years.
3) Concerning communication skills requiring improvement, the categories most frequently observed were “ways of talking” and “my own attitude” . As subcategories, ‘ways of initiating the flow of talk ’ and ‘respect for patients’were extracted in the first year, ‘ways of enticing patients to speak’ and ‘overcoming tension’ in the second year, and ‘acceptance’ and ‘self-disclosure’ in the third year.
4) These results suggested the necessity for instructions in the selection of topics and non-verbal communication in the first year, clarification of patients' needs in the second year, and acceptance of patients' feelings in the third year as learning support based on the characteristics of nursing students' communication skill experience in clinical practice in each school year.

Background: Hand hygiene is recognized as the leading factor to prevent Healthcare-Associated Infection. This report describes an investigation of education in hand hygiene for nurses to visualize hand contamination.
Method: Twenty-nine nurses underwent education using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) measurements and fluorescent cream and black light, and a survey was conducted.
Results: A significantly higher number of nurses recognized the importance of hand hygiene after receiving education. Approximately 80% of nurses were able to: ″reflect on their methods for washing their hands″ , ″understand the necessity of keeping their hands clean after removing their gloves″ , and ″check for areas of the hands that had not been cleaned″ .
Discussion: This report suggested that education in hand hygiene using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) measurements and fluorescent cream and black light for nurses improves their perception of the importance of hand hygiene.