Mother and child care from conception on ―What can educational institutions do to help prevent maternal suicide and child abuse?

Purpose Child abuse death is a serious issue in Japan; therefore, people are keen to “prevent” rather than “deal with” such cases. Considering child abuse death and its prevention, the concept of “neuvola,” the... [ view full abstract ]

Purpose
Child abuse death is a serious issue in Japan; therefore, people are keen to “prevent” rather than “deal with” such cases.
Considering child abuse death and its prevention, the concept of “neuvola,” the Finnish child-care system, will help improve the child-care system in Japan. Neuvola is a well-established system that supports mothers and children in Finland during the pregnancy period and preschool years. Furthermore, the education system for health and maternity nursing is advanced in Finland. This study examined the differences in the curriculum of health and maternity nursing courses between Japan and Finland to identify the systems and ideas which Japan can apply.

Method
The curriculum and subjects offered by the institutions providing higher education in nursing were compared between Finland and Japan and the difference between the education systems were identified. The information regarding the courses was obtained from the embassy of Finland.

Results
After reviewing the curriculum of both the countries, no remarkable difference was found with respect to the number and duration of the basic and specialized subjects. The difference was not in the school curriculum but in the authorities providing the qualifications for nursing.

Conclusion
In Finland, students can obtain a qualification for health and maternity nursing from universities. Conversely, in Japan, a national qualification for these two professions is required; therefore, the content of the courses is usually controlled by the country.
In Finland, the institutions for higher education offer a wide range of subjects and opportunities to educate experts regarding the concept of “neuvola;” moreover, the school curriculum is flexible and students can freely select the subjects for both health and maternity nursing. However, in Japan, the school curriculum is not flexible enough to allow studying various subjects at a time.