Together with supporting the elderly and people with disabilities through the general care of feeding them, giving them a bath and assisting with personal hygiene, a care worker supports their independence in conjunction with the palliative care and rehabilitation of the medical professionals. At Nishino Gakuen, we provide the practical life support skills needed as part of a care worker’s job along with concrete guidance through practical training and aim to create a personal support plan in the Care Process class. Over two years, we guide you through the steps needed to care for someone by collecting their information and analyzing it. Also, we continue to teach communication and attitude skills needed on a day to day basis and the appropriate expressions needed for the documentation of the nursing care records. On top of that, in order to make use of our vast variety of education, we started an educational programme where students from both the care and medical fields can study together to learn how to care for someone as a team.

A dental hygienist assists the dentist and gives advice for brushing teeth and eating habits in order to prevent cavities and periodontal disease by protecting the health of the mouth. In recent years, focus has been on how oral care and the prevention of infection play an important role of patients who have been admitted into general hospitals. At Nishino Gakuen, while getting the feel of a dental clinic, in order to gain practical knowledge, the students do over 900 hours of clinical training at hospitals and clinics. During in-school training we invite periodontal disease specialist and so on to talk about the dentistry field. A dentist who works with a team of dental hygienists gives lectures on health maintenance of the mouth (oral care) and the relationship with disease and the importance of nutritional advice. You can learn about what is actually needed from a professional. We are the first vocation school in Japan to have a world standard sterilization system and we provide a high standard educational environment.

A Clinical laboratory technician collates data by examining blood, urine and cell samples and inspects brain wave, electrocardiogram and respiratory function results. This job is on the medical frontline and supports doctors where you communicate abnormalities and suggest a suitable diagnosis and treatment, on the basis of your professional knowledge. In order to make it easier for the students to understand what they are going to learn we let them know the content and goals of each lecture beforehand and the students do a test every time to check their understanding. During in-school training, together with learning about the practicality of actual field situations, all professors also talk positively about their experiences and cases based on their own experience in working in the medical field. We have the latest equipment and measuring instruments like a microscope with a tablet and in 2016 we added a training room. We continue to keep the classroom environment and equipment up-to-date. Every year the Alumni association, Keiryukai, does a lecture on testing techniques and even after graduating the members get together in order to brush up their skills and learn new things, which is a great point of Nishino Gakuen.

Together with doing maintenance on medical equipment at medical facilities, Clinical Engineers also support the medical treatment through use of the equipment. As a specialist with knowledge and skill of medical science and engineering there is a wide range of work in the medical field from the operating room to dialysis treatment. At Nishino Gakuen, the third year students do clinical training in the medical field and the first year students have a chance to visit a hospital. Along with knowledge about various work places, a Clinical Engineer needs to have proper etiquette as a person of society. During in-school practical training, students get to use an ECCSIM (Extracorporeal Circulation Simulator). There are only a few of these existing in Hokkaido. Students learn how to counter and deal with different situations through the recreation of different types of operations with occurrences like a sudden change in the patient. The number of students doing in-school practical training is kept to a minimum and staff and students are actively involved in discussions together. Guidance is in accordance with each group’s progress. Based on the student’s feedback of the questionnaire, we continually create an effective easy-to-learn environment.

A physical therapist helps people with rehabilitation in order to regain normal movement to re-integrate into society. Therapeutic treatment of heat, light and electricity is used to reduce pain by moving parts of or the whole body so that normal daily life activities can be done and advice on renovating the home to make it barrier free is given. At Nishino Gakuen, the first year students visit medical practices, the second and third year students do clinical training at medical practices. Also from the time the students enter this school they do group work and stimulation tests with the state examination in mind. Over the three years, we nurture the students so that they will cope well in different situations that arise in the medical field. Also, we have developed an online learning system, which we have just started to put in use. Our staff created a web system project that offers teaching materials and we are currently investigating how students can do independent study in relation to active learning. We want to start this program as soon as possible. While making the use of the diverse skills learned across this program at Nishino Gakuen we want students to learn about each other`s job in order to support each patient.

An occupational therapist does rehabilitation for people who struggle to do every day things like eating and taking a bath because of their mental or physical state. Finding out what kind of lifestyle they can achieve and supporting them with understanding so that they can be happy and comfortable is an occupational therapist’s objective. At Nishino Gakuen, occupational therapists are not only recognized in the medical field but also in the welfare field. In the subject called, “District Rehabilitation”, the students get to do practical work at elderly people’s homes to experience the job and their role in the job. In class, the students do a lot of group work to discuss different topics focusing on teamwork and their care for each patient in cooperation with professionals in the medical and welfare fields in order for the students to listen to each other and express their own opinions. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the basic knowledge of the body in anatomy and kinematics and how it is connected to occupational therapy.

A speech therapist supports people who have a verbal disability through training, guidance and giving advice. Together with treatment on a one on one basis, a wide range of support is given to their lifestyle as well. At Nishino Gakuen, we have many kinds of examination equipment for finding the condition and reason for word and speech impediments and there is enough equipment available so students can make good use of them for practice. In class there is many opportunities for group work and presentations, which helps with improving thinking and communication skills, deeper understanding of what they are studying and revision is also easier. In order to gain an understanding of the work involved, visits to hospitals and medical facilities for the first year students as well as 480 hours of clinical training is done in the second and third years. From an early stage, group work is part of the preparation for the National Speech Therapist exam.