Message
The Iwate Society of Nursing Science (ISNS) was established with the mission to offer graduates and postgraduates of the Faculty of Nursing and Graduate School of Nursing of Iwate Prefectural University, as well as all nursing professionals in the region, an opportunity to become involved in joint academic research activities. Since then, the number of nursing universities and schools in Iwate Prefecture has gradually increased, making ever more urgent the task of strengthening cooperation between educators and clinical practitioners with the aim to contribute to further development in each area of public health, medical care and welfare.
Having a very extensive area and a population of about 1.24 million people, Iwate Prefecture faces accelerating population ageing with the concentration of the population and medical care around the prefectural center, Morioka, which makes ensuring equal accessibility to medical care one of the pressing concerns here. We are aware that providing people with readily and locally accessible medical care services that will bring them satisfaction and peace of mind is becoming an ever more important challenge.
And the key to this issue lies with the nursing profession. Nursing professionals work in every field of public health care, medical and welfare services, providing care in medical institutions, through visiting nursing stations, and at nursing care facilities. We believe that nursing professionals in Iwate Prefecture will be able to ensure better nursing care through individual and organizational skills development and by adding further improvements through close collaboration between the nursing professionals.
ISNS connects clinical practice with education, introducing opportunities to discover new nursing know-how and improvements hidden in actual clinical practice and specific ways of nursing that are sensitive to the local customs and culture of Iwate Prefecture, to accumulate and make use of nursing evidence-based practical experience, and to build a network of nursing professionals across specialization areas and organizations. We are committed to further strengthening cooperation between clinicians and researchers and enhancing joint research efforts.
In 2019, the first year of Reiwa, the new era of Japan, we will be holding the 12th annual academic conference. Such conferences have become representative forums at which clinicians and nursing students as well as educators and researchers, both from within Iwate Prefecture and from further afield, gather to learn about the latest information and share results of their research work transcending organizational and regional boundaries.
In addition, we share among the Society members research results from the clinical nursing practice field as well as research accomplishments of graduates and postgraduates of nursing studies in the Society Journal, which is published several times a year. Having a strong passion for helping contributors to attain new practical knowledge and research results, the editorial committee implements the most thorough peer-review process in accordance with the highest standards rarely found in other academic journals.
Furthermore, the Iwate MENKOI Seminars are held to provide lectures and workshops on planning nursing research and giving academic guidance, as well as to formulate various measures aimed at boosting involvement in nursing studies research activities in both clinical and educational fields.
It is our hope that ISNS will continue to evolve together with the people of Iwate Prefecture while striving to contribute to further improving public health, medical care and welfare in the prefecture.
April 2019
Chair, Iwate Society of Nursing Science
Kyoko Uchiumi