Doctoral Overview

Admission Policy

The Graduate School aims to teach, from a broad perspective, both basic and applied nursing theory and to develop human individuals capable of developing activities useful in supporting people’s health while in pursuit of the unique expertise of the nursing profession. For this reason, the Doctoral Program seeks individuals who have the will to develop their own specialized knowledge, practical skills, and research abilities in nursing.

1. Those with the will to examine their own questions in nursing practice and to position and pursue those questions as social issues;
2. Those with the ability to determine the structure of a research problem, gather materials, and analyze them;
3. Those with the will to contribute both to the development of nursing science and the community.

Curriculum Policy

The Graduate School of Nursing aims to cultivate nursing professionals who can develop useful activities to support people’s health while pursuing the full range of nursing science in order to revitalize community-based nursing and create better nursing care.

Based on the nursing perspectives and research methodologies acquired in the Master’s Program, elective courses are offered in each field (Fundamentals and Applied Nursing) so that students can focus on their nursing work in light of the current stage of nursing science development. In addition, to ensure an academic level of nursing research, general courses are offered to broaden students’ scope of nursing science.

In Special Research, students participate in their supervisor’s research group to gain research experience and will be able to receive guidance from multiple members of faculty while examining their own research plan to determine if it will contribute to the expansion of nursing science.

Diploma Policy

In the Master’s and Doctoral courses, students who have earned the required credits based on course regulations, received the necessary research guidance, and passed the examinations of their Master’s thesis in the Master’s Course and Doctoral thesis in the Doctoral Course within the allotted period specified by the Graduate School will be granted completion of the program. In addition, the abilities below must be acquired for degree conferral. The Graduate School aims to develop nursing practitioners, educators, and researchers who will continue the development of nursing science, contribute to health and medical welfare, and possess the abilities of evidence-based practice and an inquisitive mind for research.

1. Ability to identify new issues in their respective areas of expertise in order to solve health problems;
2. Ability to appropriately explore previous research and develop a research plan leading to practical application;
3. Ability to conduct research empirically and autonomously;
4. Ability to contribute to the development of nursing science from interdisciplinary and international perspectives.

Coursework

The Doctoral Program offers two educational programs: the Nursing Fundamentals Program and the Applied Nursing Program.

Nursing Fundamentals Program

In this program, based on the premise of investigating the internal structure of the fundamentals of nursing, we aim to create and demonstrate new knowledge and skills to meet today’s social needs by conducting education and research related to basic fundamentals of nursing science in order to address problems that cannot be solved with existing knowledge and skills alone. In nursing theories which guide practice, we aim to move from highly abstract to representational theories useful for understanding the structure of real-life problems and further their stepwise systematization. In addition, we teach methods of analysis in the pursuit of scientifically-based superior techniques acquired empirically in practice, and develop them for general purpose. We also work to develop nursing education methods to raise the level of nursing technique acquisition in fundamental nursing education.

Moreover, in addition to the aim of developing practical, evidence-based nursing skills to maintain and improve health, we seek to provide education and research toward improving professional skills in infection control from a nursing standpoint.

Applied Nursing Program

In this program, education and research guidance are provided with the aim of developing support methods to develop individualized nursing practice according to the characteristics of the subject in response to the diverse nursing needs having arisen in response to rapid changes in social conditions. In this context, from the standpoint of supporting the continuity of life, we work on the development of support methods for solving health issues and problems that affect the birth and healthy growth of life.

Additionally, we aim to develop support programs for both individuals’ and families’ problems brought about by health disorders, and to develop support methods from the perspective of how to demonstrate nursing expertise in adjusting the lives of those receiving medical care. More, we develop methods to analyze and present the health and life issues of the community by understanding the characteristics and structure of the community as a whole, as well as methods to make the community safe and more amendable to live in, such as building home and community care systems through collaboration with the community.